The Rules Of Contract Based Warfare

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

One of the most common criticisms about private security contractors is that there are insufficient rules governing their actions.

But the truth is, there is and always has been a way to ensure that contractors act the way the client, as in the U.S. government or other private sector firms, wants. And that is to simply write it into the contract.

And now, we have documentary evidence that this is what the U.S. government has been doing. Recently, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, I obtained a section of the Worldwide Personal Protective Services contract that the State Department issued for protection of its personnel and facilities. This is the contract that is split between Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp.

According to a Congressional Budget Office report issued last month, nearly 3,000 security contractors work directly for the State Department in Iraq.

The document, which is just the specifications section of the contract, details what Blackwater is required to do. And, even though numerous pages of the 187-page document were blank, it details numerous requirements. UPI