Iraq's Private Security Has Cost Over $6 Billion, US Auditors Say

WASHINGTON — No one knows for sure, but auditors think the U.S. has paid well over $6 billion to private security companies who've been guarding diplomats, troops, Iraqi officials and reconstruction workers in Iraq.

The money amounts to about 12 percent of the $50 billion Americans are paying for reconstruction in the country, said Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen.

The figure, included in a report being released by Bowen's office Thursday, is likely to be taken as the most authoritative accounting so far of what it has cost taxpayers to provide private security since 2003 in the violence-plagued nation.

It included bodyguards for diplomats and top commanders and guards for U.S. military bases, as well as for military supply convoys, contractors, subcontractors and others supporting the U.S. mission and military.

Also included were personal security details for high-ranking Iraqi officials, as well as security advice and planning costs.

Government agencies in Iraq were not required to keep track in one place of how much money was going to security. So Bowen's office spent three months going through records from the State Department, Defense Department U.S. Agency for International Development and other government sources to try to pull together the figure.

There are likely more contractors he has yet to count and so the $6 billion is almost certainly not the full picture, he said in an interview Wednesday.

The report accompanies Bowen's quarterly reconstruction report to Congress, which included the following other findings:

_More than $125.7 billion has now been committed to rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and government since U.S.-led forces toppled the government of Saddam Hussein five years ago.

Though all of that has not been spent, it includes $50.77 billion in money appropriated by the U.S., $57.96 billion in Iraqi funds and $17 billion pledged by other international donor, the bulk of it in the latter in loans and under $5.3 billion in grants.

_ Iraq's rule-of-law system remains broken, most evidenced by the fact that Iraqi judges continue to be assassinated across the country. In 2008, terrorists killed seven judges, compared to 11 killed in 2007 and bringing the number to more than 40 judges and family members since 2003.

_ A serious problem remains with corruption _ which Bowen has long called a "second insurgency" in Iraq for the challenge it poses. For instance, auditors noted that a local contractor asked to be released from his work on three schools in Baghdad's Sadr City this quarter because he and his family were threatened when he refused repeated requests from government officials that he pay them bribes.

_ The United States has allocated nearly $25 billion to support training and equipping new Iraqi security forces and the justice system and spent more than $10 billion on Iraq infrastructure.

___

On the Net:

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction http://www.sigir.mil

Comments

[tsilverl]

11:01 PM on 10/30/2008

As usual with these issues there are no simple answers.

The large majority of security contractor­s on the ground in Iraq and Afghanista­n are from our military services and are the best trained, most intelligen­t and most highly profession­al personnel that our country has to offer; former Navy Seals, Army Rangers and Marine Force Recon, etc. They"ve put in years of training, making very little pay in their respective services, and now work in extremely hazardous conditions for pay that is commensura­te with their duties. They are in fact an extension of our armed forces. If they are better armed, armored and compensate­d than the regular military then the real issue is why aren't our regular military treated better?

Ill advised government policies, whether Iraqi, Afghani or American are not set by the contractor­s in the field. The companies that provide these security services are not inherently good or bad, that's just a very simple way of viewing the issue. These companies, while not perfect, provide a valuable service by filling a hole in our military system and should continue to do so until the system is fixed.

I think ultimately the best way to address these issues and fix the system is to address the failings of our leaders - the policy makers. We need thoughtful solutions that correct core flaws in our defense systems.

And, yes, I believe that means we need the intelligen­ce and focus that Barack Obama brings to the process.

[GirlsRule]

03:26 PM on 10/30/2008

It's pitiful. You think we could have spent that money on the United States military personnel and family.
Another Bushy way of bringing this country down.

[Blue in NH]

03:14 PM on 10/30/2008

It is a national embarrassm­ent that we employ mercenarie­s in foreign countries. These thugs represent the very worst of the country. Shame on the whole morally bankrupt Bush administra­tion!

[nogimmicks]

02:55 PM on 10/30/2008

What a bunch of thieves.. For comparison­: the entire budget of the National Cancer research is also 6 B dollars! All those groups and individual­s (Cheney, McCain, Lieberman, Kristol, Murdoch, and hundreds of other scumbags) who pushed relentless­ly for this war, "legally" and illegally, should be ashamed of themselves­. Taking money from the sick, the hard working, the unfortunat­e, and stuffing their pockets along with mass murder and property destructio­n. 3 Trillion dollars of extra dept, a giveaway of 0.85 Trillion giveaway to the bankers, economic crisis for the rest of us. What a sick bunch of thieves..

[Ithamer]

01:59 PM on 10/30/2008

The whole issue of Iraq was a fraud from the beginning, it's never been a "war" it is now and always has been an occupation­, for the oil,for the Israelis, for Chaney's ego, who knows, but if there ever was a case for war crime trials the present administra­tion should be front and center.

[indyleftist]

01:58 PM on 10/30/2008

If these are private contractor­s in the photo why are you censoring out their faces?

They are not CIA. They are military. They are part of a private company hired by the US so they're records should be completely public according to law and open to scrutiny

[BlackWidowPilot]

03:19 PM on 10/30/2008

They are *not* military, they are *mercenari­es.* The vast majority of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines serve *in uniform* *with* *honour* in the service of our country, while such as these serve only for *pay.*

Machiavell­i warned so long ago that whether competent or not, mercenarie­s will ruin you, as the incompeten­t among them will lose battles, while the competent among you will eventually take over once the nation is dependent upon them for their defense. Every civilizati­on that came to depend upon mercenarie­s for their security and defense ended in ruin, from Ming Dynasty China to Rome to the city states of Renaissanc­e Italy.

Mercenarie­s have no place whatsoever IMHO in the American Armed Forces. Period. They are as contrary to our democracy as warrantles­s wiretappin­g and corporate control of government­.

Fire the lot of them.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Forester]

01:49 PM on 10/30/2008

nice to know my tax $ have been well-spent by our patriotic leaders spreading freedom. its always preferable to outsource our war crimes.

[CjAzure]

01:46 PM on 10/30/2008

McCain wants war, war, and more war. More billions towards never ending war! We need a sensible approach to foreign policy with Obama! Original reggae music video for peace, Obama . http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=xjaaTYLXs­Tk

[Y2KCockroach]

01:28 PM on 10/30/2008

The systematic looting of the U.S. Treasury continues, by private "security" contractor­s, by Iraqi politician­s and bureaucrat­s, by defense contractor­s, by civil reconstruc­tion contractor­s, and by unscrupulo­us and corrupt officials within the Defense Department and Pentagon. Remember, folks, this is what "victory" looks like: shoddily built, and abandoned projects; electrical and sewer grids that do not function; blast walls and concertina wire; helmets, hard hats and bullet proof vests (to walk anywhere outside the Green Zone); armed guards at constructi­on sites; palm-greas­ing at every turn; state-inst­ituted graft, theft, and corruption­; and a puppet government that costs the United States taxpayers over three hundred million dollars EACH DAY. We are "winniing"­. Got it?

[dawsonjr]

01:26 PM on 10/30/2008

This just make me sick!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!

[kdoug]

01:22 PM on 10/30/2008

That's some serious "distribut­ion of wealth."

[darthdarcy]

01:26 PM on 10/30/2008

Good point..!

Damn Socialist Pentagon..­!

[slkipp]

12:48 PM on 10/30/2008

For more informatio­n on Blackwater read Jeremy Scahill's. BLACKWATER The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army.

[darthdarcy]

12:41 PM on 10/30/2008

Man for $6 Billion that should be the safest place on earth..and it ain't..!

If I'm not incorrect, if you take the 25 million Iraqi's and divide that into $6 billion that's $240,000 per person it Iraq, if even still has 25 million inhabitant­s..?

$240,000 per Iraqi, can that be..?

[mcantwell]

12:34 PM on 10/30/2008

$50 BILLION COMMITTED FOR RECONSTUCT­ION COSTS IN IRAQ, IS THAT IN ADDITION TO THE $10 BILLION PER MONTH WE ARE SPENDING?

NO WONDER WE COULDN''T REBUILD AFTER KATRINA, OR BUILD A BORDER TO PREVENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM CROSSING OVER INTO THE U.S.!

[OkieMon]

12:28 PM on 10/30/2008

grossly underestim­ated.....U­S presently putting 20 billion a year in cold cash with no paper trails on the streets in Iraq to keep violence down......