After the recent revelations about all those military contractors working in Iraq and inside the CIA, maybe it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that Pentagon's office for beating improvised bombs is packed with outsiders-for-hire. More than half of the people working for the Defense Department's Joint IED Defeat Organization -- 266 of 455 -- are contractors, according to documents obtained by DANGER ROOM. Of those outsiders, the vast majority (233), work at JIEDDO headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia. I'm even told -- and this is unconfirmed, so take it with a large, large heap of salt -- that JIEDDO's chief, retired General Montgommery Meigs, is himself an independent contractor. (Sorta. He's an "IPA," an Intergovernmental Personnel Act worker. Which means he is outsider, "assigned to a Federal position... exercis[ing] supervision over Federal employees." It basically makes him a Federal employee, as well.)
It's also interesting to see where all of these bomb-battlers are working: just 34 in the field, the rest back in the States.
ALSO:
* Danger, PBS!
* "IED Defeat" Group: How Effective?
* Blimps, Bots, Beams Enlisted for IED Fight
* Bomb-Fighters Defend Progress
* Bombs Still Vex "IED Defeat" Group
* Cash Crunch for Pentagon Bomb Squad
* IED Fight = "McNamara Line"?
* Pentagon Bomb Squad Under Fire
* Pentagon Bomb Squad a Dud?
