More Private Security Contractors Heading to Afghanistan

America could not have succeeded in Iraq without the highly skilled private security contractors. Virtually all of them have extensive military or police experience, advanced weapons training, and leadership skills. The war in Afghanistan will also require the abilities of these outstanding individuals.

The following Associated Press article talks about the use of these warriors in Afghanistan:

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Afghan Build-up Means Contractor Surge

March 23, 2009
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The military buildup in Afghanistan is stoking a surge of private security contractors despite a string of deadly shootings in Iraq in recent years that has called into question the government's ability to manage the guns for hire.

In recent online postings, the military has asked private security companies to protect traveling convoys and guard U.S. bases in troubled southern provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar. And if truckers hired to transport fuel for the military want protection, they can hire their own armed guards, the military says.

The Bush administration expanded the use of such companies with the onset of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because it can save the military time and money. But the practice lost much of its appeal with Congress after September 2007, when five guards with what was then called Blackwater Worldwide (the company recently changed its name to Xe) opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square and killed 17 Iraqis.

Those killings followed a 2006 incident in which a drunken Blackwater employee fatally shot an Iraqi politician's bodyguard.

Now, as President Barack Obama plans to send more U.S. personnel to Afghanistan to boost security and diplomatic efforts, more contractors are preparing to deploy, too.

Still, serious questions remain as to how these private forces are managed, when they can use deadly force and what happens if they break the rules.

"We understand the difficulty of providing for the security of the Department of Defense facilities," Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Dec. 9.

"However, the proposed contract would appear to dramatically expand the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan," Levin said, adding that the reliance on contractors in Iraq resulted in "widespread abuses."

Levin, D-Mich., wrote to Gates after The Washington Post reported on the contract bid for armed guards at U.S. bases in southern Afghanistan.

In his letter, he noted the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, which warns the Defense Department against outsourcing security operations "in uncontrolled or unpredictable high-threat environments."

Complicating matters is that the armed guards hired in Afghanistan most likely won't be U.S. citizens. According to Gates, only nine out of the 3,847 security contractors in Afghanistan have U.S. passports.

Some lawmakers worry that arming non-U.S. citizens to protect American bases or convoys poses a security risk in a country rife with corruption and on the defensive against the militant Taliban.

Gates defended the practice in his Feb. 17 response to Levin. "The use of contractor security personnel is vital to supporting the forward-operating bases in certain parts of the country and in continuing our efforts to employ local nationals whenever possible," the Pentagon chief said.

Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, agrees.

"If Afghans are qualified to do jobs, we want them to do jobs," McCain, R-Ariz., said in an interview.

Despite Gates' assurances, Levin said in a statement to the Associated Press that he would "continue to actively review the issue and to consider the need for legislation."

But so far, Congress has struggled to close even the most glaring of legal loopholes governing security contractors in war zones.

While the law says U.S. courts have jurisdiction over defense contractors working in a war zone, it leaves in question those supporting other agencies, such as the Blackwater guards hired by the State Department and involved in the Baghdad shooting.

In October 2007, the House voted 389-30 to give U.S. courts jurisdiction over all contractors in a war zone. But momentum on the bill stalled after the Bush administration raised objections. The Senate version of the bill, introduced by Barack Obama when he was an Illinois senator, never received a vote.

Last month, two sponsors of the bill, Reps. David Price, D-N.C., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., asked President Obama in a letter to pick up where he left off by helping Congress define which tasks only government should perform.

Currently, there are 71,700 contractors in Afghanistan, which is more than twice the number of U.S. troops. With more than 3,000 of those contractors carrying weapons, the Defense Department established an office to oversee them.

That office, known as the "armed contractor oversight directorate," just agreed to pay $993,000 to Aegis Defense Services, a London-based security and risk management company, to help do that job.

Gates assured Levin that the military's contract with Aegis would not result in contractors overseeing contractors.

Instead, the nearly $1 million dollar deal would provide administrative support only and that the company's workers would not have "direct input into daily operations, force protection, or combat operations," Gates said.

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As with military operations, there will always be a few who break the laws or who violate military regulations. The vast majority of the private security contractors are brave men and women who are willing to put themselves at risk to help others.

Charles M. Grist
www.TheCobraTeam.com
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Retired Colonel Continues to Serve in Iraq

One of the men who made quite an impact on me in Iraq was Colonel Logan Barbee. Since our tour in 2004, Barbee has retired as both an Army Colonel and as an Agricultural Professor at the University of Florida. Instead of heading to the country to goof off, he has continued to serve his nation while working for the State Department on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq.

The following article about Barbee and his work appeared recently:

Down on the farm in Iraq

by Amanda Marquart of Medill Reports at Northwestern University

Oct 25, 2007 - WASHINGTON -- Carp farms. Not exactly what you expect in the sandy, citified Iraq we see on television. But you can find thousands of acres of watery fields teeming with fish in southern Iraq.

Aquaculture is just one farming industry in Iraq. Wheat, rye, barley, vegetables, mushrooms and olives are also grown there -- so too dates, livestock and honeybees. “Farming – that’s where people’s hearts are,” said American advisor Logan Barbee.

Barbee is the agricultural adviser with the Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team. He said similar to many third-world countries, Iraq is in need of “newness” for its agricultural sector – new brood livestock, new seeds and new queen honeybees. He helps the Iraqis acquire these things legally and also brings in experts ranging from artificial insemination technicians for livestock to experts specializing in date palms.

Provincial Reconstruction Teams, or PRTs, are groups made up of U.S. and coalition troops, civilian federal employees and expert contractors. Their purpose is to bolster local authorities in Iraq through coaching, teaching and mentoring of provincial and local government officials in governance and economic development, according to the Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction.

Barbee is one of eight agricultural advisers working with the Iraq PRTs. He was an agricultural extension agent for the University of Florida for 25 years before beginning work for the USDA in Iraq. He works with landowners, sheiks, farmers and female beekeepers among a “wide spectrum of Shi’a, Sunni and tribal entities,” he said.

Asked about his work in Iraq, Barbee replied in a thick Southern accent, "We’re not teaching these people how to farm. They’ve been farming since the beginning of time - we can learn more from them."

Despite the common perception that Iraq is full of sandy desert, he said “this is the only Arab country with abundant water.” Barbee’s area, Al Hillah, located 60 miles south of Baghdad, is fed by both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

One thing Iraqis learned from the U.S. years ago was how to use American-imported hormones to increase carp production by 40 percent. The three types of carp grown in Iraq, silver, grass and common carp, are enjoyed as delicacies.

A typical day for Barbee involves leaving an old Baathist hotel in a Blackwater Security-protected convoy. He attends meetings with local people who have agricultural backgrounds and bilingual advisors who help him navigate Iraqi culture. He also may spend time with farmers and agricultural workers on their farms.

Barbee said he takes certain precautions even though the areas he works are secure and "only a few areas are contested."

"We haven’t been shot at for a few months," he admitted cheerfully in a telephone interview from Al Hillah. "The guards are pretty aggressive. But they have to drive fast – we’re only in an armored Suburban with heavy windows and doors. Those vehicles can’t protect us from explosives."

Of the controversial Blackwater security details, he said, "We’d all have to go home if it weren’t for them. Our troops are busy working on the PRTs (reconstruction teams). We need someone to protect us (civilians) while we do what we need to do."

The dangerous environment that teams labor in has led some to question their presence in Iraq.

"In many areas PRTs have to be careful about revealing themselves -- revealing an American face on any project that’s U.S.-funded -- because of the potential controversy or conflict it could stir," said Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on Oct. 18.

This admission led Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., to ask, "How do I explain to my taxpayers back home that the American face on a project makes it unappreciated? . . . This is an untenable situation. If they don’t want the help, if they actively despise us, why are we there?"

At a Tuesday hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the reconstruction teams.

"We have found a formula that puts the reconstruction effort at the local level where it can get to the people," she said, calling the PRTs a "real breakthrough" in the rebuilding of the country’s infrastructure.

By the end of the year, the USDA plans to send in an additional 13 agricultural advisers to join the reconstruction teams across Iraq. The U.S. Agency for International Development estimates that the Iraqi agricultural sector can grow from 5 percent to 15 percent of the national GDP if fully developed. Already agriculture provides one quarter of Iraq’s employment opportunities.

That makes sense to Barbee. He said, "This is Mesopotamia - where farming began."

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Logan Barbee is quite an American. Keep it up, Colonel!

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Remembering the C.O.B.R.A. Team

“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because
rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

George Orwell

By this time in 2004, my team in Iraq had been on the ground for less than a week. Before our tour ended, we experienced enough close calls to know that the odds might eventually work against us. Survival in war is about skill, luck and the odds. With so many other soldiers around you, the odds are small you will be the one killed or wounded.

As I leave home tomorrow to begin the first mission of my third mobilization, my thoughts have naturally turned to the men I served with on the C.O.B.R.A. Team. Aaron Self is a police officer in Texas, Chad Higginbotham is a recruiter for the National Guard in Mississippi and John (Doc) Actis is a cop in Mississippi and a part-time actor. We became more than a band of brothers; these men became like sons to me and we were all fortunate to return home in one piece.

Of all of us, Doc is the only one who returned to Iraq after our tour ended in late 2004. He served as a private security contractor and survived some harrowing experiences, including the loss of some of his co-workers.

For now I have been tasked with helping to train infantry soldiers who are mobilizing for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. I may do this for my entire mobilization or I could have the opportunity to go to one of those countries. Much of this will depend on how my training unit is tasked over the next few months. I’m a soldier; I’ll do what they tell me to do, but I would prefer to be overseas.
Whether I am stateside or in the war zone, I will continue to write in this blog about my own experiences and about the soldiers I encounter. Even in the States, I will meet many extraordinary men and women who have unique stories from their own war-time service. It is important that those stories be told.

Thanks for your continued support and for the many emails you have sent me. Please watch this blog for updates.

SFC Chuck Grist
TheRangerCop@aol.com
http://www.thecobrateam.com/
http://www.americanranger.blogspot.com/

The New Mercenaries

One of my contemporaries recently told me that his son, a former Army Ranger, has joined the ranks of the private security contractors in Iraq.

In 2005, I wrote the following op-ed piece about these brave individuals:

THE NEW MERCENARIES
Special to the Sentinel
March 1, 2005

At an undisclosed location in Baghdad, the 32-year-old mercenary stood next to an armored SUV, preparing to escort his “principal”, the high-ranking person he helps to protect, to that man’s next destination. In his civilian clothes and body armor, this professional soldier is armed with a variety of weapons, including an M4 carbine and a semiautomatic handgun. His military and civilian training, along with his experience in the art of war, make him a very dangerous man. That is why he is worth the $15,000 a month he is making – tax free – to protect his “client”.

Civilian or military, spy or corporate wizard, the individual being protected represents part of the large investment that our government has made in war-torn Iraq. It is no secret that a lot of American dollars are being spent on government contracts with such companies as Blackwater, Dyncorp and others. In turn, those companies are hiring thousands of professionals from the Navy Seals, the Army Rangers, Delta Force, Special Forces, the British or Australian SAS and from the elite forces of other countries.

Last year this particular mercenary, who is now known as a “private security contractor”, served in the American Army in Iraq with me. Since our return, he has been recruited, trained some more and then deployed to war again. I tried to talk him out of it, but I must say that I know how he feels. Not everyone can understand the pure excitement or the adrenaline rush from being a warrior in the most dangerous city of the most dangerous country in the world. This is especially true when that job is part of the larger mission being conducted by your country.

Soldiers of fortunes, or warriors for hire, have been part of the fabric of conflict for thousands of years. I grew up in the 1960s reading about the legendary Fifth Commando, a famous group of British mercenaries in Africa led by Lt. Col. Mike Hoare. After Vietnam, recruiters for various groups in Africa approached many of us. I knew only one man who took the job and I never heard from him again.

My mercenary friend, who must remain anonymous for safety and intelligence reasons, is divorced, unattached and reminds me of Errol Flynn. He knows the risks, has weighed them and has chosen to fight for Uncle Sam, apple pie, the many girls he left behind and the good old American buck as well. If he survives, and I have the greatest of confidence in his warrior skills, he will put together quite a nest egg for his future.

There are those who might say it is immoral to hire professional soldiers who seem to be serving only for money and adventure. Having known many of these men, I believe it is more than that for most of them. There is an undercurrent of good among them because they like being the good guys. They all know the deadly price of war, many have lost comrades in battle and most have the look of steely-eyed self-confidence that comes from success in “facing the elephant”.

The stories of “the elephant” came from those mercenary soldiers in Africa. Among the professional big-game hunters of the time, it was said that a man could never truly be called a “great white hunter” until he had faced a charging bull elephant and survived. The mercenaries picked this up as a way of saying a soldier was not a seasoned fighter until he had “faced the elephant” of war and survived that face-to-face battle with Death.

My friend has joined the ranks of the paid professionals who enter the Valley of Death each day with their muscles taut, their jaws firm and their weapons ready. One does not have to approve of these new mercenaries to admire them for their courage, their fighting skills and their willingness to risk their lives in a dangerous and deadly world.

SFC Chuck Grist