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U.S. Moves to Replace Contractors in Iraq
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The decision not to renew Blackwater Worldwide’s security contract in Iraq when it expires in early May has left the State Department scrambling to fill a protection gap for U.S. diplomats and civilian officials there.
Two other U.S. security contractors with a far smaller presence in Iraq — DynCorp International and Triple Canopy — have been asked to replace the ousted company, according to State Department and company officials. To meet time, training and security-clearance pressures, officials said, one or both of the firms are likely to undertake the task by rehiring some personnel now working for Blackwater.
The Iraqi government refused to issue Blackwater a license to perform security services after a 2007 incident in which company guards on a diplomatic protection mission shot and killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. U.S. prosecutors have indicted five of the guards on charges of manslaughter. Blackwater (which recently changed its name to Xe) still has State Department contracts for air transport in Iraq and security for U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan.
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Meanwhile, fallout from the shootings — including a new U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement that places contractors under Iraqi legal jurisdiction for the first time — has led both the Pentagon and the State Department to create new categories of “full-time, temporary” federal jobs to handle some tasks currently done by contractors.
The Blackwater incident helped fuel a wider debate on the overall cost and conduct of contractors. President Obama last week ordered a government-wide review of federal contracting procedures, saying that his administration “will stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government.”
Nowhere has that outsourcing been larger or more contentious than in Iraq, where contractors have long outnumbered the U.S. military presence, even at its peak of 160,000 troops.
The days of massive U.S. reconstruction contracts in Iraq are over, with little to show for tens of billions of dollars spent, according to government auditors. While the military continues to outsource much of its supply chain, contracts for services such as transport and food will diminish as combat forces begin to draw down.