Draft Law Puts Foreign Companies Under Iraqi Jurisdiction
Apr 8, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
BAGHDAD — A law giving Iraqi courts jurisdiction over foreign companies such as U.S. security contractor Blackwater is being drafted in the Iraqi parliament.
Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the defense and security committee, noted in comments to RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq on April 7 that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the United States and Iraq in November does not protect private companies from prosecution in Iraqi courts. U.S. defense contractors had previously enjoyed impunity because they were subject neither to Iraqi law nor U.S. military law. Read the rest of this entry »
Blackwater ex-workers will go back to Iraq
Apr 5, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By Rod Nordland
BAGHDAD-Late last month, Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect U.S. diplomats here, but by next month many, if not most, of its private security guards will be back on the job in Iraq.
The same individuals will just wear new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s contract after Iraq refused to renew Blackwater’s operating license, according to U.S. diplomats, private security industry officials and Iraqi officials.
Read the rest of this entry »
No forensic match for ammo in Blackwater shooting
Apr 1, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By MATT APUZZO
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection. Read the rest of this entry »
Five Blackwater guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by insurgents.
Iraq Attacks Bring Call For Security Review
Mar 14, 2009 Iraq, Middle East
By Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press | March 14, 2009
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s top leadership called yesterday for a review of government security measures after a pair of suicide attacks killed about 60 people this week in the Baghdad area.
The capability of Iraq’s army and police to maintain security has taken on new urgency now that President Obama has announced plans to remove all US combat troops from Iraq by September 2010 and end the US mission here by the end of the following year.
Read the rest of this entry »
Odierno: No sign Iraqis will ask us to stay
Mar 11, 2009 Iraq, Middle East
By Lara Jakes, Associated Press
But Iraqi leaders must decide whether to waive an approaching end-date - June 30 - and allow combat soldiers stay in urban flashpoints like Mosul where al-Qaida and insurgents continue to threaten security, Gen. Ray Odierno said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Iraq to Deny New License To Blackwater Security
Jan 29, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By Ernesto Londoño and Qais Mizher–Washington Post Foreign Service
MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 28 — The Iraqi government has informed the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »
Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to
Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy’s primary security company, which
has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while
protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Tags: Blackwater
Taxing Iraqi interpreters raises identity crisis
Jan 22, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
| The security agreement
Article 16: Taxes 2. Members of the United States Forces and of the civilian component shall not be responsible for payment of any tax, duty, or fee that has its value determined and imposed in the territory of Iraq, unless in return for services requested and received. Article 2: Definition of Terms 4. “Member of the civilian component” means any civilian employed by the United States Department of Defense. This term does not include individuals normally resident in Iraq. |
BAGHDAD — Iraqi interpreters worry that pay changes resulting from the new security agreement could give hostile elements in the Iraqi government access to their personal information — despite their employer’s assertions that it will not turn over any details that would put them at risk.
Global Linguist Solutions, the main interpreter contractor in Iraq, notified its Iraqi employees this month that it will begin deducting 15 percent of their pay for Iraqi income tax plus 5 percent of their pay for Iraqi social security.
Interpreters who have closely guarded their identities for fear of reprisals worry that the Iraqi government will need their personal information to credit them with paying their taxes and allow them to claim retirement benefits later.
Meanwhile, the interpreters are wondering why they are paying taxes — when even most government workers don’t.
“Khalid,” a Baghdad interpreter whose real name is being withheld for security reasons, said he feels that his employer, by asking for his personal information, “will deliver us to the government. Most of these [insurgent groups] are controlled by the government.”
Tags: DynCorp
Report: Iraq security contractors poorly managed
Jan 10, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By RICHARD LARDNER – Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has poorly managed a nearly $2 billion deal with Blackwater Worldwide and other security contractors in Iraq, according to a report from the agency’s inspector general, which cites failures to station guards in the right places and weak oversight as key problems.
Tags: contractors, Iraq
Iraq: Security Forces Ready To Defend Country
Jan 7, 2009 Iraq
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 4 Jan 10:49 EST (15:49 GMT)
Published: 4 Jan 10:49 EST (15:49 GMT)
BAGHDAD - Iraqi officials insisted on Jan. 4 that the fledgling security forces are ready to defend the country even as a suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and injured dozens in northern Baghdad.
The blast at checkpoint near the entrance to a Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiyah district occurred as top government officials gathered in the Green Zone to mark Army Day.
Today we are more optimistic and hopeful because the new democratic Ira qwill be an example for the region, in building democracy and the state of law,” Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said at ceremony in the Green Zone.
“The army will defend the unity, people, soil and sky of Iraq.”
Iraqi Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed said Iraq was ready for that task.
“This day shows that we are going in the right direction and we have the abilities to take care of our security issues,” he told AFP after the ceremony to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the Iraqi army.
“We are ready to take over security completely by the end of 2011.”
On January 1, the U.S. military turned over to Iraq security control of the Green Zone in central Baghdad - a heavily fortified government and diploma tic area that came to symbolize the American occupation.
In line with an agreement signed in November, the United States has hand ed over several security files to Iraq on January 1 and is due to withdraw entirely from the country by the end of 2011.
The Jan. 4 attack killed at least 35 people, including women and children, and wounded 65 others among them Iranian pilgrims who were taking part in a religious procession.
Tags: Iraq
Security business scrutinises Iraq transition
Dec 31, 2008 Iraq
By Sylvia Pfeifer, Defence Industries Correspondent for The Financial Times
When the clock strikes midnight in Iraq on Wednesday night, the country will enter a new era. At that moment a United Nations mandate expires, and Iraqi police and soldiers will take the lead in providing security for government and business.
The change is being watched closely by executives of the private security industry, not least those based in Britain. The sector has boomed in Iraq since the allied invasion in 2003, leading to Saddam Hussein’s downfall as president.
Contractors have played a substantial role in supporting the military, reconstruction and diplomatic operations of foreign forces in Iraq, as well as providing security for an increasing number of commercial enterprises.
Although most executives say the handover will have no material impact on their operations, some observers are warning that together with the allied troop withdrawal, it will create a sea-change for the industry.
“While the US and UK troops are there they’ve got top cover, but once they are gone, they will be on their own,” says Patrick Grayson, senior partner of GPW, a London-based corporate intelligence firm, and a veteran of the security sector.
“They will probably be the only foreign arms-carrying people in the country and be subject to Iraq law,” Mr Grayson says.
“Iraq was showtime for private military companies, like the Klondike gold rush. They played a pivotal role in filling a vacuum, helping to relieve the fighting forces [by providing security].”
Mr Grayson expects the market to become more competitive, putting private military companies under much greater commercial pressures to be more compliant and price-sensitive.
“The question is whether such strictures on them will diminish their ability to protect their clients,” he says.
Industry executives, however, while conceding they are watching the legislative change closely, insist it will have little direct impact.
Aegis is one of the most prominent London-based private security companies in Iraq, with some 1,500 people in the country working primarily for the US defence department.
Tim Spicer, the company’s founder, compares speculation about what may or may not happen with concerns over the millennium bug, which proved misplaced. “Everyone is terribly worried about what might happen on January 1, but we have been operating in Iraqi-controlled territories for some time and it is not a great concern to me,” he insists.
Martin Rudd, senior vice- president at London-based Olive Group, which has some 600 personnel deployed in Iraq, says that if anything he expects the business environment to be more “buoyant” once allied troops have withdrawn.
The number employed in Iraq’s private security industry is close to 30,000, according to Lawrence Peter, director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq.
Of these, about 3,000-5,000 are expatriates, mainly from the US, the UK and Australia. Some 5,000-10,000 are third-country nationals while around 15,000 are Iraqis.
Although roadside bombings and other incidents in Iraq still make headlines, Mr Peter says there has been a “significant reduction in the number of violent incidents and also in the violence with which these occur”.
There has also been a large drop in the number of attacks on convoys related to the reconstruction effort over the past 52 months, he says.
Of the 29,000 or so convoys since August 2004, the attack rate has fallen from about 1:5 in January 2007 to 1:500 in November 2008.
The improved security situation has led to growing interest from outside investors. General Electric, the US conglomerate, which has been active in the country for several years, won a $3bn (£2bn) power generation contract earlier this month.
The US has struck a separate security agreement to keep about 140,000 troops in the country to 2011 but combat forces will have to leave Iraqi cities and villages by the end of June 2009 and will not be able to conduct operations without Iraqi permission. Most British troops are due to withdraw next May, with the last set to leave in July.
Like Mr Spicer at Aegis, Mr Peter says private security contractors are adopting a wait-and-see approach to next year.
“They will want to see how the Iraqis manage the first incidents that may or may not occur. What concerns me is not the legislative system but what happens from the time of an incident to the first 24-48 hours. We need to have cool heads on both sides to build mutual trust and confidence,” he says.
Tags: Iraq
