Gates Unhappy With Pentagon Oversight Of Private Contractors In Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress on Wednesday he is unhappy with the Pentagon's oversight of its private contractors in Iraq, saying he's dispatched a fact-finding

Wednesday, September 26th 2007, 2:36 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress on Wednesday he is unhappy with the Pentagon's oversight of its private contractors in Iraq, saying he's dispatched a fact-finding team to investigate problems there.

``My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight,'' he told the Senate Appropriations Committee at a hearing called to discuss the administration's request for additional war funding.

Gates said the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors. The issue, he said, is whether commanders have sufficient ``means and resources'' to exercise adequate oversight.

The Pentagon also disclosed that for several months it has been developing additional guidance for American commanders and other senior defense officials on how the Uniform Code of Military Justice can be used to discipline contractors. Prior to October 2006 the code did not apply to contractors.

There are about 7,300 private security contractors working for the Pentagon in Iraq, of which about 5,000 are guarding fixed sites of importance to the U.S. military or the Iraqi government, according to Pentagon figures. The contractors are immune from Iraqi law, and none has been prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

The total number of Pentagon contractors in Iraq is about 137,000, performing a wide range of duties including food service and maintenance.

In his Senate testimony, Gates raised a separate contractor-related problem for the military.

``My personal concern about some of these security contracts is that I worry that sometimes the salaries they are able to pay in fact lures some of our soldiers out of the service to go to work for them,'' he said.

Gates said he was seeking legal advice on whether a ``non-compete'' clause could be put into security contracts that limits this problem.

Morrell said Gates began asking questions about the military's relationship with its contractors after 11 Iraqis were killed Sept. 16 in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.

The Blackwater employees in that case were working for the State Department.

``He's asked some early questions, he's received some early answers,'' Morrell said. ``Those answers, at least when it comes to the oversight component, have not been satisfactory.''

Morrell would not elaborate on what Gates found unsatisfactory.

``He has some real concerns about oversight of contractors in Iraq and he is looking for ways to sort of make sure we do a better job on that front,'' Morrell told reporters at the Pentagon.

As a result, Gates sent a five-person team to Iraq on Sunday to ``talk to all the key players,'' including Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno _ the top two U.S. commanders there _ and obtain additional details for Gates by the end of this week, the press secretary said.

Also, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England issued a memorandum to commanders on Tuesday spelling out what authority they already have to ensure that private contractors comply with U.S. rules, Morrell said.

The memo tells the commanders that they have the authority to ensure that all security contractors are authorized and trained to carry weapons and that none has unauthorized weapons or ammunition, he added.

The memo alluded to the Sept. 15 Blackwater incident without mentioning the contractor by name and said that the shooting of civilians ``identified a need to better ensure'' that Pentagon policies are being followed by its contractors.

England also told commanders to ensure that contractors have been informed that any contracting personnel who are suspected of having committed a felony act or of having violated U.S. military rules on the use of force will not be allowed to leave Iraq unless the commander first approves of it.

Critics have cautioned for years that the Pentagon was counting too heavily on private security contractors.

``Many outsiders have predicted since the war began that the reliance on contractors _ especially security contractors _ was going to eventually produce problems, and now it has,'' said Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute, a think tank.

``The nature of the war does not encourage anybody to pay close attention to what local laws require,'' he added. ``When you're in an environment where the Shiite militias and the Sunni insurgents are paying no attention at all to the law, there's always a rationalization for American forces ignoring it, too, and that's doubly true in the case of private contractors.''