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Gates sends team to probe security firms

Protesters gather behind US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, right, at the start of a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. The committee was hearing testimony on US President George W. Bush's supplemental request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. PHOTO: AFP

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Wednesday raised concerns about oversight of private security contractors in Iraq and sent a team to confer with US commanders after an incident that left 10 Iraqis dead.

"My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight in the region over the activities of these security companies, and that is the main thing that our team is looking into out there," Gates said.

"What is required is to give our commanders the means and the resources that they need to exercise adequate oversight," he told a Senate committee.

The issue has come to a head in the wake of an incident earlier this month in which guards working for Blackwater USA killed 10 people while protecting a US State Department convoy in Baghdad.

Iraq has threatened to try the Blackwater guards under Iraqi law and is preparing legislation to bring supervision of private contractors under its control.

Gates said he has sent a five-person team to Iraq to meet with top US commanders and delve into the matter more deeply.

His deputy, Gordon England, sent a memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and US commanders setting forth their authorities over private security contractors hired by the Defense Department, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Blackwater and its 850 security guards in Baghdad worked for the State Department, but the Pentagon has another 7,300 private security personnel from other firms on its payroll in Iraq.

No private security contractor working for the Pentagon in Iraq has been prosecuted for use-of-force incidents even though they are subject to US military and civil law, defense officials say.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the Justice Department is investigating the actions of one Blackwater employee, who is alleged to have shot and killed a bodyguard of an Iraqi vice president in a separate incident.

But he acknowledged that no private security contractors employed by the State Department have been prosecuted. He denied reports that the State Department is blocking an investigation into the latest Blackwater case.

Senator Richard Durbin called for a congressional investigation into the use of contractors: "It is time for us to lift the lid and look inside ... I think there are some terrible things that have occurred next to some very honorable and courageous things that have occurred in the conduct of these security contractors."

Gates said the Pentagon and commanders on the ground set rules for the use of force by its contractors. Contractors working for the State Department have a separate set of rules for the use of force, Negroponte said.

Gates said Pentagon rules only allows security contractors to use force in "defensive operations."

"The principal difference between rules of engagement for our forces and rules of force by these contractors is ... the fact that they are not allowed to engage in offensive operations," he said.
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