Contractors

10/23/2007 -- WASHINGTON – In response to reports that Blackwater USA – the embattled private security firm providing protection for State Department officials in Iraq and Afghanistan – may have relied on information from the Bush Administration to evade payroll taxes, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) called on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to explain its potential involvement.    » read more »

October 22, 2007 -- New documents suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion, failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes, and sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials.

In a letter to Eric Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, House Oversight Committee Chairman Waxman writes:    » read more »

17 October 2007 -- The New York Times says U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pressing for private security firms working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely that of the U.S. military.

A story published in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper says the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which uses about 2,500 private security guards to protect American diplomats in Baghdad. About 800 of them are employed by Blackwater USA, which was involved in a deadly shooting in the Iraqi capital last month.    » read more »

Calls on Prince to testify, Release details of Iraq contract

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) called on Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ask Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, to testify before the Committee and provide details of the company’s contract in Iraq.    » read more »

At least 26 lots in Tierra Linda Garden subdivision lack water, sewer services

October 15, 2007 -- AUSTIN -- Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today charged the developer of Tierra Linda Garden, a subdivision in Cameron County, with violating the state’s colonia-prevention laws. According to court documents filed by the state, Manuel J. Montemayor and his company, MG Joint Venture, failed to install or bond sewer and water services on residential lots offered for sale in the subdivision.    » read more »

14 October 2007 -- The chairman of the American security company Blackwater USA is defending his company's guards, who are under investigation over a September shooting incident in which 17 Iraqis were killed.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater guards of a deliberate, unprovoked shooting spree that killed 17 people in Baghdad on September 16.

But Blackwater chairman Erik Prince says, according to incident reports he has seen, the guards were responding to small arms fire while escorting a diplomatic convoy.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- A U.S. rights group is suing the private security firm, Blackwater, on behalf of victims of a deadly shooting last month in Baghdad.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said Thursday it is filing the suit in a U.S. court for one survivor and the families of three of those who died. The suit accuses Blackwater of murder and war crimes, and it seeks unspecified damages.

Blackwater has not commented on the lawsuit. It has said in the past that its guards were lawfully responding to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convey they were escorting in the Iraqi capital.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- The United Nations is urging the United States to ensure that American private contractors who commit offenses in Iraq are prosecuted.

The U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq is making the call in its new report on the human rights situation in that country Thursday. The mission noted several fatal incidents involving private security firms in the period between April and June of this year.

The report calls on the U.S. to establish mechanisms to hold contractors accountable when such incidents do not appear to be justified.    » read more »

09 October 2007 -- Iraq's government is asking American security firm Blackwater USA to pay $136 million to the families of Iraqis killed in a recent shooting.

The demand is included in a report of an Iraqi government investigation into the September 16 incident in a western Baghdad square. It charges that Blackwater security guards deliberately killed 17 people in the shooting.    » read more »

09 October 2007 -- Iraqi officials say there has been another shooting involving private security guards in Baghdad, this time killing two people. Dubai-based security firm Unity Resources Group issued a statement saying its guards were involved in the incident. The incident occurred the same day Iraq's government said the U.S.- based Blackwater security contractor should pay millions of dollars in compensation to people killed in a shooting incident last month.    » read more »

October 05, 2007 -- Today Chairman Waxman wrote to Secretary Rice following reports that a Blackwater contractor, who was fired after he shot and killed an Iraq security guard, was hired by Combat Support Associates, another private contractor, to work in the region two months later.

A letter was also sent to the President of Combat Support Associates requesting information about the former Blackwater contractor.

Read: Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf file)

Source: Administration Oversight, Defense and Security

October 5, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to further clarify the new guidelines she proposed for contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama called on Rice to clarify the legal framework the State Department intends to use to hold contractors accountable for their actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to provide more information on the rules of engagement contractors will employ.    » read more »

Obama bill will require federal law apply to contractors in war zones

October 4, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today introduced legislation to increase accountability of American security contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan by subjecting the contractors to U.S. criminal law. The bill would clarify the language of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) to ensure that it applies to all contractors working in war zones.    » read more »

October 4, 2007 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007, despite the Bush Administration's opposition, with a vote of 389-30. The bill, which passed through the House Judiciary Committee in August, makes private contractors working in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan subject to prosecution for wrongdoing in U.S. courts. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) made the following remarks on the House floor in support of the bill:    » read more »

04 October 2007 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he wants to give the coalition military command in Iraq a larger role in coordinating the activity of private security contractors that operate in the country. He says that is among the suggestions from a five-member panel he sent to Iraq in the wake of the incident last month in which armed guards from the Blackwater company, protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad, allegedly killed at least 11 Iraqi civilians in a shootout.    » read more »