AGA Today
Census Counts
100,000 Contractors in Iraq - Civilian Number, Duties Are Issues
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 5, 2006; D01
There are about
100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting
subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S.
military force there, according to the military's first census of the
growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.
The survey
finding, which includes Americans, Iraqis and third-party nationals
hired by companies operating under U.S. government contracts, is
significantly higher and wider in scope than the Pentagon's only
previous estimate, which said there were 25,000 security contractors in
the country.
It is also 10
times the estimated number of contractors that deployed during the
Persian Gulf War in 1991, reflecting the Pentagon's growing post-Cold
War reliance on contractors for such jobs as providing security,
interrogating prisoners, cooking meals, fixing equipment and
constructing bases that were once reserved for soldiers.
Official numbers
are difficult to find, said Deborah D. Avant, author of the 2005 book
"The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security," but an
estimated 9,200 contractors deployed during the Gulf War, a far shorter
conflict without reconstruction projects. "This is the largest
deployment of U.S. contractors in a military operation," said Avant, an
associate professor at George Washington University.
In addition to
about 140,000 U.S. troops, Iraq is now filled with a hodgepodge of
contractors. DynCorp International has about 1,500 employees in Iraq,
including about 700 helping train the police force. Blackwater USA has
more than 1,000 employees in the country, most of them providing private
security. Kellogg, Brown and Root, one of the largest contractors in
Iraq, said it does not delineate its workforce by country but that it
has more than 50,000 employees and subcontractors working in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Kuwait. MPRI, a unit of L-3 Communications, has about
500 employees working on 12 contracts, including providing mentors to
the Iraqi Defense Ministry for strategic planning, budgeting and
establishing its public affairs office. Titan, another L-3 division, has
6,500 linguists in the country.
The Pentagon's
latest estimate "further demonstrates the need for Congress to finally
engage in responsible, serious and aggressive oversight over the
questionable and growing U.S. practice of private military contracting,"
said Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who has been critical of the
military's reliance on contractors.
About 650
contractors have died in Iraq since 2003, according to Labor Department
statistics.
Central Command,
which conducted the census, said a breakdown by nationality or job
description was not immediately available because the project is still
in its early stages. "This is the first time we have initiated a census
of this robustness," Lt. Col. Julie Wittkoff, chief of the contracting
branch at Central Command, said in an interview. Those figures do not
include subcontractors, which could substantially grow the figure.
In June,
government agencies were asked to provide data about contractors working
for them in Iraq, including their nationality, a description of their
work and locations where they were working. The information was provided
by more than a dozen entities within the Pentagon and a dozen outside
agencies, including the departments of State and Interior, Wittkoff
said. The count increased about 15 percent from about 87,000 since
Central Command began keeping a tally this summer, she said, though the
increase may reflect ongoing data collection efforts. The census will be
updated quarterly, Wittkoff said.
Three years into
the war, the headcount represents one of the Pentagon's most concrete
efforts so far toward addressing the complexities and questions raised
by the large numbers of civilians who have flooded into Iraq to work.
With few industry standards, the military and contractors have sometimes
lacked coordination, resulting in friendly fire incidents, according to
a Government Accountability Office report last year.
"It takes a great
deal of vigilance on the part of the military commander to ensure
contractor compliance," said William L. Nash, a retired Army general and
a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you're trying
to win hearts and minds and the contractor is driving 90 miles per hour
through the streets and running over kids, that's not helping the image
of the American army. The Iraqis aren't going to distinguish between a
contractor and a soldier."
The census gives
military commanders insight into the contractors operating in their
region and the type of work they are doing, Wittkoff said. "It helps the
combatant commanders have a better idea of . . . food and medical
requirements they may need to provide to support the contractors," she
said.
Staff writer
Griff Witte contributed to this report.