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THE HAGUE -- Today, at the COP6 climate change negotiations, Shell's neighbors confronted them in their own backyard -- exposing their public relations ''greenwash'' as lies.

In October, the U.S. Defence Department brought in new regulations to improve the controls it has over contractors providing services on the battlefield, as well as when such security personnel can carry weapons. It's unclear, however, just how effective the rules will be in dealing with issues of accountability and the legal status of contractors involved in
incidents of wrongdoing.

While hundreds of millions in profits are being made by U.S. and British firms that provide support services to American forces in Iraq, it is citizens from poor nations such as the Philippines who do most of the work and are killed or injured in the process.

The industry brings in about $100 billion US a year in revenues and operates in over 50 nations. But, since it is largely unregulated, there are no firm numbers worldwide on how many private contractors or companies there actually are.

A trade group representing US, European and South African private security companies is lobbying to put pressure on the South African government to drop tough new anti-mercenary legislation now before parliament.

The International Peace Operations Association (IOPA) is lobbying the US and other European governments to put pressure on the South African government not to pass the anti-mercenary bill, saying it undermines the role played by South Africans in peace building missions worldwide.

In the lawless reality of much of the post-Cold War world, private security is a booming business. And Canada, once noted for peacekeeping, is emerging as a source of talented guns for hire. David Pugliese reports.

Fast-growing DynCorp provides security and training for police forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It may represent the first of a new generation of defense-related stock offerings.

The Rendon Group has garnered more than $56 million in work from the Pentagon since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. These contracts list such activities as tracking foreign reporters; "pushing" news favorable to U.S. forces; planting television news segments that promote American positions, and creating a grass-roots voting effort in Puerto Rico on behalf of the U.S. Navy.

LONDON -- A private British firm that won a $293 million contract from the Pentagon for coordinating security in Iraq is headed by a retired British commando with a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland, human rights activists and security analysts said yesterday.

The contract -- the largest single piece of the private-security pie in Iraq so far handed out by Washington -- was awarded to the London-based Aegis Defense Services.

MARRAKECH, Morocco -- ''The Kyoto Protocol is being taken over by false promises. By succumbing to the corporate agenda it is failing to achieve climate justice,'' says Amit Srivastava of CorpWatch.

A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of Mississippi's Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant laborers are being stiffed.

One concern is that Triple Canopy employees have been recruited mainly in Latin America and speak little English. Global Strategies relies heavily on British-trained Nepalese Gurkhas and Sri Lankans, a majority of whom speak at least some English and often speak it well.

A United Nations auditing board recommended that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary.

There are 20,000 "private security contractors" in Iraq: What do you call the people who fill the gaps arising when the desire of politicians to make war often exceeds citizens' desire to be sent to war?

The U.S. chose Ziad Cattan to oversee military buying because he could get things done. He did, but now he faces corruption charges.

Sytex, a subsidiary of Lockheed , the world's largest military contractor, has emerged as one of the biggest recruiters of private interrogators deployed to the United States-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, journalist Jeremy Scahill investigated the role of private security companies like Blackwater USA, infamous for their work in Iraq, that deployed on the streets of New Orleans. His reports were broadcast on the national radio and TV show Democracy Now! and on hundreds of sites across the internet. In response to Scahill's recent cover story in The Nation magazine "Blackwater Down," the President and CEO of DynCorp, one of the largest private security companies in the world, wrote a letter to the editor of The Nation. Dyncorp CEO Stephen J. Cannon's letter is reprinted below, followed by Scahill's response.