U.S. Congress Seeking More Information on Contractors in Iraq

May 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Congress may force the Pentagon to disclose the roles of civilian contractors and private security firms in Iraq after allegations that Titan Corp. and CACI International Inc. were involved in abuse of prisoners.

A U.S. defense spending bill passed yesterday by the House would require Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to issue guidance on the management of contractors within 90 days. Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut say they may propose legislation to prohibit contractors from being involved in prisoner interrogations.

``We will see legislation that gets support from both sides of the aisle to get increased Congressional oversight,'' said David Baker, managing director of Washington-based Schwab Soundview Capital Markets' Washington Research Group.

More private contractors are working in Iraq than in any war in U.S. history. Rumsfeld is relying on civilian companies to provide about a quarter of U.S. personnel in the region. There are 50,000 contractor employees in Iraq and Kuwait, including 20,000 working for 60 private security firms, according to data compiled for U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers.

Security Companies

The private security companies, which employ U.S. citizens, Iraqis and third-country nationals, include London-based Armor Group; San Francisco-based Bechtel Group Inc.; Moycock, North Carolina-based Blackwater; McLean, Virginia-based Custer Battles LLC; New York-based Kroll Inc., and Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg Brown & Root unit.

An investigation by U.S. Army Brigadier General Antonio Taguba linked CACI and Titan employees to abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Photos of smiling U.S. soldiers posing with naked, bound prisoners have sparked outrage in Congress and worldwide, and helped fuel Iraqi opposition to the U.S. occupation.

Both companies have said their employees weren't involved in wrongdoing. Spokesmen for San Diego-based Titan, which provides translation services, and Arlington, Virginia-based CACI, which provides interrogators, declined to comment.

Schumer, a Judiciary Committee member, said he is considering legislation to limit the role of contractors in military situations. The legislation would ban contractors from certain tasks, ``certainly'' from interrogations and dealing with prisoners, he said.

`Last Resort'

``Private contractors should be the last resort, not the first,'' he said.

Dodd, a Foreign Relations Committee member, is drafting an amendment to the 2005 defense authorization bill that would limit the uses of private contractors. A Senate aide said the amendment will likely bar, for at least some time, using contractors in interrogations or from dealing with prisoners.

Prohibiting the use of contractors in interrogations may not be possible because of a shortage of Arabic speakers, said James Dunnigan, editor of StrategyPage.com, an online newsletter on military affairs and intelligence.

``The U.S. military is not equipped for this sort of thing,'' Dunnigan said. ``The only extensive source of Arabic speakers is the 5th Special Operations Group, who don't work for Military Intelligence.''

The extent of the use of contractors for security and interrogation is ``of great concern,'' and there are important questions about chain-of-command problems associated with non- military personnel being involved in military operations, said Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

``Without question, there are certain services that the military must contract out to private vendors,'' Nelson said in an e-mailed statement. ``We should learn more about what the military is contracting out and to whom before we take action.''

Military Oversight

In addition to allegations about specific contract employees, Taguba raised concerns about military oversight of civilian contractors in his report on the investigation.

``U.S. civilian contract personnel, third country nationals and local contractors do not appear to be properly supervised,'' Taguba wrote. ``During our on-site inspection, they wandered about with too much unsupervised free access in the detainee area.''

The House version of the bill for the 2005 defense budget would require Rumsfeld within 30 days to implement a process for collection information on contractors providing security services in Iraq. He would have 90 days to issue rules on managing contractors. The Senate bill, which has been passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, also requires the Defense Department to supply information on contractors.

`Constitutional Duty'

``Oversight is our constitutional duty,'' Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said in debate on the floor of the House on May 19. ``We owe it to the Iraqi people, to the American people, and to our troops.''

Congress also may consider subjecting contractors to the military code of justice, said Brett Lambert, executive vice president of Washington-based consultants DFI International.

Additional laws may be needed to make civilian contractors legally responsible in the U.S. for criminal acts overseas, DFI's Lambert said. Relying on private companies also may disrupt supply lines. They can't be ordered, as a military unit can be, to take risks to complete missions such as delivering food or fuel, creating new vulnerabilities for U.S. troops.

`Massive Oversight'

Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who sits on the Armed Services Committee, also has said more information on contractors in Iraq is needed.

Some members of Congress say additional scrutiny of contractors isn't necessary.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, said the implication that there's no oversight is ``false.''

``There's massive oversight,'' Hunter said on the House floor.

Northrop Grumman Corp., whose Vinnell Corp. unit has a contract to train Iraq's army, already works closely with the U.S. Army, said company spokeswoman Janis Lamar. She declined to provide the total number of Northrop contractors there.

``We have a very high level of oversight right now,'' Lamar said in a telephone interview.

If Congress does tighten regulations, the company will ``wait to see what the requirements are and then comply,'' Lamar said. The training contract expires June 30.

Revolutionary War

Civilian contractors have accompanied U.S. forces since the American Revolution, when so-called ``sutlers'' sold shoes and other wares to forces at Valley Forge, Peter Singer, a National Security Fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an April 15 article titled ``Warriors for Hire in Iraq.''

The U.S. plans to keep at least 138,000 troops in Iraq through 2005. The current conflict marks the largest use of civilians by the U.S., he said.

``The Iraq War is where the history books will note that the industry took full flight,'' Singer wrote. ``Iraq is not just the biggest U.S. military commitment in a generation but also the biggest marketplace in the short history of privatized military industry.''

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