Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
May 2, 2008 By Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot
WASHINGTON--A Senate committee wants to rewrite rules governing the activities of thousands of private security guards in Iraq, imposing new restrictions that could curtail at least some of the work of companies such as Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Worldwide.
Legislation unveiled Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee would bar private contractors from performing "inherently governmental functions" in combat zones or other "highly hazardous public areas."
The proposal, unanimously supported by the 25-member panel, also would block private companies and their employees from conducting interrogations of suspected terrorists, restricting that questioning to the military or police.
Congressional staffers said the draft is intended to force the Pentagon and the State Department to look more carefully at where and when they use private companies, particularly in guarding government employees or securing buildings and other sites.
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb has been prominent among a group of lawmakers urging tougher oversight of the Bush administration's use of contractors to support the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Legislation pushed through Congress last year by Webb and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill created a nonpartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting to search for "waste, fraud and abuse" in contracts generally and to recommend guidelines for the use of private security firms in combat zones.
Defense Department regulations allow contractors and other civilians to use deadly force to defend themselves. But the Armed Services Committee's draft report argues that when those contractors are working in areas where it's reasonable to expect they'll be attacked and where they might want to launch pre-emptive attacks of their own, the work becomes "inherently governmental" and should be done by troops or other government personnel.
Blackwater has received more than $700 million in contracts to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
The company's work, particularly its involvement in a firefight in September that left 17 Iraqis dead, has led to calls by the Iraqi government that Blackwater employees be expelled from the country.
A Blackwater spokesperson had no immediate comment on the committee draft Thursday but said the company is studying it.
The proposal, which is likely to be debated on the Senate floor this month, also would bar private companies working in Iraq from creating foreign subsidiaries to pay their employees and thus avoid U.S. taxes.
The contractor proposals are part of a massive defense policy bill developed by defense committees in the Senate and House. The House Armed Services Committee's version of the annual legislation is due to be unveiled by mid-May.
The Senate version released Thursday also includes provisions that would block Pentagon and Bush administration plans for a series of increases in health insurance premiums charged to more than 3 million military retirees.
The committee recommended a 3.9 percent pay increase for service members, 0.5 percentage points more than requested by President Bush. It also backed several items of special interest in Hampton Roads, including:
*Nearly $4 billion to continue construction of the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard.
*Provisions authorizing the Navy to contract with the Newport News yard for refueling and overhaul of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt beginning next year and providing more than $124 million toward the work.
*$3.4 billion for construction of a Virginia-class submarine beginning in 2009 and the purchase of supplies and equipment needed to put the Navy on a two-subs-per-year construction schedule beginning in 2011. The Newport News yard shares sub contracts with a General Dynamics yard in Connecticut.
*Nearly $43 million for dredging the channel serving Norfolk Naval Station.
*$11.6 million for a small-arms firing range to be used by special forces troops at Fort Story in Virginia Beach.
May 2, 2008 By Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot
WASHINGTON--A Senate committee wants to rewrite rules governing the activities of thousands of private security guards in Iraq, imposing new restrictions that could curtail at least some of the work of companies such as Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Worldwide.
Legislation unveiled Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee would bar private contractors from performing "inherently governmental functions" in combat zones or other "highly hazardous public areas."
The proposal, unanimously supported by the 25-member panel, also would block private companies and their employees from conducting interrogations of suspected terrorists, restricting that questioning to the military or police.
Congressional staffers said the draft is intended to force the Pentagon and the State Department to look more carefully at where and when they use private companies, particularly in guarding government employees or securing buildings and other sites.
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb has been prominent among a group of lawmakers urging tougher oversight of the Bush administration's use of contractors to support the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Legislation pushed through Congress last year by Webb and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill created a nonpartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting to search for "waste, fraud and abuse" in contracts generally and to recommend guidelines for the use of private security firms in combat zones.
Defense Department regulations allow contractors and other civilians to use deadly force to defend themselves. But the Armed Services Committee's draft report argues that when those contractors are working in areas where it's reasonable to expect they'll be attacked and where they might want to launch pre-emptive attacks of their own, the work becomes "inherently governmental" and should be done by troops or other government personnel.
Blackwater has received more than $700 million in contracts to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
The company's work, particularly its involvement in a firefight in September that left 17 Iraqis dead, has led to calls by the Iraqi government that Blackwater employees be expelled from the country.
A Blackwater spokesperson had no immediate comment on the committee draft Thursday but said the company is studying it.
The proposal, which is likely to be debated on the Senate floor this month, also would bar private companies working in Iraq from creating foreign subsidiaries to pay their employees and thus avoid U.S. taxes.
The contractor proposals are part of a massive defense policy bill developed by defense committees in the Senate and House. The House Armed Services Committee's version of the annual legislation is due to be unveiled by mid-May.
The Senate version released Thursday also includes provisions that would block Pentagon and Bush administration plans for a series of increases in health insurance premiums charged to more than 3 million military retirees.
The committee recommended a 3.9 percent pay increase for service members, 0.5 percentage points more than requested by President Bush. It also backed several items of special interest in Hampton Roads, including:
*Nearly $4 billion to continue construction of the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard.
*Provisions authorizing the Navy to contract with the Newport News yard for refueling and overhaul of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt beginning next year and providing more than $124 million toward the work.
*$3.4 billion for construction of a Virginia-class submarine beginning in 2009 and the purchase of supplies and equipment needed to put the Navy on a two-subs-per-year construction schedule beginning in 2011. The Newport News yard shares sub contracts with a General Dynamics yard in Connecticut.
*Nearly $43 million for dredging the channel serving Norfolk Naval Station.
*$11.6 million for a small-arms firing range to be used by special forces troops at Fort Story in Virginia Beach.