Iraq Government Takes the Day Off

Only 115 out of 275 parliamentarians appeared for the session. Meanwhile, a committee formed by the United Iraqi Alliance has failed to lure parliamentarians loyal to Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr back to work, Al-Sharqiyah television reported on September 18. The news channel also reported that "some members" of the so-called moderates' front in the parliament asked two members of the Iraqis List to leave the list and join the front in exchange for government posts and other privileges.

The Iraqi government appears to be backing down from an earlier pledge to revoke the operating license of the largest private foreign security contractor in the country, Blackwater USA.

The [Sunday] deaths again turn the spotlight on the extensive use of private security contractors by US government agencies in Iraq. Blackwater is the largest private security firm involved in the conflict, with an estimated 1,000 personnel on the ground, and has benefited from at least US$750 million in US State Department contracts since mid-2004 according to the UK daily The Guardian. Many contracts have allegedly been secured without a tendering process.

The current use of private security contractors in Iraq is unprecedented in scale for a US overseas entanglement, with security companies employing around 48,000 personnel. Most work on limited rotations cycling in and out of the country with the expiry of contracted agreements. The same is true in Afghanistan.

The unprecedented reliance on the services of private security contractors was underlined Tuesday with the US decision to suspend all overland travel by its diplomats and related civilian workers beyond the confines of the Baghdad Green Zone.