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Contractor Deaths in Iraq Soar
to Record
JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES RISEN
NY
Times
Saturday May 19, 2007
Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record
levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007
into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside
the American military in the war zone, according to new government
numbers.
At least 146 contract workers were killed in Iraq in the first
three months of the year, by far the highest number for any quarter
since the war began in March 2003, according to the Labor Department,
which processes death and injury claims for those working as United
States government contractors in Iraq.
That brings the total number of contractors killed in Iraq to at
least 917, along with more than 12,000 wounded in battle or injured
on the job, according to government figures and dozens of interviews.
The numbers, which have not been previously reported, disclose
the extent to which contractors — Americans, Iraqis and workers
from more than three dozen other countries — are largely hidden
casualties of the war, and now are facing increased risks alongside
American soldiers and marines as President Bush’s plan to
increase troop levels in Baghdad takes hold.
As troops patrol more aggressively in and around the capital, both
soldiers and the contractors who support them, often at small outposts,
are at greater peril. The contractor deaths earlier this year, for
example, came closer to the number of American military deaths during
the same period — 244 — than during any other quarter
since the war began, according to official figures.
“The insurgents are going after the softest targets, and
the contractors are softer targets than the military,” said
Lawrence J. Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense for manpower
during the Reagan administration. “The U.S. is being more
aggressive over there, and these contractor deaths go right along
with it.”
Truck drivers and translators account for a significant share of
the casualties, but the recent death toll includes others who make
up what amounts to a private army.
Among them were four American security guards who died in a helicopter
crash in January, 28 Turkish construction workers whose plane crashed
north of Baghdad the same month, a Massachusetts man who was blown
up as he dismantled munitions for an American company in March and
a Georgia woman killed in a missile attack in March while working
as a coordinator for KBR, the contracting company.
Donald E. Tolfree Jr., a trucker from Michigan, was fatally shot
in the cab of his vehicle while returning to Camp Anaconda, north
of Baghdad, in early February. His daughter, Kristen Martin, 23,
said Army officials told her he was shot by an American military
guard confused about her father’s assignment. The Army confirms
the death is under investigation as a possible friendly-fire episode.
Ms. Martin said she waited three weeks for her father’s body
to be returned home, and expressed resentment that dead contractors
were treated differently from soldiers who fall in battle.
“If anything happens to the military people, you hear about
it right away,” she said in a telephone interview. “Flags
get lowered, they get their respect. You don’t hear anything
about the contractors.”
Military officials in Washington and Baghdad said that no Pentagon
office tracked contractor casualties and that they had no way to
confirm or explain the sharp rise in deaths this year.
Army Lt. Col. Joseph M. Yoswa, a spokesman for the military in
Iraq, said in an e-mail statement, “the responsibilities for
tracking deaths, injuries, locations and any other essential requirements
lie with the contractor. Unless there is something specifically
stated in the contract about accounting for personnel, there is
no requirement for U.S. government to track these numbers.”
Companies that have lost workers in Iraq were generally unresponsive
to questions about the numbers of deaths and the circumstances that
led to casualties. None acknowledged that they had seen an increase
this year.
But a spokesman for American International Group, the insurance
company that covers about 80 percent of the contractor work force
in Iraq, said it had seen a sharp increase in death and injury claims
in recent months. The Labor Department records show that in addition
to the 146 dead in the first three months this year, another 3,430
contractors filed claims for wounds or injuries suffered in Iraq,
also a quarterly record. The number of casualties, though, may be
much higher because the government’s statistical database
is not complete.
The Labor numbers were provided in response to a Freedom of Information
Act request from The New York Times. Other figures came from a variety
of government agencies, private contractors and insurers handling
casualty claims.
American military casualties in Iraq have mounted to almost 3,400
dead. The new contractor statistics suggest that for every four
American soldiers or marines who die in Iraq, a contractor is killed.
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who pushed for the
buildup of military forces in Iraq, said the contractor casualties
were a symptom of a larger failure to send enough troops earlier
to provide security throughout Iraq.
“We’re now putting these people in danger that I never
thought they’d be under because we cannot secure the country,”
he said.
Other lawmakers also expressed concern about the numbers. Representative
John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is chairman of the
defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said
that he was shocked at the extent of casualties among contractors
and that he planned to hold hearings this fall on the use of private
workers in Iraq.
Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, has introduced
legislation to force the government to release detailed records
on the use of contractors in Iraq and the names and job descriptions
of all those killed and injured, information that is virtually impossible
to get right now. The military releases names and biographical information
about its wartime casualties, but businesses are not required to
provide such information, and the Labor Department refuses to do
so, citing privacy laws.
“By keeping the knowledge of this force hidden, it changes
one’s perception and one’s evaluation of the war,”
Ms. Schakowsky said. “There are almost a thousand dead and
a large number of injuries. I think it masks the fact that we are
privatizing the military in this country.”
Contract workers say that as the tempo of military operations has
increased in recent months, so have the attacks on contractors.
Convoys of trucks operated by companies are often not as well armored
or protected as military units, they say.
A top security industry official said he was told recently by American
military and contracting officials that 50 to 60 percent of all
truck convoys in Iraq were coming under attack. Previously, he said,
only about 10 percent had been hit.
“There is a definite spike in convoy attacks,” said
the official, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because
the information was confidential. Gordon Dreher, 48, who drove a
fuel truck supplying American troops in Iraq, said he and other
drivers faced almost constant attacks from insurgents.
“I’ve been shot at, had my truck blown out from under
me, had an I.E.D. hit about six feet away from me, and lost part
of my hearing,” he said, referring to an improvised explosive
device. “I’m used to getting shot at now, having tracer
rounds hit off my truck. I got ambushed twice on one convoy run.”
Mr. Dreher broke his back in January from driving fast on rough
roads, and is back home in Brick, N.J., awaiting surgery. “When
they do a surge, they need more fuel for choppers and tanks,”
he said. “My buddies who are still there tell me that they
have been getting spanked pretty good lately.”
Mark Griffin, a 53-year-old truck driver from Georgia who left
Iraq last November, said even then attacks were accelerating. “It
got progressively worse pretty much every month I was there.”
He worked for KBR driving trucks in Anbar Province to supply Marine
bases with ammunition, water and other essentials. He said that
by late 2006 truck drivers and their Marine convoy escorts were
finding 20 to 30 roadside bombs on each convoy trip through Anbar,
the restive Sunni heartland. “The number of I.E.D.’s
got worse, and the size and damage got worse, progressively, over
time,” he said.
Labor Department statistics show that deaths and injuries among
contractors have risen during times of heightened American military
activity. For example, the number of contractors killed from January
through March tops the previous quarterly record of 112 killed at
the end of 2004, during the American military offensive in Falluja
and related operations nearby.
The worsening casualty trends appear to be continuing into the
second quarter of this year, as insurgents launch a wave of mortar
and rocket attacks on Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified
government center. Earlier this month, for example, two Indians,
a Filipino and a Nepalese working for the American Embassy in Baghdad
were killed by rocket fire in the Green Zone.
Nearly 300 companies from the United States and around the world
supply workers who are a shadow force in Iraq almost as large as
the uniformed military. About 126,000 men and women working for
contractors serve alongside about 150,000 American troops, the Pentagon
has reported. Never before has the United States gone to war with
so many civilians on the battlefield doing jobs — armed guards,
military trainers, translators, interrogators, cooks and maintenance
workers — once done only by those in uniform.
In the Persian Gulf war of 1991, for example, only 9,200 contractors
— mostly operating advanced weapons systems — served
alongside 540,000 military personnel. But at the end of the cold
war, Congress and the Pentagon were eager to seize on the so-called
peace dividend and drastically scale back the standing Army. The
Bush administration expanded the outsourcing strategy to unprecedented
levels after the invasion of Iraq.
Many contractors in the battle zone say they lack the basic security
measures afforded uniformed troops and receive benefits that not
only differ from those provided to troops, but also vary by employer.
Weekly pay ranges from $60 for Iraqi translators and laborers to
$1,800 for truck drivers to as much as $6,000 for private security
guards employed by companies like Blackwater. Medical and insurance
benefits also vary widely, from excellent to minimal.
Conditions in Iraq are harsh, and many civilians who arrive there,
drawn by patriotism, a sense of adventure or the lure of money,
are overwhelmed by the environment. If they raise questions about
the 12-hour workdays, the lack of armor plating on trucks or the
periodic shelling of bases, supervisors often tell them to pack
up and go home.
Cynthia I. Morgan, a Tennessee trucker who spent more than a year
in Iraq as a convoy commander, said that the common answer from
her bosses to such complaints was, “Aisle or window, chicken
or pasta” — meaning “Get on the next plane out
of here.”
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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