Fact Sheet: War on Terror and Private Military Contractors
U.S. companies may be fueling human rights violations and operating in a virtually rules-free zone in the "war on terror." Private military and security contractors (PMSCs), many with multi-million dollar government contracts, have been accused of engaging in sexual abuse and torture, and implicated in hundreds of shootings at Iraqi civilians. More than 25 U.S. aviation companies have been linked to "extraordinary renditions," the U.S. government's policy of transferring people secretly and illegally to countries known to practice torture.
As the United States conducts the “war on terror,” the U.S. government is outsourcing key security and military support functions, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, to private companies. Their civilian employees carry out work ranging from logistical support, training military personnel, operating and maintaining weapons systems, rebuilding schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure, to more sensitive roles, such as interrogation and translating during questioning of detained persons.
Torture, Shootings and Abuse
-Allegations have surfaced of U.S. contractor involvement in hundreds of incidents of shootings at Iraqi civilians, as well as torture and abuse of detained persons, including at Abu Ghraib.
-The U.S. Army’s Fay and Taguba reports implicated employees of two companies in the torture committed at Abu Ghraib, CACI International (based in Arlington, VA) and Titan Corp. (acquired by L3 Communications, based in New York). According to the Fay report, 35 percent of contracted interrogators did not have formal training in interrogation policies and techniques.
-Steve Stefanowicz of CACI reportedly directed the use of dogs at Abu Ghraib, ordered that a prisoner not receive his prescription pain killers, made a male prisoner wear women’s underwear, failed to report abuse, and lied to investigators. Daniel Johnson, also employed by CACI, allegedly directed and participated in prisoner abuse and interrogated a prisoner in an “unauthorized stress position,” according to descriptions in the Fay report and allegations in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
-20 known cases of abuse allegedly committed by civilians have been forwarded to the Dept. of Justice by the DoD and CIA inspector General for investigation and prosecution. The alleged abuse includes torture and sexual abuse, and at least four detained persons have died, two each in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the custody of civilian contractors. After one indictment was brought against a contractor in his home state of North Carolina, then-Attorney General Ashcroft directed the remaining 19 cases to the Eastern District of Virginia, where, approximately three years later, not a single indictment has been brought against a contractor.
-In September 2007, employees of Blackwater USA were reported to have killed as many as seventeen Iraqi bystanders in a shooting in Nisour Square, Baghdad. In 2006, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, employees of Blackwater allegedly shot at a taxi, killing the passenger and injuring the driver. The employees were found to have not followed proper procedures according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the shooting and were reported to have been later fired by Blackwater. In December 2006, another Blackwater employee reportedly shot and killed an Iraqi civilian; despite Congressional inquiry, no indictment has yet been brought in that case.
-Former employees of Custer Battles accused their counterparts of firing on innocent civilians and crushing a civilian with a truck. Danubia (formerly Custer Battles) employees reportedly shot and killed Iraqi police without provocation near the Baghdad airport in April 2006.
-Zapata employees allegedly shot indiscriminately at U.S. forces and civilians in efforts to clear roads.
Murky Contracting System
-Only 40 percent of Pentagon contracts were awarded under full and open competition during the period from FY98 through FY03, according to the Center for Public Integrity, which examined contracts totaling $900 billion.
-Of 60 publicly available Iraq contracts that University of Connecticut Law Professor Laura A. Dickinson examined, none required contractors to obey human rights, anticorruption or transparency norms.
-Amnesty International has exposed the U.S.’s “rendition” of people, arrested or abducted and then transferred to countries where they have faced torture and other ill-treatment. The aim of rendition in the "war on terror" has been to facilitate interrogation of suspects outside of the reach of U.S. law.
-Egypt's Prime Minister noted in 2005 that the U.S. had transferred 60-70 detainees to Egypt alone, and a former CIA agent with experience in the region believes that hundreds of detainees have been sent by the U.S. to prisons in the Middle East. The U.S. has acknowledged the capture of about 30 "high value" detainees whose whereabouts remain unknown.
-The rendition network also serves to transfer people into U.S. custody, where they may end up in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, detention centers in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in secret facilities known as "black sites" run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
-The Convention on International Civil Aviation, which has 189 contracting states, establishes a system under which all transit and landing rights for aircraft require the approval of the national governments in or above whose territory they operate. The CIA planes identified to date have been chartered from private companies and do not require specific agreement or authorization to fly over the territory of another state or to use its airports.
