By Jim Tankersley
Congress is poised to require the Bush administration to detail its use of private security contractors in Iraq, in the wake of a controversial shooting of Baghdad civilians this month by a private State Department security detail.
The Senate approved an amendment to a Defense Department funding bill last night that would require the administration to disclose the number of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, which companies they represent, how much they cost and how the government will track the number of the contractors killed or injured. The House version of the bill includes similar provisions.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) sponsored the amendment, which mimics a contractor-disclosure bill he introduced in February.
“There are too many unanswered questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq and it’s time for answers,” Obama said in a press release. “The American people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent in Iraq and the role that security contractors are playing.”
Contractors have come under increased scrutiny from lawmakers in Iraq and Washington following the shootings this month by Blackwater USA, which left a reported 11 Iraqis dead and wounded a dozen more. On congressional report Thursday criticized Blackwater for focusing more on cost than safety in a 2004 incident that led to four American deaths.
Obama, who is running for president, has pushed the administration for contractor information throughout the year, and he repeated the call today with a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The letter questioned Rice on several contractor-related incidents in Iraq and raised concerns that they could undermine America is its “war of ideas” in the Middle East.
“This recent incident and other incidents have been widely reported in the Muslim world, with negative implications for U.S. efforts,” Obama wrote. “The result is that not only are the private contractors being blamed, but so is the U.S. government.”
Obama is not alone among Democratic White House hopefuls in sharply criticizing the use of contractors for security functions more traditionally supplied by the U.S. military.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards told a New Hampshire crowd last night that, as president, he would order the contractors out of Iraq and investigate what they had been paid – and for what services.
“Why in the world the United States of America is contracting away the security functions of the country,” Edwards said, “I have no idea.”