Use of Contractors Added to War’s Chaos in Iraq

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Use of Contractors Added to War’s Chaos in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ and ANDREW W. LEHREN
Published: October 23, 2010

The first shots sailed past Iraqi police officers at a checkpoint. They took off in three squad cars, their lights flashing.

It was early in the Iraq war, Dec. 22, 2004, and it turned out that the shots came not from insurgents or criminals. They were fired by an American private security company named Custer Battles, according to an incident report in an archive of more than 300,000 classified military documents made public by WikiLeaks.

The company’s convoy sped south in Umm Qasr, a grubby port city near the Persian Gulf. It shot out the tire of a civilian car that came close. It fired five shots into a crowded minibus. The shooting stopped only after the Iraqi police, port security and a British military unit finally caught up with the convoy.

Somehow no one had been hurt, and the contractors found a quick way to prevent messy disciplinary action. They handed out cash to Iraqi civilians, and left.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/middleeast/24contractors.html?hp

[mrdmk]

1. This group needs to what they are, "Mercenaries"

Anybody who uses the word, 'contractors' is being deceptive, including the New York Times.

[jwirr]

2. And mercenaries were not a good thing until they renamed themselves.

Now they are fooling a lot of people.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. yep, it's all about names in America

[Angry Dragon]

4. And in the words .............

"enhanced interrogation" sounds so much better and safer than TORTURE

[azul]

5. In chaos war thrives.

War is legalized looting and murder and mayhem, but with some tacked-on rules occasionally.

This war was never declared by the US congress, as is supposed to happen when the USA sends out the military to kill and be killed, so most every thing about it was fuzzy. War-profiteer heaven, and we have been given marching orders to make it so, legal or no.