War & Disaster Profiteering

With South African mercenaries having shown up in civil wars in Sierra Leone, Angola, Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea, and, now being active in Iraq, South Africa will review tough new laws to try to dissuade citizens from becoming embroiled in war zones. Read More

"Private soldiers" have been operating in a legal limbo, with precious few rules governing their activities. However, a handful of legal cases in the U.S. are beginning to define the legal boundaries under which these companies can operate. Read More

In a little-noticed shift, for-profit outfits have replaced the Pentagon as the chief trainers of the country's fledging police force. Just over 700 contractors -- more than previously disclosed -- are now training more than half the Iraqi Police Service. Read More

The difference between Kroll and DynCorps, two private security companies is night and day. Kroll was like commuting to the office. We generally obeyed simple traffic laws. A trip with DynCorps is the proverbial "E-ticket" ride. Read More

O Globo newspaper says that more than 500 Brazilians have been hired as mercenaries to watch US military facilities in Iraq and the Brazilian Labor Ministry will investigate whether there were irregularities or not in the employment of Brazilians. Read More

Republican senators who have mauled the United Nations in its handling Iraqi oil revenues went strangely quiet over the news that the Coalition Provisional Authority saw $8.8 billion go absent without leave in just 14 months. It is 55,000 times as much as Mr Sevan is alleged to have been paid. Read More

The Balkans Web site has articles and commentary by about 50 journalists who are said to have be paid by European Command through a private contractor, Anteon Corp., an information technology company based in Fairfax. Read More

The U.S. Army has decided not to withold payment on disputed bills involving billions of dollars for Iraq contract work after Halliburton threatened that delays in payment could lead to an interruption of crucial support services to the U.S. military. Read More

The $4 Billion difference in what Halliburton says it will cost to provide food, housing and other services for U.S. troops this year dramatizes the cost crunch that is well beyond initial White House estimates. Read More

The Coalition Provisional Authority may have paid salaries for thousands of nonexistent employees in Iraqi ministries, issued unauthorized multimillion-dollar contracts and provided little oversight of spending in possibly corrupt ministries, according to the report by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Read More