Military, Security & Surveillance

In 2005 Blackwater accidentally dropped teargas on US soldiers, which has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes. Read More

Jamie Leigh Jones was just 20 in 2005 when she took a leap of faith to work in Iraq for her employer, military contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root, then a subsidiary of Halliburton. She went on a mission she believed in. Shortly after her arrival in Iraq, however, Jones' ambitions were dashed in an alleged gang rape by co-workers. Read More

"It appears that ArmorGroup, by taking on extra staff ... and quickly making some redundant, is essentially transferring the risk inherent in such contract work to employees while making fat profits for itself," his MP, Dr Phyllis Starkey, told the House of Commons earlier this year. Read More

The booming private security industry in Afghanistan has been the target of a number government raids in the last few months. One of the largest contractors -- United States Protection and Investigations (USPI) from Texas -- has been accused of corruption. Read More

Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are looking into whether Public Warehousing and another family-dominated company, Sultan Center Food Products Co., colluded to gouge the U.S. military. Read More

A new U.S. intelligence institution will allow government spy agencies to conduct broad surveillance and reconnaissance inside the country for the first time. Contractors like Boeing, BAE Systems, Harris Corporation, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International Corporation are already lining up for possible work. Read More

Campaigners have condemned the Assembly Government for backing a huge military training project, despite the involvement of a weapons company previously linked to cluster bombs. Read More

Poor well-trained ex guerrillas from Peru are easily recruited for security contract work in Iraq. Read More

A Labour peer has admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases. Read More

A Namibian labour hire company, which processed the applications of Namibian ex-combatants who wanted to become 'security' guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, has stopped the process. Read More