Blackwater's Operating License is Revoked

Floor Speech

BLACKWATER'S OPERATING LICENSE IS REVOKED -- (House of Representatives - September 18, 2007)

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the Government of Iraq today took the extraordinary step of revoking the operating license of Blackwater U.S.A. in light of accusations that Blackwater employees killed eight Iraqi civilians. Blackwater is a North Carolina-based firm providing private security forces inside Iraq.

This incident has caused another international uproar about the role of the United States in Iraq. Here at home, it is bringing long overdue attention to the role of the so-called contractors. Some call them mercenaries, as many of them are paid more than five times what our regular forces are paid.

The role of private contractors is an issue about which I have been ringing the alarm bell in this House and in the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee for a long time.

Now the Government of Iraq has been compelled to pull the plug on Blackwater U.S.A. The company claims its employees were acting in self-defense. Many people in Iraq claim the company committed atrocities. Who knows the truth? Who has the authority to investigate? Where is the accountability when it comes to private contractors?

How many such hired guns are operating in Iraq? Some say 25,000. Some say more. How many contractors totally are operating in Iraq? Some have estimated the number at 180,000, which is more than the U.S. military we have based in Iraq.

Here in Washington, Congress and the President are debating the proper troop levels for U.S. forces. But, meanwhile, there seem to be more and more contractors operating in Iraq. Due to the unpopularity of this war, I have little doubt that the Bush-Cheney plan is to replace our military forces with paid mercenaries. This would be the first time in U.S. history that our Nation will act as an occupying force by contracted mercenaries.

Indeed, the contracting out process of the U.S. military started in a small way back in the 1980s when Vice President Cheney was Secretary of Defense. It expanded greatly under the first President Bush, and now it has exploded in this administration.

America, pay attention. Make no mistake: private contractors are also very much the face of the West in the Middle East. They might be accountable only to their bosses and shareholders, but they are Americans in the eyes of Iraqis. Blackwater's eviction from Iraq comes as no surprise to those of us who have followed the now well-established, usually irresponsible use of defense contractors as mercenary forces. In fact, I believe that you cannot win in an engagement through the use of mercenary forces.

Blackwater is not the only defense contracting firm operating irresponsibly in lieu of our well-trained and well-respected military. Unlike our government, the Iraqi Government seems to recognize this.

Today, The New York Times reported that the Iraqi Government said it would review the status of all foreign and local security companies working in Iraq. According to the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, the Iraqi Government has suspended the licenses of two other security companies, but they were reinstated after a review.

[Page: H10499]

Problems with private contractors are not a new phenomenon. In December, a Blackwater employee killed one of the Iraqi Vice President's guards but was never charged under Iraqi or American law because private contractors enjoy immunity, thanks to a law imposed by the United States.

On July 12, 2005, I delivered a floor statement after Iraqis cheered the brutal death of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah. I pointed out that those soldiers of fortune are not bound by the same values of duty and honor like those brave young men and women serving in our regular forces, and those contracted forces are paid astronomically more than our regular forces.

There aren't just problems in theater. There are problems right here in Washington, like the opaque and often unfair process of awarding no-bid contracts. In fact, Blackwater has won over $505 million in publicly identifiable contracts since 2000 and in 2003 was awarded a $21 million no-bid contract to guard the Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Mr. Bremer. Why aren't our regular forces doing that?

I have raised questions before about these contractors and their behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan, but to no avail, in a Congress still not focused on upholding the great traditions of the U.S. military, and that means regular force, not mercenary force, not contracted force.

Mr. Speaker, the private contractors in Iraq all too often are rogue elephants, operating beyond the command and control system of our U.S. military. It is time to restore the time-heralded tradition of regular forces of this U.S. military, committed to duty, honor and country, not bounty.

Source