Iraq Security Pact 'Throws Contractors Under the Bus'

Iraq's parliament on Thursday signed off on a Status of Forces Agreement that paves the way for withdrawal of U.S. forces within three years. The pact -- which has been in negotiation for nearly a year -- provides legal cover to U.S. troops stationed in the country after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

But here's the interesting part: the agreement also makes thousands of U.S. contractors subject to Iraqi law. According to the final version of the text, Iraq will have the "primary right to exercise jurisdiction over United States contractors" and their employees.

So much for the "get out of jail free card" for contractors. Doug Brooks, the front man for the private security industry, is not happy. "This agreement throws the DoD [Department of Defense] contractors under the bus,'' he told Bloomberg.

Brooks, however, is not the only one who has flagged the issue.
Earlier this summer, Rep. Ike Skelton, the chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, is worried about the same thing. "Security contractors protect many facilities where US military forces are stationed and have protected convoys carrying supplies on which US military forces depend," he wrote in a letter to President Bush. "Have the private security contractors been consulted about restrictions that could be placed on their operations?"

Has the Department of
Defense studied what measures would have to be taken, and how many personnel would be required, to replace the security contractors if they no longer were willing or able to operate in Iraq? If the security contractors were willing to continue to operate in Iraq, will there be some sort of risk premium and what would the cost be?

I'll be curious to see what happens on January 1st. As we noted here earlier, demand for contractors may go up, not down, as U.S. forces draw down in Iraq.

The final version of the security pact is worth a read. The agreement reasserts Iraqi control over airspace; hands control of the Green Zone to the Iraqi government; and requires; all U.S. forces are to withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities by mid-2009. It also indicates that U.S. troops will need a warrant to search Iraqi homes, with some exceptions:

United States forces may not search houses or other real estate properties except by order of an Iraqi judicial warrant and in full coordination with the government of Iraq, except in the case of actual combat operations conducted pursuant to Article 4.

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