GBlog

Die Zahl der von privaten Sicherheitsunternehmen
angestellten Soeldner im Irak uebersteige gegenwaertig die
Zahl der britischen Truppen im Land um das Dreifache,
berichtet Richard Norton-Taylor. Ueber die Aktivitaeten
dieser Unternehmen gebe es kaum Informationen. "The
government admits that private security companies are here
to stay, and that their operations are likely to increase
further as pressures on the armed forces increase. (...)
Critics say the main problem is that they are
unaccountable. Non-Iraqi employees of private security
companies in Iraq were protected from prosecution under
Order 17 of the Coalition Provisional Authority, issued
shortly before it handed over power in 2004."
...
Hired guns

British private security companies have contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan worth £1bn. There are 48,000 employees of private security firms in Iraq - 21,000 of them British - according to War on Want. The total has now dropped to 10,000, British companies say. Aegis, which won a multimillion pound contract from the Pentagon to provide security in Iraq, saw its turnover increase from £500,000 in 2003 to £62m last year. ArmorGroup, a British company, trebled its turnover from £37m in 2001 to £122m. In Afghanistan, 150 employees of the US company DynCorp are protecting president Hamid Karzai. Blackwater has won contracts in Iraq and to combat opium cultivation in Afghanistan. Control Risks has contracts with UK and US agencies, including the Foreign Office, to provide security in Iraq.

Source: War on Want
(Guardian vom 31.10.2006)
Vgl. auch: http://worldcontent.twoday.net/

Interessant auch hier:
U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
Contracts


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