Mercs_1.gif ------------Partial article  ---full article

 

The contractors who were detained have denied the accusations against them. They were released and are in the process of returning home. Three unarmed Iraqi subcontractors for Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. who were passengers in the convoy were also held and released.

The Zapata contractors, who were held at a Marine base near Fallouja, acknowledged firing warning shots to prevent a suspicious vehicle from approaching their convoy but said they never aimed at Marines or civilians.

Marine officers confirmed that the

Justice Department was reviewing the incident to determine whether criminal charges would be filed. The contractors were questioned by the

FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Services.

The Marine documents said the Zapata contractors, besides firing on civilians, had unauthorized weapons in their vehicles — AT4 antitank weapons and grenades. Several of the contractors said they were given those weapons by Marines in the months before the confrontation. The Marines said they could not immediately confirm the source of the weapons.

The case is believed to represent the first time the military has detained contractors in Iraq on suspicion of endangering Iraqi civilians or U.S. troops.

The contractors work in a legal shadow world, largely unregulated by either the U.S. or Iraqi government. Under an order signed by Coalition Provisional Authority chief L. Paul Bremer III in June 2004, as the U.S.-led occupation drew to a close, contractors are immune from prosecution in Iraq as long as the actions in question were performed as part of their work.

Almost since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, there have been tensions between the private forces and the military.

Soldiers resent the perks the contractors enjoy. Contractors routinely make three or four times the pay of troops — more than $100,000 a year.

Some troops and officials see the contractors as "cowboys" who enrage ordinary Iraqis with wanton behavior. Journalists have observed them pointing their guns and firing rounds at Iraqis who come too close. Contractors have been seen racing around Baghdad, Fallouja and other hotspots in armored SUVs, forcing Iraqi civilians off the road.

According to Lapan, the Marine spokesman, Marines saw a convoy of trucks and sport utility vehicles firing at soldiers and civilians about 2 p.m. on May 28. About three hours later, another group of Marines observed similar vehicles firing at a Marine guard post. The troops stopped the convoy and detained the 16 Americans and three Iraqis traveling in the vehicles, placing them in holding cells at Camp Fallouja.

The contractors have denied firing shots at the Marines. Two of them, Raiche and Rick Blanchard, repeated those denials Friday. Blanchard, 42, a former Marine and Florida state trooper, said the Marines had confused the Zapata convoy with an earlier security convoy that had fired indiscriminately.

Raiche said one contractor fired three shots at the ground in front of an approaching Iraqi vehicle as the convoy passed through Fallouja. "That's standard procedure," said Raiche, a 34-year-old former Marine. "We don't want any vehicle inside our convoy. It could be a car bomb."

Blanchard and Raiche said they were physically and mentally abused by Marine guards. They said the Marines taunted them about their salaries, slammed them around and threatened them with a guard dog.

Lapan said the group's release after three days did not mean the Marines considered them innocent.

The service gave each of the 16 contractors a letter dated June 5 barring them from further operations in Al Anbar province in western Iraq.

"Your convoy was speeding through [Fallouja] and firing shots indiscriminately, some of which impacted positions manned by U.S. Marines," the letter said. "Your actions endangered the lives of innocent Iraqis and U.S. service members in the area."

All of the men have since resigned from Zapata Engineering, company executives said. Blanchard and Raiche said they did so because of the Marine ban on their working in Iraq.

The company said it did not believe accusations that the convoy had fired on U.S. forces.

"The fact that all of the company's security personnel in Iraq are Americans leads us to believe that the root cause of the events was a misunderstanding by people who are living and working in an intense and stressful situation," company President Manuel Zapata said in a statement.

Of the 16 Zapata employees, 14 were security guards and two were working on a contract to detonate Iraqi munitions.

 

 

 

IRAQ: Civilian Contractors Working for U.S. Make a Bundle to Destroy Munitions

The Army Corps has set aside as much as $1.47 billion for explosives-demolition contracts with 10 private companies. Neither Zapata Engineering nor the Army Corps of Engineers would reveal exact salaries, but the first one-year contract the company received in September 2003 totaled $3.8 million for five management positions in Iraq.

by Kevin Begos and Phoebe Zerwick, Winston-Salem Journal
February 13th, 2005

Soldiers, diplomats and private contractors in Iraq are all putting their lives on the line.

But should anyone be paid $350,000 a year to work in Iraq?

That's the basic labor rate for a liaison officer under the contract that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded Charlotte's Zapata Engineering to help dispose of captured munitions. It's 10 times what the average soldier or member of the National Guard earns, even for full combat duty.

The Army Corps has set aside as much as $1.47 billion for explosives-demolition contracts with 10 private companies. Neither Zapata nor the Army Corps of Engineers would reveal exact salaries, but the first one-year contract the company received in September 2003 totaled $3.8 million for five management positions in Iraq.

The single liaison officer cost taxpayers not just the $350,000 in salary, but $850,000 in overhead, insurance and profit costs, according to a Winston-Salem Journal analysis.

Four project managers were budgeted for a total of $2.7 million, which includes $275,000 in annual pay for each and a total of $1.6 million for overhead, insurance and profit.

Those figures do not include security, food and lodging, which were provided under separate contracts. In February 2004, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Zapata another one-year contract worth $32.5 million to hire as many as 108 technicians and support staffers to oversee a munitions depot in Iraq.

Today, two flags fly over the depot - the Stars and Stripes, and Zapata's blue corporate flag. The Army Corps of Engineers says that Zapata is doing an outstanding job on a dangerous and urgently needed mission, because every destroyed munition is one that can't be used against U.S. troops. Unlike with some Iraq contracts, partisan politics is not an issue. Zapata officials have a history of making contributions to Democrats, if at all.

And people within the explosives demolition community note that many experts who had already gone into private-sector work after putting in their military time are risking their lives to help out the war effort, even though they are under no obligation to do so.

Still, no one seems to have figured out whether outsourcing jobs that traditionally were handled by the military is a smart move for national security or a solution with many hidden costs - political and financial.

"It's something that clearly needs to be looked at," said U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-12th. "You can't blame Zapata - he's doing what he's in business to do, make a profit. But if it's a military function, and it can be done more cheaply by the military, it seems to me it should be done by the military. Not doing it with the military leaves the mistaken impression we need less forces than you're actually using."

Unlike soldiers on the battlefield, who are expected to do their jobs and protect themselves, too, private contractors require protection by separate security forces. That concerns U.S. Rep. David Price, D-4th. He has introduced a bill in the House to clarify the issues regarding private contracting. The Government Accountability Office is also studying the issue and is expected to issue a report this year.

"I think there's a lot of misgivings in the military about it," Price said, "and for that matter, a lot of misgivings among the contractors," who aren't sure just where they stand in the entire war effort. The U.S. military is under no obligation to respond to a distress call from a private contractor.

Price said that, beyond the prices being paid to contractors such as Zapata, the pay disparity between private contractors and members of the military can be "ridiculous - it's demoralizing for the military. It's expensive. That's why I want to see some minimal analysis in creating these positions."

In Zapata's $32 million contract extension, security forces accounted for 50 of the 108 positions, but there's no way of telling the exact cost to taxpayers. Firms such as Blackwater Security Consulting of Moyock, N.C., have reportedly offered as much as $1,000 a day for former special-operations personnel to provide private security, compared with about $150 a day that the Pentagon pays a Green Beret with 20 years of experience.

Changing policy

The need for the work Zapata is doing is obvious.

"The military doesn't have enough trained personnel to clear out all of these old munitions in Iraq," said Troy Darr, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Huntsville, Ala.

Darr said that the private contractors manage six depots, where 92,000 tons of munitions are stored, waiting to be destroyed. The contractors have already destroyed 215,000 tons. The Army Corps of Engineers has 16 people in Iraq overseeing the work of the contractors. Altogether, there are 700 employees working for the private contractors, assisted by 900 Iraqi employees.

In addition to cleaning out the depots, the private contractors are working in the field collecting, destroying and transporting weapons and ammunition.

For Zapata, a small company that had never worked in a war zone before, that has translated into soaring revenues, a new office in Charlotte, and pride in doing a tough job.

The company's employees in Iraq and North Carolina "firmly believe we're doing an important mission to dispose of those weapons and keep them from the hands of people who maybe should not have them," said Marty Ray, Zapata's vice president for client services.

Lt. Col. Jacob Hansen will be heading to Iraq in July to lead the Army's Defense Contract Management Agency, where his job will include oversight of about $9 billion in civilian contracts. He said that the shift toward private contractors is no accident.

"We have now consciously included contractors on the battlefield to provide a variety of support services. It wasn't a short-term plan or a knee-jerk reaction. This was planned," said Hansen, currently a contract-management specialist at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

"Could we recruit and train more soldiers?" for explosives demolition, he asked. "Sure we could. But when the war in Iraq is over, the contractors go home and the costs to the taxpayer end."

Recruiting people to the military for a unit, and then maintaining the unit, could represent a longer-term cost, he and others said.

Pressure on military

Zapata and other private companies doing munitions disposal are being paid handsomely for a job that has traditionally been done by members of the military.

"There's sort of a vicious cycle here," said Rick Stark, who served 24 years in the Army and is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "The problem that arises is that these very high-paid jobs can attract military people."

The Army Times, the military's weekly newspaper, recently noted a shortage of technicians who can get rid of munitions. In part because people are leaving the military for high-paying private jobs, the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa announced a program that will pay bonuses of as much as $150,000 for experienced commandos who re-enlist.

"It will, in some cases, make the difference between someone staying in or leaving," said Dick Couch, a retired Navy SEAL and author of several books about special operations.

Hansen said he is not worried about the pay disparities between members of the military and the private sector.

"I personally make less than $100,000 per year, and I'm sure the taxpayer is getting a good value at that price," he said. "Those of us who choose to serve in the military do so for a variety of reasons," including a sense of patriotism, honor and tradition.

Hansen said he believes that the mix between private sector and the military in Iraq "would have to strengthen our posture on the battlefield."

He also defended the profits that contractors make. "We're kidding ourselves (if we say) that profitability is not a strong motivator" for private companies to risk working in Iraq.

And federal auditors, he noted, review the contracts to guard against fraud.

Complicated questions

"Nowadays, what's the battlefield? It's driven by the market - who's willing to take that risk?" asked Marybeth Ulrich, a professor at the Army War College who specializes in civilian-military relations.

Zapata and other firms are doing munitions disposal. Blackwater is hiring members of the Special Forces and even has its own air force of small, armed helicopters in Iraq. Private contractors supplied guards to the Abu Ghraib prison, and Hansen said that contractors are used to operate and maintain high-tech weapons systems on the battlefield.

But the shift to private contractors has raised complicated questions about accountability. Ulrich said that the military is beginning to question whether limits should be set on privatization. What happens, for example, if a private contractor kills a civilian or refuses to follow orders?

"What would be the difference in accountability if something had to be investigated? What recourse is there? You're sort of trusting that these people are going to keep operating as if they were still in the military. You're dependent on self-policing," he said.

The families of four security workers who were killed and mutilated in Fallujah last year are looking to the North Carolina courts for accountability. Last month, they sued Blackwater, alleging that the security company put profits above the safety of its employees.

Whatever the policy questions, private contracting has been healthy for the companies in Iraq.

In December, Zapata officials told the Charlotte Business Journal that 2004 revenue had more than tripled over the previous year.

But such good news in the private sector comes back around to the military, said Couch, the former Navy SEAL.

"You're no longer going to get good military talent on the cheap," he said.

 
Iraqi President Says Sunnis Get More Representation On Constitution Committee
Created: 6/9/2005 12:04:30 PM
Updated: 6/9/2005 12:05:55 PM

 


 

By PAUL GARWOOD
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- More Sunni Muslim Arabs will be appointed to join elected lawmakers in drafting Iraq's new constitution, President Jalal Talabani said Thursday, a day after the Sunnis threatened to boycott the process.

Meanwhile, 19 security guards for a North Carolina-based company were detained for three days in a military jail by U.S. Marines following an alleged shooting spree May 28, and some of the contractors complained they were abused while in custody.


British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, visiting with a European Union delegation, expressed confidence the deadlines would be met.

The Marines said the 16 Americans and three Iraqis, employed by Zapata Engineering of Charlotte, N.C., sprayed small-arms fire at Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces from their cars in Fallujah on May 28. No one was hurt.

Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Marines reported seeing gunmen in several late-model trucks fire "near civilian cars" and on military positions.

"Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack," the spokesman said.

U.S. forces said they detained the contractors without incident and held them for three days, but no charges were filed.

The American contractors are believed to have left Iraq, and a Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry is under way, the military said.

According to Zapata, its convoy -- which was carrying supplies from Baghdad to Fallujah -- was stopped when spike strips placed in the road flattened their tires.

Company president Manuel Zapata said the only shot fired by his workers was a warning blast after they noticed a vehicle following them.

Some of the workers alleged they were physically abused and humiliated while in military custody.

Mark Schopper, an attorney who said he represents two of the workers who were detained, told The Charlotte Observer they were stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and handled roughly by Marines.

"Marines put their knees on the backs of their necks and ripped off religious medallions," Schopper said. "They asked for attorneys, they asked for Amnesty International, they asked for the American Red Cross. All three requests were denied."

Lapan said in an e-mail exchange with the AP that military inquiry is looking into both the shooting incident as well as the contractors' allegations against the Marines, who denied the allegations.

"We continue to investigate this matter, to include the contractors' actions leading up to this incident, the actions of our Marines, as well as the contractors' allegations of abuse. At this point, we have found nothing to substantiate those allegations," Lapan said in the e-mail to the AP.

He told The Observer that the Americans "were segregated from the rest of the detainee population and, like all security detainees, were treated humanely and respectfully."

Iraq's rampant insecurity has spawned a thriving private industry comprising Iraqis and former military personnel from around the world to protect foreign contractors, journalists and senior government officials and diplomats.

Many Iraqis resent high-profile security details who speed along highways in sport utility vehicles brandishing automatic weapons.

It is unclear what caused the security contractors to open fire, but there have been reports previously of some over zealous guards firing weapons out of fear of being attacked. Iraqi insurgents target foreign security forces, along with American troops and Iraq police and soldiers, in their campaign against the U.S.-led occupation.

Full article
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


 

His firm sees some explosive growth

By Chris Roush

Zapata Jewish accountant

Manuel Zapata’s back was against the wall after he was laid off in November 1988 as a manager of cost engineering at Duke Power Co.

He had a wife and two young children at home in Charlotte. His stab at importing agricultural products from his native Chile wilted. So in 1990, he returned to the profession in which he was trained, founding Zapata Engineering PA.

The company expects revenue between $28 million and $35 million this year, up from less than $50,000 in 1991. The total depends on what it gets from the Army Corps of Engineers for disposing of captured munitions in Iraq. “Every round of ammunition that gets destroyed is a round that won’t fall into terrorists’ hands,” Zapata, 63, says. The company sent four employees to Iraq in June to join five already there. The initial phase of Zapata’s contract is worth at least $3.8 million.

The company’s certification as a “small disadvantaged business” gives it an edge when competing for some federal contracts. “When an opportunity for work comes along, we compete very hard,” he says. “The government gets their money’s worth out of us.”

Born in Santiago, he became interested in engineering while working at a tire plant there. “All of a sudden, all of the physics and math I took in high school made sense to me,” he says. He studied engineering at the University of Chile but left in early 1967 because of political unrest. He moved in with a Chilean friend in Gastonia and earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from UNC Charlotte in 1969. He added an MBA three years later while working at Piedmont Natural Gas, where he rose to vice president of corporate development. While at UNCC, he met his wife, Karen, now senior vice president of finance at Zapata Engineering. “The school issued me two degrees and a wife.”

He joined Duke Power in 1977. During his tenure there he was an assistant to CEO Bill Lee. “That was like getting another MBA,” he says. “My job was to make sure we had the money to do the projects.”

Zapata Engineering, which has 150 employees and branch offices in Hawaii and Huntsville, Ala., received its first government contract in 1994 for environmental cleanup in Wilmington. It also does civil, electrical, mechanical and structural engineering work as well as munitions removal at former military bases. Crews are working at sites in New Mexico, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and the company recently completed projects in China and Saipan.

It has a contract worth up to $60 million to remove unexploded ordnance from U.S. sites. “The military is very straightforward. If you follow their procedures, you get a good review and know exactly where you stand.” For Zapata, he hopes that means more work cleaning up Iraq.

 

 

 

 

 

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 9, 2:04 PM ET
 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American and Iraqi security guards for a North Carolina-based company were detained for three days in a military jail by U.S. Marines following a shooting incident last month, officials said Thursday, and some of the contractors complained they were abused while in custody.

The 16 Americans and three Iraqis, all employed by Zapata Engineering of Charlotte, N.C., are believed to have been the first private security personnel detained in

Iraq since the war began two years ago. No charges have been filed and the American contractors are believed to have left Iraq, the military said.

 

It was not immediately clear why the shots were fired in Fallujah, which was once regarded as a focal point of Iraq's rampant insurgency before a U.S.-led offensive rooted out most militants in November. No casualties were reported from the shooting.

The Marines said the security contractors were detained after firing on Iraqi civilian cars and U.S. forces in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

"Nineteen employees working for a contract security firm in Iraq were temporarily detained and questioned after firing on U.S. Marine positions in the city of Fallujah on Saturday," according to Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan.

A Marines combat team reported receiving small arms fire from gunmen in several trucks and SUVs, Lapan said.

"Marines also witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street," Lapan said.

"Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack," Lapan said. "Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows."

Spike strips on the road at a nearby observation post stopped the vehicles and Marines detained the contractors at a military detention facility at Camp Fallujah, just outside the city, before releasing them three days later.

Company president Manuel Zapata denied the allegations, saying the only shot fired by his workers was a warning blast after they noticed a vehicle following them.

A lawyer claiming to represent the contractors accused the military of mistreating the contractors, some of whom have said they were physically abused and humiliated while in custody.

"Marines put their knees on the backs of their necks and ripped off religious medallions," Mark Schopper, an attorney purportedly representing two of the detained workers, told The Charlotte Observer.

"They asked for attorneys, they asked for Amnesty International, they asked for the

American Red Cross," he said. "All three requests were denied."

 

The Marines denied the abuse allegations.

"The Americans were segregated from the rest of the detainee population and like all security detainees, were treated humanely and respectfully," Lapan said.

He said the inquiry being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service will look into the employees' claims along with the shooting incident.

"We continue to investigate this matter, to include the contractors' actions leading up to this incident, the actions of our Marines, as well as the contractors' allegations of abuse," Lapan told The Associated Press in an e-mail exchange. "At this point, we have found nothing to substantiate those allegations."

Lapan added that the military does not know why the security contractors fired their weapons, adding: "They were detained because their actions posed a threat to coalition forces. I would say that constitutes a serious event."

Zapata said his workers were shocked to be taken into custody by the military. "You don't expect this when you are helping the armed services," he said.

Zapata has a $43.8 million contract with the U.S. military to manage ammunition disposal. The company has about 200 security workers and ammunition experts in Iraq.

An estimated 20,000 civilians are believed to be working for private defense contractors in Iraq. More than 200 have died there, including 13 employed by Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Security Consulting.

The insurgency has spawned a thriving private security industry, employing an estimated 20,000 civilians being paid annual salaries ranging from $120,000 to $300,000.

Many Iraqis resent some of the more high-profile security personnel, who speed along the country's highways in vehicles armed with automatic weapons. Senior government officials use them for their own personal protection.

 

 

 

 

Saundra for Peace/Justice
05-22-2004, 08:47 AM
The Center for Public Integrity

Abt Associates Inc
Iraq $10,000,000 - $43,818,278 USAID 04/30/2003 USAID awarded an initial contract worth $10 million to support the Iraqi Health Ministry and provide medical equipment and training. The contract could be worth up to $43.8 million over 12 months.

American President Lines Ltd.
Iraq $5,000,000 USAID 04/22/2003 & 06/19/2003 USAID awarded two contracts for emergency ocean freight services. The first, worth $900,000, was to ship U.S. Agriculture Department food commodities. The second emergency freight contract was worth $4.1 million; no further details were available.

BearingPoint Inc.
Iraq $9,000,000 - $240,162,668 USAID 07/25/2003 USAID awarded BearingPoint a $9 million initial award to facilitate Iraq’s economic recovery. The first year of the contract is worth up to $79,583,885. The estimated value of the contract, including two option years, is $240,162,668.

Bechtel Group Inc.
Iraq $2,829,833,859 USAID 4/17/2003 & 1/6/2004 Initial contract was worth up to $680 million over 18 months. In September 2003, USAID raised the ceiling by $350 million to a total of more than $1 billion. Company plans to subcontract 90 percent of the work. Contract includes work on rehabilitation of electricity, water and sewage, airport facilities, the Umm Qasr seaport as well as reconstructing hospitals, schools and government buildings, among others. In January 2004, USAID awarded Bechtel the Iraq Infrastructure II contract, which has a value of $1.8 billion over 24 months.

Creative Associates International Inc.
Iraq $62,628,119 - $157,139,368 USAID 03/26/2003 This one-year contract, which can be extended for another two years, is to provide school kits, including pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, etc., as well as teacher training and to award grants for Iraqis to launch local parent-teacher associations. The total contract cost including the base and option years is $157.1 million.

Dataline Inc.
Iraq $1,028,851.89 DoD 04/15/2003 The contract calls for the company to provide secure mobile, multi-user communication and information collaboration capability to the U.S. military. The initial contract period is 60 days, with options for four additional 30-day periods. The Defense Department redacted the text on seven pages of the 15-page contract.

Dell Marketing L.P.
Iraq $513,678.88 DoD 03/12/2003 The Army awarded the contract for computer equipment and services in Iraq.

Development Alternatives Inc.
Iraq $39,523,857 USAID 2003 USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives for the Iraq Transition Initiative program award a contract to DAI to provide for the needs of communities, as well as to promote political stabilization. The value of the contract has increased since its initial awarding and stood at more than $35 million as of late October. DAI also has a $4 million contract to restore the marshlands in southern Iraq.

DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.)
Iraq $50,000,000 State 04/18/2003 The estimated value of this contract for law enforcement support is up to $50 million for the first year, depending on Iraqi capabilities and needs. President Bush's new spending request to Congress calls for $800 million for a training facility for the Iraqi police force, which could significantly increase DynCorp's contract.

EGL Eagle Global Logistics
Iraq $111,000 USAID 05/31/2003 The company received a USAID contract worth $111,000 to transport vehicles from Germany to Kuwait and to transport uniforms for USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Teams from Virginia to Kuwait.

EOD Technology Inc.
Iraq $71,900,000 DoD 03/2003 & 08/2003 In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract worth $3.45 million to help clear ordnance and explosives from Iraqi sites. Under a pre-existing contract, EODT has also received task orders worth at least $66,947,670.95 for disposing of Iraqi munitions.

Expedited World Cargo Inc.
Iraq $21,099 USAID 04/07/2003 Expedited World Cargo received a $21,099 USAID contract on April 7, 2003, to ship water tanks to Kuwait

Fluor Corp.
Iraq $500,000 - $500,000,000 DoD 04/04/2003 The contractor is one of three companies hired to provide field support for the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM). That contract, which covers work in Iraq, Afghanistan and 23 other countries, has a $500,000 minimum and could earn each company up to $500 million.

Force 3
Iraq $274,651.95 DoD 03/03/2003 On March 3, 2003, Force 3 received a contract worth $274,651.95 for a variety of IT equipment, mostly to do with network connectivity.

General Electric Company
Iraq Value Unknown DoD This contract to a GE subsidiary is reportedly to provide temporary electrical generators to the U.S. military in Iraq. The company refused to divulge the value of the contract. The Pentagon did not include the contract in a list of companies provided to the Center for Public Integrity under a Freedom of Information request.

Global Container Lines Ltd.
Iraq $1,850,000 USAID 04/21/2003 The company received a one-time USAID contract for emergency ocean freight services to Iraq, according to records obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. A company spokesman said Global Container Lines had received a second contract, worth approximately $500,000, for shipping food aid to Iraq.

Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
Iraq $19,835 DoD 04/09/2003 The company received a task order from the Defense Department under an existing contract with the U.S. government to provide networking hardware and software.

International American Products Inc.
Iraq $508,340,616.42 DoD 11/15/2002 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $29.5 million worldwide contract to IAP for electrical supplies and services, of which $14.3 million was used during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In September 2003, this contract's value increased by $494 million to rebuild Iraq's electrical infrastructure and train the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity. It is a five-year contract; as of September 2003 a total of $508.3 million has been tasked for work in Iraq.

International Resources Group
Iraq $26,600,000 - $36,000,000 USAID 02/07/2003 The company was contracted to provide technical expertise on reconstruction, according to information provided by USAID under a Freedom of Information request. According to a USAID spokesman, the initial 90-day contract has been extended for one year, and $26.6 million had been spent on it as of late October 2003. The USAID Web site lists the value of this contract at $7.1 million. The company says the contract has two, one-year renewal options. USAID says the contract is potentially worth up to $36 million.

John S. Connor Inc.
Iraq $34,153 USAID 06/23/2003 On June 23, 2003 the company received a USAID contract valued at $34,153 to transport two fully armored vehicles from Macedonia to Kuwait.

JSI Inc.
Iraq $3,376 DoD 04/10/2003 JSI received a Defense Department contract worth $3,376 for Script Logic enterprise edition software, which is used by network administrators, and one-year of maintenance service.

Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)
Iraq $3,641,200,000 DoD 3/8/2003 & 1/16/2004 Under its existing LOGCAP contract, the company was asked to repair damage to Iraq's oil industry and to provide logistical support to the U.S. military. Facing criticism of the no-bid contract, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would open competitive bidding for two contracts that was going to focus on longer-term repairs to the oil industry in Iraq. KBR was awarded part of the work, with a maximum value of $1.2 billion, for southern Iraq in January 2004. Another contract worth $800 million was awarded to Parsons. These two contracts replaced the original oil repair contract from March 2003.

Kroll Inc.
Iraq Value Unknown USAID 2003 Kroll Inc. has a contract with USAID to provide security for the agency's personnel in Iraq.

Landstar Express America Inc.
Iraq $24,396 USAID 03/18/2003 Landstar Express America Inc. received a USAID contract worth $24,396 to ship armored vehicles from Miami to U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf.

Liberty Shipping Group Ltd.
Iraq $7,300,000 USAID 06/19/2003 The $7.3 million contract, to be completed by September 30, 2003, was for emergency ocean freight.

Logenix International L.L.C.
Iraq $29,000 USAID 03/11/2003 Logenix was awarded $29,000 to transport hygiene kits and equipment for a Disaster Assistance Response Team.

Management Systems International
Iraq $15,116,328 USAID 06/25/2003 Under the Monitoring and Evaluating Program Performance contract, Management Systems International is responsible for evaluating USAID’s activities in Iraq as well as monitoring non-construction projects.

Mediterranean Shipping Company
Iraq $13,000 USAID 06/19/2003 Mediterranean Shipping Company received a $13,000 USAID contract for emergency ocean freight service to Iraq.

Military Professional Resources Inc.
Iraq $2,527,430.40 DoD 04/28/2003 Two contracts were awarded by the Defense Department to provide a plan for putting ex-soldiers to work on public works programs and to provide 20 interpreters.

MZM Inc.
Iraq $1,213,632 DoD 03/21/2003 The contract calls for providing 21 linguists to serve as interpreters for U.S. government representatives, ministries and other government offices. The company's translators also will be used in interrogations and psychological operations. The contract was modified one month later, but the Pentagon redacted the modifications, as well as the new contract value.

Native American Industrial Distributors Inc.
Iraq $123,572 DoD 05/05/2003 The contract was awarded for “management services,” including assessing and planning organizational systems; conducting strategic studies on foreign policy, intelligence and weapons of mass destruction; and budget analysis.

Ocean Bulkships Inc.
Iraq $5,000,000 USAID 07/30/2003 According to USAID information, this contract for emergency ocean freight services is to ship food aid to Iraq.

Parsons Corp.
Iraq $880,000,000 DoD August 2003 & January 2004 Parsons was originally issued a task order of $89 million for work in Iraq, which has been reduced by $9 million as the plan was refined. Parsons is providing logistical support for companies involved in the clearing of ordnance and explosives from Iraqi sites. On January 19, 2004, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to Parsons Iraqi Joint Venture to rebuild the oil infrastructure in northern Iraq. The contract has a maximum value of $800 million.

Perini Corporation
Iraq $500,000 - $500,000,000 DoD 2003 The contractor is one of three companies hired to provide field support for the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM). That contract, which covers work in Iraq, Afghanistan and 23 other countries, has a $500,000 minimum and could earn each company up to $500 million.

Readiness Management Support LC (Johnson Controls Inc.)
Iraq $26,000,000 - $91,500,000 USAID 02/17/2003 Readiness Management Support was created by Johnson Controls Inc. to manage an omnibus military contract with the U.S. Air Force, known as AFCAP. According to USAID, the inter-agency contract, which provides logistical support to the agency and its contractors, is worth up to $26 million over 12 months. However, according to USAID, a total of $91.5 million had been paid out as of Oct. 20, 2003.

Red River Computer Company
Iraq $972,592.90 DoD 02/27/2003 The initial Defense Department contract to provide computer equipment was for $924,194.50, but was later increased to $972,592.90.

Research Triangle Institute
Iraq $167,973,016 - $466,070,508 USAID 03/26/2003 This contract calls for RTI to help increase the management skills of local government and improve the delivery of public services, as well as provide training in communciations, conflict resolution, leadership skills and political analysis. The total cost of this contract, including the base year amount of $167.9 million and two option years, is $466 million. RTI is also a subcontractor to Creative Associates on its education project.

Ronco Consulting Corporation
Iraq $12,008,289.60 DoD 03/14/2003 Ronco was tasked to come up with a plan to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate the Iraqi armed forces, as well as national and regional militias. This contract was worth $419,792.60. In addition, Ronco was tasked under an existing State Department contract for demining operations in Iraq, worth at least $11,588,497.

Science Applications International Corp.
Iraq $23,486,297.54 DoD 03/05/2003, 03/11/2003, 03/16/2003, 03/22/2003, 03/26/2003, 03/27/2003 According to Pentagon records, received under the Freedom of Information Act, SAIC received seven orders to provide advisers to help with the development of representative government in Iraq, restore broadcast media to uncensored operation, and group Iraqi expatriots to assist Coalition officials working in Iraq. Initially, the values of each order were redacted from the documents provided to the Center, but after the report was released, the Center received unredacted copies of the seven orders, which have a total value of nearly $23.5 million. However, congressional sources place the value of the media contract at $38 million in year one and say it could go up to more than $90 million in 2004. Therefore, the total value of the company's contracts in Iraq could not be definitively ascertained.

Sealift Inc.
Iraq $4,000,000 USAID 04/22/2003 The three-month contract from USAID called for the company to provide emergency ocean freight service to Iraq by June 30, 2003.

SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc.
Iraq $144,600 + $27,200,000 USAID 05/07/2003 USAID, in response to a FOIA request, said the company had a $144,600 contract to transport eight jeeps to Kuwait and made vague reference to "airport administration." USAID's Web site says the company received a $2.5 million initial award to provide technical expertise for Iraqi airport management. However, according to USAID, the company had been paid $27.2 million as of Feb, 24, 2003.

Stevedoring Services of America
Iraq $14,318,895 USAID 03/24/2003 The company was hired by USAID to assess the needs of the port at Umm Qasr and to operate and manage the port. The contract was intially valued at $4.8 million, but according to USAID, the company had been paid just over $14 million as of Feb. 24, 2003.

TECO Ocean Shipping Co.
Iraq $7,200,000 USAID 04/30/2003 According to records received under the Freedom of Information Act, USAID tasked TECO Ocean Shipping with providing “emergency ocean freight” shipping to Iraq. No further details were available.

Tetra Tech Inc.
Iraq $66,947,670.95 DoD 08/2003 The company was given a work order on Aug. 18, 2003, under an existing contract to assist with the destruction of “captured enemy ammunition” in Iraq, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. As of December 2003, the contract ceiling had been increased to $120 million and work in Iraq totaled $66.9 million.

Transfair North America International
Iraq $19,351 USAID 04/01/2003 This contract, for the transport of a vehicle from Gibraltar to Kuwait and three Suburbans from Jordan to Kuwait, was worth at least $19,351.

Unisys Corporation
Iraq $180,000 DoD 02/24/2003 The Defense Department contract calls for Unisys to send an expert in Kurdish affairs to Iraq. The six-month contract has the possibility of two three-month extensions, at the government’s discretion. Many of the contract's details are redacted in a copy provided under the Freedom of Information Act.

United Defense Industries, L.P.
Iraq $4,500,000 DoD 09/11/2003 This modification of an existing M88A2 Hercules System Technical Support contract calls for the company to rebuild two M88A2 Hercules vehicles damaged during the war.

USA Environmental Inc.
Iraq $66,947,670.95 DoD 08/2003 Under a pre-existing contract, the company was tasked to capture enemy munitions from U.S. military personnel, determine whether the munitions are serviceable and destroy selected munitions. As of December 2003, the contract ceiling had been increased to $120 million and work in Iraq totaled $66.9 million.

Vinnell Corporation (Northrop Grumman)
Iraq $48,074,442 DoD 07/01/2002 Vinnell has been tasked with training the New Iraqi Army under a one-year contract worth at least $48 million. It was not clear whether Vinnell's contract might be extended.

Washington Group International
Iraq $500,000 - $500,000,000 DoD 04/04/2003 The contractor is one of three companies hired to provide field support for the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM). That contract, which covers work in Iraq, Afghanistan and 23 other countries, has a $500,000 minimum and could earn each company up to $500 million.

Zapata Engineering
Iraq $3,838,958 DoD

As of December 2003 Zapata Engineering's contract to provide ordnance and explosives management services worldwide could be worth up to $120 million while work in Iraq totaled $3,838,958.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&fil=IQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marines Jail Contractors in Iraq

Tension and Confusion Grow Amid the "Fog of War"
by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch
June 7th, 2005
 
 

Late one Saturday afternoon in May, a group of armed American private security guards in white Ford trucks and an Excursion sports utility vehicle barreled through the battle-scarred streets of Fallujah, Iraq. The group was a security convoy from Zapata Engineering, a company hired to destroy enemy ammunition, such as shells and bombs, in Iraq. As they swerved through traffic, the men heard gunfire they could not identify.

Snipers still regularly attack civilians and troops patrolling Fallujah, despite the fact that the US bombed the city heavily in April and November 2004 to flush out suspected rebels.

According to the Zapata contractors, one of their vehicles veered left on a road leading to a Marine checkpoint. It ran over the spike strip in the road near the guard house and the tire went flat. The anxious contractors jumped into action and put on a spare. Within minutes, they began rolling again.

A Marine captain brought the convoy to a halt. Had anyone in the convoy shot at the guard tower, he asked. Negative, said a convoy member.

But the captain was not convinced. Sixteen American and three Iraqi security contractors in the Zapata convoy were then taken into custody presumably on suspicion of shooting at the Marine tower. They were thrown in jail on the evening of May 28.

Earlier that day, May 28, the soldiers recounted, "receiving small arms fire from gunman in several late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles" at approximately 2 P.M. "Marines also say witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street," the Marines' report continues.

According to a Marines press statement, "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack. Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows." This second account coincides with the arrest of the Zapata men.

Today the contractors have been set free and each side tells a different story. Contractors and their families feel they were unfairly arrested and, once in the military prisons, they say they were treated with disrespect.

Was this simply a case of "friendly fire" -- the term used when soldiers of the same flag shoot at one another by mistake? Is the confusion just a product of the "fog of war"? Or does it reflect a larger problem in Iraq, where the uniformed military works side-by-side with an estimated 25,000 armed civilian security guards?

The contractors are either paid by the Pentagon or by reconstruction contractors. Some wear camouflage gear but many dress casually and carry high-tech weaponry in an environment teeming with armed attackers who also eschew military uniforms. Like their enemies, private military contractors also travel in unmarked vehicles.

 

Who is Zapata?


Zapata Engineering began its work in Iraq on September 30, 2003 as one of five companies originally hired under a $200 million contract to supervise the destruction and storage of U.S military ammunition worldwide.

Under a new contract, awarded on April 16, 2004 by the Army Corps of Engineers, a $43.8 million task order sent Zapata to Iraq to manage captured enemy ammunition(CEA). Some would be destroyed, while the rest was put away for safe-keeping until a new Iraq government could take charge.

The original assignment included $2.8 million for the salaries of a five person team, which broke down to remarkably high and controversial salaries.While $850,000 was earmarked for the company's overhead, insurance and profit costs, a single liaison officer in Iraq was budgeted for a $350,000 salary. The other four employees, identified as project managers, were budgeted for annual pay of $275,000, according to a recent Winston-Salem Journal report .

A similar investigation by the Center for Public Integrity calculated the actual salaries (based on a 84-hour work week) for the liaison officer at closer to $700,000 for the year and the managers at just over $520,000.

Zapata Engineering is one among scores of military contractors in Iraq that perform duties ranging from cooking food to conducting interrogations. The company was started in 1991 in North Carolina by Manuel Zapata, a Chilean-born immigrant. Initially he worked for contacts he made while serving as head of an international business development committee at the Charlotte Chamber in the mid-1980s.

Zapata soon discovered that the company qualified for preferential treatment in government contracts because, as a Hispanic citizen, he is considered a minority. "A project manager told me about it," Zapata told the Charlotte Business Journal at the time. "I had no idea it existed."

In 1996 this status allowed his company to win a 10-year, $32.5 million environmental engineering project involving military base closures with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Today the company has worked in Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, as well as China and Saipan. Many of these jobs involved the destruction and storage of unexploded bombs and outdated weaponry.

Other companies involved in the destruction and storage of captured enemy ammunition include Parsons Corp., EOD Technology Inc., Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. (now Tetra Tech Inc.) and USA Environmental Inc., each of whom received a $65 million task order for initial operations in Iraq that were later increased to $66.9 million.

Although it is not a private security contractor, Zapata is allowed to subcontract or directly hire qualified security personnel as needed under provisions of their agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers, according to corps spokeswoman Kim Gillespie.

 

The contractors are hired to work in cooperation with the military officers but many are paid far more. On top of these differences, the contractors tend follow a very different set of rules than their military counterparts.

"Roughed Up" in Fallujah

All 19 Zapata men were confined to small cells, measuring six feet by eight feet, and dressed in orange prison garb. They were imprisoned for three days without being charged or provided with legal counsel. Night and day, they listened to suspected Iraqi fighters held nearby. The contractors say they ate the same bad food that the Iraqi prisoners were served and were forced to urinate in bottles in their cells.

However, not all accounts of their capture line up. According to some of the contractors and their wives, the Marines also roughed up the security contractors before taking them to jail. They say they slammed the contractors down on the concrete one by one, bruising some pretty badly.

Several wives of the security contractors, back in the United States, waiting for their daily phone calls from their husbands in Iraq, began thinking the worst when the calls stopped coming.

"There were all these families sitting at home not knowing what's going on," says Jana Crowder, who runs the Web site, American Contractors In Iraq.com from her home in Johnson City, Tennessee. Crowder, who started the site as a support network, has heard from a number of concerned wives of the Zapata contractors.

"This worries me about our damn military," Crowder adds. "Here in America, you have the right to a phone call."

Contractors also say they were treated badly in other ways. One man said a Marine put a knee to his neck and applied his full body weight as another cut his boots off and stripped him of his wedding ring and religious ornaments. Twenty or 30 other Marines watched and laughed, he added, as a uniformed woman with a military dog snapped photographs. Taunts were made about the large salaries of private security contractors, which are often more than $100,000 a year -- sometimes more than $200,000, he said.

The Marines tell a different story.

"The contract personnel were treated professionally and appropriately the entire time they were in the custody of military personnel," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lapan, a Marines public affairs officer, in an e-mail statement from Camp Fallujah.

"During their detention, the contactors were provided three meals a day and given access to unlimited amounts of bottled water and given access to a chaplain. No phone calls were allowed in accordance with standard procedures."

The suggestion that the contractors were publicly ridiculed is "categorically untrue," said Lapan. "Before they were taken to the detention facility, they were placed on the ground, flex-cuffed and searched per standard practice. They were not thrown to the ground."

The series of events remain under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the contractors' weapons and vehicles were impounded, he added.

The contractors say they were never charged. They maintain their innocence, and believe their treatment was unjust and humiliating. Although released from jail on May 31, several security workers wanting to return to the United States were still waiting to leave five days later.

The contractors and their wives are now lining up lawyers back in the United States. One contractor's wife says her husband lost seven pounds while imprisoned. She believes the Marines were letting off steam over the rising tensions between armed contractors and the military.

"My husband is a former Marine and he loved this job," she said, noting that many of the detained contractors are ex-Marines. "It's killing them knowing that Marines are doing this to them. These guys are putting their lives on the line, too."

Friendly Fire

This would not be the first time that private military guards have been accused of shooting on the streets of Iraq, nor would it be the first time that two groups of heavily armed civilians working for the occupation forces have attacked the military or each other inadvertently.

Four former security contractors and retired military veterans told NBC News in February that they had watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one was crushed by a truck, by contractors employed by the American company Custer Battles.

In late November 2004 soldiers in a U.S. Humvee also fired ''six or seven rounds'' at the tires of a vehicle was carrying foreign security guards on the road to the Baghdad airport. Just one day earlier, an Iraqi police cruiser opened fire on a white sedan near the Babylon Hotel in central Baghdad. The occupants of the sedan, believed to be British private security guards, fired back killing one police officer and seriously wounding another.

Another company, Triple Canopy, which claims to have more elite ex-military special operations professionals than any other private security company, has also had several friendly fire incidents with military personnel in Iraq, says Joe Mayo, spokesman for the Illinois-based company. He adds that incidents have often been averted in as little as 30 seconds.
 

Impersonate


To add to the confusion, some private military contractors claim that the Iraqi resistance may be masquerading as private security convoys in their attacks, in part, to inflame hostility toward coalition forces occupying Iraq.

An alert, dated mid-May, distributed by one large security contractor to its employees and clients, notes several recent incidents north of Fallujah where citizens were being shot at from SUVs. These include two occasions of four white "GMC Suburban-type" trucks (of the type commonly driven by contractors) firing "well-aimed shots at vehicles on the side of the road."

"There is speculation that foreign fighters are disguising themselves," the alert says. "Insurgent involvement is entirely possible. This situation is of great concern."

Tension bubbles up

Placing armed private security forces alongside military personnel has led to growing confusion and tension as the two groups follow different rules and lack clear lines of communication.

"When you multiply the kinds of forces, you complicate the chains of command and the relationships among them," notes Peter Singer, a defense expert and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who has written a book on private military companies. "The decisions that contractors make on their own can lead to friction and sometimes can make the military's job harder, particularly in the battle to win hearts and minds among the civilian population. You also have complications of differing pay, differing expectations, and differing rights and responsibilities. All that tension is now bubbling to the surface."

Hoping to better coordinate these private security companies operating in Iraq, the U.S. Army awarded a $293 million security contract to a controversial British firm, Aegis Defence Services Ltd. last May. Responsible for directing security efforts for ten prime contractors in Iraq, the company has met with mixed reviews.

"There is no assurance that Aegis is providing the best possible safety and security for government and reconstruction contractor personnel and facilities," the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction asserted in an audit released this April.

Legal Confusion

Journalist and author, Robert Young Pelton, who has spent months with private military contractors in Iraq and who is writing a book on the use of contractors in the war on terror, says that the military's choice to detain the Zapata group strikes him as the "first blatant example of contractors being treated as criminals."

"Animosity seems to be building between Bush's contractors and Bush's war," he observed.

Pelton believes that the treatment of Zapata's people has no legal basis since security contractors operate with very little legal jurisdiction hanging over them. "Contractors have carte blanche over there," he said. "The Marines knew who those people were. There's no reason to hold them for 72 hours."

But even those actively engaged with the operations of private security companies in Iraq seem to be in disagreement over legal jurisdiction.

In the final days of the Coalition Provisional Authority, CPA administrator Paul Bremer issued an order, known as Memorandum 17, requiring all private security companies to register with Iraq's Ministries of Trade and Interior. The order mandated that contractors be licensed, subject to audits and that weapons be registered and licensed. Contractors were also expected to engage in force only in self-defense and the defense of civilians.

Lawrence Peter, the director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, says that if a private security company is not registered, then it operates illegally.

"I can say without a shadow of a doubt that there is no company named Zapata that is a licensed Private Security Company under the terms of CPA Memorandum 17," he said. "I do not know under what legal authority those men thought they were operating, but it was not in keeping with the law of Iraq nor consistent with what professional, responsible and law-abiding private security companies are doing here."

The Army Corps of Engineers, which has awarded multi-million-dollar contracts to Zapata Engineering to dispose of seized enemy munitions and explosives, has a more nuanced view. "They are not a security contractor," said Corps spokeswoman Kim Gillespie, but "under the provisions of their task order, they can subcontract or direct hire qualified security personnel as needed."

David Phinney is a journalist and broadcaster based in Washington, DC, whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and on ABC and PBS. For more, see davidphinney@davidphinney.com. He can be contacted at: phinneydavid@yahoo.com.
 

 

Fire on marine outpost

 

Shootings may lead to security guard curb
By Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad
(Filed: 11/06/2005)

Iraq's interior ministry said yesterday it wanted to impose legal boundaries on the private security business after American contractors twice opened fire on US marines.

The move may be supported by the US military, whose patience with the contractors has been tested.

They were angered by an incident late last month in Fallujah, the former insurgent stronghold recaptured by US forces last year.

The marines say one of their combat teams came under fire from guards in a convoy of four-wheel-drives belonging to Zapata Engineering, a firm based in North Carolina that is involved in reconstruction projects.

A marine observation post was fired at three hours later by the same convoy, according to Lt Col Dave Lapan, a marines spokesman.

The contractors' vehicles were eventually stopped by metal spikes in the road.

Soldiers promptly arrested the security men, including 16 Americans and three Iraqis, who were placed in a detention centre. They have since been sent home.

The Zapata employees have admitted firing at civilian vehicles but deny targeting marines. They said that while in custody they were physically and emotionally abused.

The lawyer, Mark Schopper, who is representing two of the contractors, claims that at one point a marine shouted at the men: "How does it feel to be a rich contractor now?"

Soldiers have for some time been angered by the salaries earned by the estimated 20,000 armed contractors working in Iraq, many of whom are ex-servicemen.

It is common for them to earn £750 a day. They provide protection for senior government officials and reconstruction projects.

They are even more unpopular with Iraqis. Interior ministry officials say at least 12 Iraqi civilians are killed by contractors every week in the capital.

"Enough is enough," said an official at the interior ministry. "We are looking at ways to tighten weapons licenses, and to punish the worst cases. The culture of impunity must stop."

A senior member of one private security firm in Baghdad said: "Like it or not we are combatants. If our guarantees are removed, we would have to leave."

 

Marines detained 19 U.S. contractors after gunfire
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Nineteen employees of a U.S. contracting firm — including 16 Americans — were detained by U.S. troops in Fallujah for three days after allegedly firing on Marine checkpoints in the Iraqi city, the U.S. military said.

The incident is under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The contractors work for Charlotte-based Zapata Engineering, which manages ammunition depots and demolishes unexploded ordnance in Iraq among other work.

On May 28, Marines of Regimental Combat Team 8 spotted a convoy of late-model trucks and sport-utility vehicles firing at and near civilian cars and Marine positions in Fallujah, said Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Marine spokesman in an e-mail statement Thursday.

Later in the day, Marines saw similar vehicles with passengers firing out the windows and at a Marine observation post, Lapan said.

The vehicles were stopped by spike strips placed across the road near an observation post. Marines detained the contractors and later impounded several anti-tank weapons, hand grenades and an AK-47 assault rifle, Lapan said.

The Zapata employees were taken into custody and held at the regional detention facility at Camp Fallujah, just outside the city, 35 miles west of Baghdad. They were released three days later.

No one was injured and no charges have been filed.

Zapata Engineering President Manuel Zapata denied the U.S. allegations about firing on Marines and said the only shot fired by his workers was a warning blast after they noticed a vehicle following them.

In a statement, the company said the employees were on a routine convoy, with 14 security specialists guarding two technical staff and three local maintenance workers. The statement did not mention any gunfire incidents and alleges that the employees were mistreated while in custody.

Gail Rosenberg, a company spokeswoman, said the security specialists were mostly former Marines trained as security personnel.

"It's pretty inconceivable to believe that they would fire on American servicemen," she said. "Nonetheless, the company is taking the allegations very seriously and working diligently to get as much information as possible."

Mark Schopper, a Nevada attorney who said he is representing two of the contractors, said his clients were physically and psychologically abused while in custody. He said the contractors did not shoot at Marines.

He said the Marines who took Source

 

http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/...

<snip>

Charlotte's Zapata Engineering is working to help dispose of captured explosives. The first one-year contract the company received in September 2003 totaled $3.8 million for five management positions in Iraq.

Taxpayers paid $350,000 in salary for the company's top manager, a liaison officer, plus $850,000 in overhead, insurance and profit costs, an analysis by the Winston-Salem Journal found.

A separate analysis by the Center for Public Integrity said Zapata's $3.8 million task order on its services contract paid the liaison officer $696,565 for 52 weeks, based on an 84-hour work week.

<snip>

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit watchdog group that does investigative reporting on public policy issues, said each program officer is paid $520,928 for 52 weeks. In total, $2.8 million of the military's $3.8 million task order for Zapata could be spent just for the salaries of the five-person team, the center said.

 

Contractors, military in 'bidding war'
By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has hired private companies at a cost approaching $1 billion to help dispose of Saddam Hussein's arsenal in Iraq. That spending has created fierce competition for specialized workers that's draining the military's ranks of explosives experts.

A helicopter manned by private contractors flies past a mosque, circling the scene of a bomb attack in Baghdad July 5.
Khalid Mohammed, AP
 

Israelis paid $250,000 a year

 

Experienced military explosives specialists can earn $250,000 a year or more working for the private companies. In the military, an enlisted man with 10 years' experience can make more than $46,000. The better pay from private companies has led troops to sign on with contractors when their service ends and has aggravated tensions between military and civilian workers in Iraq. (Related story: Bomb specialists needed)

 


Those tensions boiled over in May, when Marines arrested 16 security workers for Zapata Engineering, one of the companies doing ammunition-disposal work in Iraq. The Marines said the workers had fired at U.S. troops and civilians. The contractors said they're innocent and claim they were treated badly by jeering Marines.

"When I was put face down on the ground to be cuffed, I heard one Marine ask me, 'How's it feel to make that contractor's money now?' " said one of the former Zapata workers, Matt Raiche, who is Jewish,  of Dayton, Nev.

Private contractors are doing many jobs once done only by military personnel, such as delivering mail, washing clothes, slinging chow and serving as translators, bodyguards and interrogators.

It's the extension of a shift the Pentagon began in the 1990s in a drive to save money and focus a shrinking military on essential war-fighting jobs. But it has led contractors to hire away experienced troops to do their old jobs for up to 10 times their military salaries.

"We find ourselves, in some cases, in a bidding war for some of our most experienced soldiers and airmen," said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the Pentagon's National Guard Bureau.

The Army Corps of Engineers has spent more than $750 million since August 2003 to hire six companies to help collect and dispose of old weaponry. An additional $100 million or so is in the pipeline to contractors, Corps of Engineers spokesman Jack Holt said. (Related story: Report raises reconstruction concerns)

So far, the contractors have collected about 430,000 tons of munitions and destroyed about 273,000 tons, Holt said.

The military trains specialized troops in explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD. But there weren't nearly enough of those troops to deal with the mountains of weapons in Iraq, Holt said.

Also, EOD troops focus on detecting, defusing and destroying the makeshift bombs called improvised explosive devices, which have killed so many U.S. and Iraqi troops.

"We see a lot of young Army and Marine EOD guys talking to the contractors on site," said Timothy Foote, who managed operations at an ammunition dump in Iraq last year as a Corps of Engineers contractor.

Working with aging and poorly labeled munitions isn't the most dangerous part of the job. At least 11 workers or subcontractors for the arms disposal companies have been killed in Iraq, all of them during attacks on their convoys.