PRIVATE CONTRACTORS STEP IN FOR PENTAGON

NEW YORK With the war on terror already a year old and the possibility of
war against Iraq growing by the day, a modern version of an ancient
practice - one as old as warfare itself - is reasserting itself at the
Pentagon. Mercenaries, as they were once known, are thriving - only this
time they are called private military contractors, and some are even
subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies.

The Pentagon cannot go to war without them. Often run by retired military
officers, including three- and four-star generals, private military
contractors are the new business face of war. Blurring the line between
military and civilian, they provide everything from logistic support to
battlefield training and military advice at home and abroad.

Some are helping to conduct training exercises using live ammunition for
American troops in Kuwait, under the code name Desert Spring. One has just
been hired to guard President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the target of a
recent assassination attempt.

Another is helping to write the book on airport security.

In the darker recesses of the world, private contractors go where the
Pentagon would prefer not to be seen, carrying out military exercises for
the American government, far from Washington's view. In the past few years,
they have sent their employees to Bosnia, Nigeria, Macedonia, Colombia and
other global hot spots.

Motivated as much by profits as politics, these companies - about 35 all
told in the United States - need the government's permission to be in business.

A few are somewhat familiar names, like Kellogg Brown Root, a subsidiary of
Halliburton Co. that operates for the government in Cuba and Central Asia.
Others have less-known names, like DynCorp Inc.; Vinnell, a subsidiary of
TRW Inc.; SAIC; ICI of Oregon; and Logicon Inc., a unit of Northrop Grumman
Corp. One of the best known, MPRI, boasts of having "more generals per
square foot than in the Pentagon." During the Gulf War in 1991, one of
every 50 people on the battlefield was an American civilian under contract;
by the time of the peacekeeping effort in Bosnia in 1996, the figure was
one in 10.

No one knows for sure how big this secretive industry is, but some military
experts estimate the global market at $100 billion.

As for the public companies that own private military contractors, they say
little if anything about them to shareholders. "Contractors are
indispensable," said John Hamre, deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton
administration. "Will there be more in the future?

Yes.." That means even more business, and profits, for contractors who
perform tasks as mundane as maintaining barracks for overseas troops, as
sophisticated as operating weapon systems or as secretive as
intelligence-gathering in Africa. Many function near, or even at, the front
lines, causing concern among military strategists about their safety and
commitment if bullets start to fly.

The use of military contractors raises other troubling questions as well.
In peace, they can act as a secret army outside of public view. In war,
while providing functions crucial to the combat effort, they are not soldiers.

Private contractors are not obligated to take orders or to follow military
codes of conduct.

Their legal obligation is solely to an employment contract, not to their
country.

Private military contractors are flushing out drug traffickers in Colombia
and turning the ragtag militias of African countries into fighting machines.

When a UN arms embargo restricted the U.S. military in the Balkans, private
military contractors were sent instead to train the local forces.

They are not mercenaries in the classic sense.

Most, but not all, private military contractors are unarmed, even when they
oversee others with guns. They have even formed a trade group, the
International Peace Operations Association, to promote industry standards.
"We don't want to risk getting contracts by being called mercenaries," said
Doug Brooks, president of the association. "But we can do things on short
notice and keep our mouths shut."

MPRI, formerly Military Professionals Resources Inc., may provide the best
example of how skilled retired soldiers cash in on their military training.
Its roster includes General Carl Vuono, the former U.S. Army chief of staff
who led the Gulf War and the Panama invasion; General Crosbie Saint, the
former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe; and General Ron Griffith, the
former U.S. Army vice chief of staff.

There are also dozens of retired top-ranked generals, an admiral and more
than 10,000 former military personnel, including elite special forces, on
call and ready for assignment.

"We can have 20 qualified people on the Serbian border within 24 hours,"
said Lieutenant General Harry Soyster, a spokesman for the company and a
former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "The army can't do
that. But contractors can."

For that, MPRI is paid well. Its revenue exceeds $100 million a year,
mainly from Pentagon and State Department contracts.

Retired military personnel working for MPRI receive two to three times
their Pentagon salaries, in addition to their retirement benefits and
corporate benefits like stock options and 401(k) plans.

MPRI's founders became millionaires in 2000, when they and about 35 equity
holders sold the company for $40 million in cash to L-3 Communications
Holdings Inc., a publicly traded military contractor.

"The main reason for using a contractor is that it saves you from having to
use troops, so troops can focus on war fighting," said Colonel Thomas
Sweeney, a professor of strategic logistics at the Army War College in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. "It's cheaper because you only pay for contractors
when you use them."

But David Hackworth, a former army colonel and frequent critic of the
military, said: "These new mercenaries work for the Defense and State
Department, and Congress looks the other way."