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Iraq and Civilian Contractors: Discussion

Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 02:47:00 PM EST

Susie Dow: Iraq, Contingency Contracting and the Defense Base Act

Mercs. Soldiers of Fortune. Hired Guns. Private Contractors. All terms generally connote the expanding use of "private security firms" in places like Iraq, and usually bring to mind the bold, brash, sometimes cruel image of ruthless soldiers who take up arms for the highest bidder. But not all Iraq contractors are soldiers, and not all soldiers engaged with private security firms are ruthless.

Often forgotten are those civilian contractors who take jobs risking life and limb in order support the tactical, operational and relief operations necessary during and after a military campaign.

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

Civilian contractors take huge risks, often gambling life and limb to perform critical functions in times of strife. Sometimes, they make the ultimate sacrifice, and the dire situations that their families find themselves in are not altogether unlike those that the families of our soldiers confront: lost in the system, shunned by others for the work their loved ones are doing and unable to qualify for the aid and care that is supposedly there for them.

In Part I. Iraq, Contingency Contracting and the Defense Base Act, Susie Dow explores how the lack of adequate insurance coverage impacts families suffering from the deaths or indeterminate status of missing family members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan as civilian contractors.

In Part II: DBA Clauses Missing In Action, Dow concentrates on how the appropriate Defense Base Act contract clauses that could have made a difference went “missing in action.”

Part III. Contractors in Iraq: Insurance focuses on the Defense Department's (unlike its counterparts in the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)) inability to provide information, training and access to low cost coverage.

Check it out, and help expand our awareness of the plight of these oft-forgotten families.

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Iraq and Civilian Contractors: Discussion | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden)

Susie ... (5.00 / 4) (#1)

thank you so much for bringing us this story.

by roxy317 on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 12:26:25 PM EST

Susie (5.00 / 5) (#2)

You are certainly our resident expert on the contractors. Excellent work and focus!

by standingup on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:31:54 PM EST

Susie -- love the story. :) (5.00 / 4) (#3)

Nicely done.

by GreyHawk on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 12:26:43 AM EST

Good stuff, Suzie. Keep it coming. nt (5.00 / 5) (#4)

by Jeff Huber on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 05:08:11 PM EST

Thank you (5.00 / 4) (#5)

I know insurance for contractors isn't a very glamorous topic. But so much of the military today is supported by contractors that the shifting responsibility of insurance coverage looks like a very large hole.

by susie dow on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 07:07:49 PM EST

: Susie... (5.00 / 4) (#6)

To me, your stories have all been enlightening. In some ways, it's another way that this Administration (or at the very least, the Rumsfeld Pentagon) does not value the individual. The military gets the short end... but so the contractors who are without insurance, without VA benefits and so forth.

There are parallels here to what is happening to military women, who though they aren't supposedly in combat situations, but the nature of asymetrical warfare or insurgency or whatever one wants to call in, in the thick of things and the danger.
Keep writing these, keep telling us about what is really happening, and please please continue your amazing work keeping the real numbers of personnel in the mideast out there and in front of us.

by Cho on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 07:12:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The odds for contractors (5.00 / 3) (#7)

FWIW, even in "noncombat" types of positions, contractors are facing an incredibly high degree of risk:

He was one of the 35 members of the first catering team at Camp Corregidor in Ramadi two years ago. Nearly a third have been wounded in rocket or mortar attacks, said Chacka's boss, Masih Uzzaman, who also works on the base.

by silence on Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 04:20:27 PM EST

FOIA Statistics (5.00 / 2) (#8)

epluribus Media filed the first of several FOIA to the Dept of Labor for additional information on contractor deaths, kidnappings, and injuries back in July 2006. One of our requests was for the actual number of claims that have been denied. We have yet to hear a response.

by susie dow on Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 06:47:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

: Sounds like the normal response (5.00 / 2) (#9)

My impression is that you need to at least make noises about a lawsuit in order to get anything out of the Bush administration.

by silence on Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 07:04:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

916 contractor deaths (none / 0) (#10)

On May 10, 2007 Joseph T. McDermott, Assistant Inspector General for Audits, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, provided a statement to the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. On page 1 of the PDF text of statement: