A Bloody Business Read online

  A BLOODY

  BUSINESS

  America’s War Zone

  Contractors and the

  Occupation of Iraq

  Colonel Gerald Schumacher

  United States Army Special Forces (ret.)

  Dedication

  To the memory of Wolf Weiss, the Consummate Warrior,

  and to all the men and women who do not wear a uniform yet

  go into harm’s way to serve our country.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  1 The Growth of War Zone Contractors

  2 Five Criticisms of Private Military Contracting

  3 Becoming a Contractor

  4 A Drive through the War Zone

  5 Trucking Contractors

  I. An Overview

  II. The Mail Run

  III. Flaming Wheels

  IV. Malfunction Junction

  6 Training Contractors

  I. An Overview

  II. God’s Will

  III. Iraqi Boot Camp

  IV. Team Viper

  7 Security Contractors

  I. An Overview

  II. The Fog of War

  III. The Knife Fighter

  IV. The Ransom

  V Bomb Dogs

  VI. The Welcome Committee

  Postscript

  Appendix: Security and Training Companies in Iraq

  Index

  Acknowledgments

  One would think that civilians who have taken jobs to work in Iraq would be anxious and open to discussing their experiences. They are anxious but most are not open. Although many want to express themselves, the media has not been kind to these men and women or the firms they work for. They are warned by their employers to stay far away from the press, and they are often restricted by their contracts. Many are afraid of losing their jobs if they tell their story without their employer’s approval. A number of contracting firms refused to cooperate in the making of this book without screening the stories, which was out of the question. The filter of “official” involvement would have compromised the stories. These are not official accounts; they are reality.

  Two companies stepped up to the plate without imposing any restrictions or conditions and without any threats or guidance to restrict their employees’ voices: MPRI and Crescent Security. They did not ask for editorial review nor did they stage any dog-and-pony shows. They were accommodating, candid, and honest. Their employees were permitted to speak freely. I sincerely appreciate their help and respect the risks they took. Thank you Rick Kiernan, director of media relations for MPRI. Rick paved the way for this book by opening MPRI’s doors and coordinating my trip to facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, which then led to subsequent contacts in those countries.

  A big thanks to Larry Word, the retired army colonel who runs Team Viper at MPRI’s training base along the Kuwait-Iraq border. After spending several days with his team, and without any advance notice, I interrupted a formal meeting and informed Larry that I was headed north into Iraq with another contracting firm. I recall him looking at me with great concern. Then he looked around the room and said, “Gentlemen, I think this is a good time for a break.” He turned to one of his men and ordered, “Get this man some gear for his trip.” Next thing I knew I was being loaded up with body armor, helmets, and other equipment that would help keep me alive. This was one of those moments in which an American just does something for you because you are a fellow American.

  I owe a special debt of gratitude to Renee Taylor, the wife of a KBR contract truck driver. Renee spent countless hours researching information, getting me in touch with other drivers, and reviewing stories for accuracy. Her limitless and energetic support of her husband, Mark, truckers in Iraq, and their families is a tribute to her selfless character. Thank you, Renee. Thank you very much.

  Many thanks to Mrs. Sheila Powell, whose husband, Steve, was a diesel mechanic in Iraq. Throughout the course of writing this book, Sheila sent me articles, stories, contacts, and information about contractors and their experiences. Her undying love, respect, and support of Steve was reflected in everything she did. He’s a lucky man.

  To Franco Pecco, the owner of Crescent Security, and his director of security, Scott Schneider, I extend my heartfelt appreciation. Not only did Franco and Scott let me bunk with them and allow their people to talk with me freely, Scott took me along, riding shotgun on the roads in Iraq. Scott went through great lengths to make sure that I saw whatever I wanted to see and that I lived to write about it. They never rested until we were safely back inside the wire at some military base or crossed the border into Kuwait. They are a tireless and professional crew, and I would not hesitate to trust my life to them. Thank you.

  Two very important people who warrant special recognition are Jake Guevarra and Charles Rudolph, U.S. security contractors in Iraq. Thank you for all your help in putting together the details of your moments of terror and exhilaration. Your honest and humble insights show the truly human nature of facing inner demons and struggling with the prospect of impending death. Your contributions to this book were enormous.

  I offer my appreciation to Ken McDonald, Mark Taylor, and Jeff Dye, Iron Pony Express truck drivers who contributed much to this book. For the townspeople of Paris, Illinois, who turned their little community upside down to welcome home their “kids,” you represent the finest traditions of the American people. And to the families from Paris, Illinois, whose sons and daughters paid the ultimate sacrifice, the United States is forever indebted to you.

  Prior to leaving for Iraq, Roy Hamilton opened his home and marksmanship facilities to me in Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Roy was kind enough to provide loads of ammo and an assortment of weapons to practice with. As it turned out, this stop en route to the Middle East proved to be far more valuable than I would have predicted. I really appreciate the opportunity to have the rust shaken out of my spokes.

  Thanks much to Hans Halberstadt, the author of numerous military special operations books, who got me started in this whole business of writing. Time and again, Hans was there as a considerate friend through countless episodes when I pestered him about this endeavor. Thanks to Ben Parsons, my friend and business associate, who I force to read everything I write and always accommodates me with a smile and a pointed, educated review. My acknowledgments to Steve Gansen, my editor, who took such a deep personal interest in making this book come together. Steve, you contributed much, and I sincerely appreciate all your effort and concern.

  I’d like to proffer a deep and very personal thanks to my mother, Grace Hendrickson, who, many years ago, nudged me into creating and editing my eighth-grade newspaper, The Magpie, at Saint Margaret’s School in Chicago. Your intellectual acumen and your voracious appetite for literary works have been an inspiration and source of strength throughout my life. Thank you to my wife, Deb, my son Kevin, our friend Tosca, and my daughters Tamara and Ashley, who read or listened to the many drafts and lent your opinions, as different as they may be. I appreciate the fact that you never cut me any slack. You are truly an acid test, and I wouldn’t trade a one of you.

  Introduction

  Many Americans believe that war should be the exclusive purview of soldiers. This thinking ignores the realities of insurgent warfare, the requirements of nation building, the complexities of battlefield technologies, and the willingness of volunteers to join a downsized military in the absence of a national draft. Some people might be surprised to know just how many civilian contractors are out there working in the shadows, performing high-risk jobs in training, equipping, and developing foreign troops, and who are influencing battle plans in dozens of countries throughout the world.

  Since the first Gulf war in 1
991, the proportion of private forces to military personnel has more than quadrupled, and today the number of private contractors employed by the Pentagon is more than seven hundred thousand by some estimates. The soldier of fortune has taken on an entirely new dimension in the modern war zone. When the political environment is not conducive to the deployment of U.S. forces, our government hires civilians to execute its foreign policy. This makes them more than a surrogate army in indirect support of U.S. combat operations; they are a virtual surrogate government.

  Historically they have been called mercenaries, an unsavory term in today’s war zone contracting community, and mostly inaccurate. However, mercenaries do still exist, conducting morally and legally questionable combat operations, assassinations, and personnel recovery outside the scope of U.S. military authority and unaccountable to the U.S. government. Few, if any, Department of Defense contractors would be party to mercenary operations (or admit to it if they were).

  In the purest sense, the term mercenary applies to those who are employed to kill others for money. But with a few notable exceptions, not many modern contractors fit this Wild West “hired-gun” stereotype. The complexity of the myriad job requirements on the modern battlefield dictates the direct involvement of tens of thousands of highly skilled civilians. Today they are sought from nearly every occupation imaginable. But any historical discussion of war zone contracting must begin with its mercenary origins. Mercenaries have been employed by tribes, communities, and governments around the world since the beginning of humankind as a quick and dirty way to build an army. The Carthaginians, for example, employed a foreign force of chiefly Libyan mercenaries against a Roman army of landowning patriots during the Punic Wars. The concept really came into vogue during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Encouraged by money, a significant number of men emerged who had no qualms about fighting for the highest bidder.

  The popularity of mercenaries decreased as nation-states promoted the idea of patriotic duty. Developing nations fostered the romantic notion that fighting for one’s country was an honorable thing to do, and that foreigners with no attachment to the soil or history of a land for which they were fighting could not be depended on for their loyalty. Mercenaries fell into disfavor, but for many of the same practical reasons they are still in use today, and have never disappeared.

  Many of today’s private contractors, like the mercenaries of old, are driven by money into war zone employment. Contracting to accomplish vital missions and jobs in war-torn countries is big business. Jobs once restricted to the Defense and State Departments are now replicated by civilian agencies contracting their services to the U.S. government. In many cases, their services offer critical skills that could not be readily procured from within our military and government personnel pool. In other cases, their services provide the United States with the ability to publicly distance itself from an otherwise unsupportable commitment of U.S. forces.

  While the economics cannot be discounted, most contractors will insist that patriotism also ranks high on their list of motivations. That today’s nation-states are any less motivated by economics than individual contractors is hard to dispute. Simply put, it is cheaper to pay big money for temporary help than it is to maintain a large standing military. Another factor influencing the use of civilian contractors is the growth of non-nation-states, insurgencies, and terrorism. Religious, cultural, tribal, and ethnic combatants—and especially terrorists without national affiliations—are confronting conventional armies with unconventional tactics. For them, it is less about winning than it is a waiting game, a test of wills to see who can hold out the longest. In addition to creating general mayhem and disorder through kidnappings, beheadings, car bombs, gun battles, and assassinations, these unconventional forces make maximum use of technology, including computers, the Internet, encryption equipment, and the media, both to terrorize civilians and to recruit more jihadists to their cause.

  Private contractors have skill sets uniquely suited to provide military support services in an unconventional environment, skills you won’t find at the local army firing range. They are able to provide a wide range of basic and sophisticated services that support both U.S. military and political objectives.

  Construction contractors provide infrastructure services like basic subsistence, housing, utilities, and industrial rehabilitation. Trucking contractors keep supplies moving to the soldiers and the construction sites. Training contractors provide small-unit combat training, law enforcement training, and battle-staff training for mid-level military officers. Technical assistance contractors keep communications networks, radar sites, tanks, and aircraft functioning. Security contractors provide the first level of safety to all the rest of the contractors. And, of course, there is that unsavory kind of contractor, that rare object of much controversy and fascination that we discussed earlier—the mercenary.

  Private military contractors (PMCs), such as Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and Blackwater USA, annually book millions of dollars in government contracts and would not be inclined to accept any assignments that were in contravention to U.S. foreign policy. Such rogue behavior could jeopardize their future contracts. If they are involved, it’s a sure bet that our government is directly or indirectly supporting their activity. That is not to say that we would always know that they were involved. These are highly professional organizations.

  Contractors are fast, reliable, skilled, efficient, and largely anonymous. It is no stretch to call contractors the United States’ “shadow army.” They come from every branch of the military, government, business, industry, and academia. The contracting workforce is comprised of ex-military, former law enforcement officers, dog handlers, electricians, and drilling rig and pipeline specialists. There are truck drivers, cooks, clerks, technicians, trainers, media professionals, engineers, architects, surgeons, former general officers, and think-tank academics. Although their employment is temporary, given the United States’ inclination to influence world events, it is unlikely that there will be any shortage of employment opportunities in the foreseeable future.

  In the early 1990s, when Croatia fought to maintain its independence from the Serbs, their outlook for success was bleak. In battle after battle, they were soundly defeated. For a variety of reasons, the United States was reluctant to openly support Croatia.

  Following a period of withdrawal and reorganization, the Croatian army launched a highly skilled and successful battle campaign that resulted in ejecting the Serbian aggressors from that country. How did Croatia go from a country on the verge of losing its independence to one with a force capable of defeating the Serbian military machine? War zone contractors, working at tactical and strategic levels, brought in the expertise to plan and train with the Croats and had a positive impact on the outcome. Afterward, there were no parades, no victory celebrations, no medals, no media attention, only the successful conclusion of another war. A few contractors returned to normal jobs, while others moved on to Bosnia, where more conflict meant more demand for their specialized expertise.

  Some contracting firms have been censured recently for their employees’ alleged gun-slinging behavior. In June 2005, nineteen private contractors from Zapata Engineering operating in Iraq were arrested by U.S. Marines and accused of having fired automatic weapons indiscriminately, consequently endangering coalition forces and innocent civilians. Although the allegation was never substantiated, the story took on a life of its own in the press. Most security firms are careful to thoroughly screen and establish clear guidelines on the conduct of their personnel. Future contracts depend in large measure on professionally and quietly accomplishing their mission.

  Contracting firms are as versatile and different from one another as the men and women they hire. Some contracting firms provide logistical expertise, others, such as Blackwater USA, have a reputation for furnishing personal security guards, and some, like SAIC,
focus on port security. One firm, MPRI, employs more than twelve thousand professionals with skills ranging from humanitarian assistance to law enforcement, democracy transition services, military training, technical support, and force development planning.

  In the United States, the Posse Comitatus (Latin for “power of the country”) Act, where able-bodied individuals can be called upon to assist law enforcement, places restrictions on the application of active-duty military units in civil-police law enforcement activities. Contractors, who are not so restricted, are seizing the employment opportunity and filling the voids in homeland security. They are able to execute reconnaissance and intelligence collection operations that would normally be tied up in bureaucratic red tape between competing law enforcement agencies. They are available for “advisory” and training assistance contracts with any given agency in the United States or other countries. They have also been employed in U.S. responses to natural disasters and are helping to resolve issues related to illegal immigration.

  Historically, U.S. Army Special Forces have provided training to the Colombian military. Now with U.S. forces stretched too thin by other conflicts, hundreds of contractors are involved in counter-drug training and operations in Colombia. They are training national police forces, military units, and paramilitary operatives. The contractors are, for the most part, former Green Berets, Navy Seals, retired intelligence agency personnel, and police officers. Some are pilots and others are handlers for tracking dogs. They are fulfilling vital objectives of U.S. foreign policy. Their activities are closely monitored for compliance with U.S. and international standards. Although they are directed to avoid direct combat, it is impossible for them to maintain a noncombatant posture if their personal safety is threatened. Sometimes firing in self defense is a necessary evil of the job.

  From unobtrusive U.S. locations, with signage intended to mislead an unwary public and stave off curiosity seekers, government contractors execute aerial reconnaissance and defoliating missions into places such as Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and the Andes. They are actively engaged in dangerous counter-drug operations. Some political activists and media personalities have alleged that these contractors are conducting counterinsurgency operations. When pilots, crew chiefs, or maintenance personnel are never heard from again, the famously less-than-candid contracting firms don’t exactly hand deliver telegrams to the victims’ relatives. Individual contractors understand the dangers and have no expectations for flags to fly at half mast for the ultimate sacrifice.