Wednesday, July 7, 2010

U.S.: Do Armed Contractors Belong in War Zones? - IPS ipsnews.net

U.S.: Do Armed Contractors Belong in War Zones? - IPS ipsnews.net



WASHINGTON, Jun 16, 2010 (IPS) - Should private contractors like Blackwater be allowed to continue to provide armed security for convoys, diplomatic and other personnel, and military bases and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq? A bipartisan U.S. Congressional commission will spend two days cross-examining 14 witnesses from academia, government and the companies themselves to come up with an answer.

"Some security tasks are so closely tied to government responsibilities, so mission-critical, or so risky that they shouldn't be contracted out at all," says Christopher Shays, a former Republican member of Congress from Connecticut.


Shays is the co-chair of the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), a body created in early 2008 to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in military contracting services in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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