War & Disaster Profiteering

A 41-year-old Halliburton employee from Albuquerque is recovering from a beating in Baghdad that authorities say came not at the hands of Iraqi insurgents but from his own American co-workers. Read More

The U.S. Justice Department gave critical support yesterday to whistle-blowers in a federal lawsuit against U.S. security contractor, Custer Battles. Read More

Halliburton is launching an ad campaign featuring real employees as the government services contractor faces lawsuits claiming that a truck convoy ambushed by insurgents April 9, 2004, was used as a decoy to draw attention away from another group delivering fuel. Read More

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who chairs the armed services subcommittee that oversees Army and Air Force programs, said he had serious concerns about the suitability of an "other transaction authority," or OTA, as the contract vehicle for the Future Combat Systems, noting Congress approved such agreements for small research or limited prototype projects, especially those intended to attract nontraditional defense contractors. Read More

Government lawyers said a major law to fight contractor fraud applies to contracts issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq from shortly after the 2003 invasion until it handed over power to an interim Iraqi government last June. Read More

If the World Bank's board had applied the same kind of "due diligence" to Paul Wolfowitz that they purport to apply to major development projects, they might have uncovered a significant conflict-of-interest that could have led them to rethink their embrace of the architect of the Iraq war. Read More

Based on a review of recently distributed federal-procurement documents, the U.S. government is actively soliciting the help of mercenaries whose sole function will be to locate and rescue missing or captured Drug War personnel. Read More

When U.S. service members are accused of wrongdoing, they are investigated and, if necessary, court-martialed. That's not the case with civilians. Dozens of U.S. and British soldiers have been prosecuted for misconduct in Iraq - but not a single contractor. Read More

Those throwing conniption fits over the United Nations' failure of oversight on Iraqi oil revenues might want to meditate a bit on the role of the U.S. government in all this before they further embarrass themselves denouncing perfidious foreigners. Read More

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says the rapid growth in private sector firms supporting military operations has worked well. From logistics to paramilitary security, the private sector is increasingly playing a critical role on the battlefield. Read More