Politics on the Hudson

Congressman John Hall, D-Dover Plains, wants to prevent increases in the number of private security contractors in Iraq.

He introduced a bill today called the Freeze Private Contractors in Iraq Act that would prohibit federal agencies from entering into contracts that would increase the number of private security contractors in Iraq above the number present in Iraq on Sept. 1, 2007.

Estimates of the number of armed contractors operating in Iraq range from 20,000 to 50,000 or higher. According to federal spending data, since 2004 federal agencies have paid almost $1 billion to the contractor agency Blackwater USA alone.

Security contractors in Iraq operate outside both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Iraqi law. During the first year of the American occupation, the American Administrator issued a decree that exempted security companies and their employees from accountability under Iraqi law for deaths and injuries caused in the execution of their duties.

“These guys are running around Iraq accountable to no one, using lethal force against civilians and increasing the animosity Iraqis feel towards Americans, thereby making the situation less safe for American troops in the field,� Hall said.