MILITARY RELYING ON PRIVATE SECTOR

More Firms Are Doing What Soldiers Once Did

As the U.S. military restructures, it is turning to private companies
to perform many functions previously handled by soldiers.

The trend has accelerated over the past decade and reached new levels
with the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Private companies do
everything from running cafeterias to providing security for
diplomatic convoys to flying surveillance missions.

Much of the work is dangerous. On Nov. 2, two U.S. civilian ordnance
experts were killed near Fallujah, Iraq, when a roadside bomb exploded
as their convoy passed. Two others were killed in October under
similar circumstances in the Gaza Strip while guarding an American
diplomatic convoy. When a U.S. surveillance plane run by California
Microwave Systems crashed in February, the American pilot and a
Colombian observer were shot and killed by guerrillas and three other
Americans were taken hostage.

The military has steadily expanded its use of private contractors, said
Peter Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and author of the book
"Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry."
"We have gone from a market of pretty much nil before the Cold War, and now
it has grown to $100 billion in annual revenue," he said. "This year, the
Department of the Army estimates that about a third of its operating budget
is going to private contractors."

Proponents say that contracting out some duties frees military
resources needed for more challenging activities, taps expertise not
readily available in the military and capitalizes on the competitive
innovations of the free market.

"The military is becoming leaner, meaner. It's as cost-effective and
efficient as it has ever been so far," thanks in part to the
privatization trend, said Doug Brooks, president of the International
Peace Operations Association, a Washington-based group representing
private military contractors.

"They contract out the non-military stuff as much as possible. You
don't need a combat infantryman to scrub a toilet," Brooks said.

When it comes to operations requiring experience and technical skills,
private contractors have advantages there too, he said. Setting up a
new surveillance plane program, for example, would be a complex and
expensive endeavor for the military, but less so for a private
company. A military-run program would need a steady commitment of
people, logistical support and security, he said, while a company
could do the same job with less.

Still, critics say the trend has expanded so quickly that government
agencies don't have the resources to monitor performance or correct
problems when they arise. In addition, many privately run activities
are effectively shielded from scrutiny by Congress, the media and
sometimes even the government agencies ostensibly in charge because
they're run by private corporations.

Colombia is a case in point, with billions of U.S. dollars going to
private corporations to aid the Colombian military and reduce drug
production. "You couldn't function in a place like Colombia without
contractors," a State Department official said. "In the State
Department the skill level is not viable. You need contractors. You
can't do it any other way."

But complaints about quality control in U.S. contract programs in
Colombia have erupted on Capitol Hill.

Twenty-two private contractors working in Colombia, half of them
Americans, have been killed since 1998, according to the State
Department. Twelve contractor-operated planes have crashed in the same
period, eight of them this year, including the two U.S. military
surveillance planes that went down in February and March.

The crashes were due to various causes, including ground fire from
guerrillas, mechanical failures and pilot error, State Department
statistics show.

Critics say the number of crashes reflects systemic problems with U.S.
programs. "The operation is not being well coordinated. It's not being
well managed. It's resulting in not only waste of money but loss of
life," said former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., who visited Colombia
last year and said he found management problems with contracted
programs ranging from shortages of spare parts to worker security.

Robert Charles, the assistant secretary overseeing the State
Department's counternarcotics operations, said he is reviewing
complaints about the program in Colombia, but he said some of this
year's crashes were due to increased hostile fire, not internal problems.

"I think anybody who can point out a problem in this (program) should
come forward, or in any other program, and I will work to try to
resolve those issues," he said. "But I have not seen that systemic
issue yet."