Atlanta Journal and Constitution February 2, 2003
Civilians Aid Army, But Raise Concern
By Ron Martz
CAMP DOHA, Kuwait---From tank mechanics to librarians to gate guards, Uncle Sam is looking for a few good civilians to help fight the war on terrorism.
These jobs are only a few of the dozens being advertised by a civilian agency responsible for hiring hundreds of workers to assist military forces gathering in Kuwait.
And not only loyal Americans need apply. Foreign workers, referred to as "TCNs," for third-country nationals, often are among those hired. The foreign workers do many of the labor-intensive, menial jobs once done by soldiers but now out-sourced because of a smaller troop base. As the United States prepares for another war against Iraq, even as it expands the war on terrorism around the world, civilian contract employees are expected to play a larger role than in any previous American military campaign.
Some experts predict that if the United States goes to war, the ratio of civilian contract employees to troops could be 1 to 10. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, it was about one contract employee for every 50 troops.
These civilian contract workers provide security at the gates of American bases around the region. They pitch tents, handle food, train soldiers in the use of high-tech weapons and military tactics, repair weapons and vehicles, haul garbage, clean out latrines, develop software for war game simulations and battle plans and install and repair sensitive computers.
Army Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top American military commander in Kuwait, said use of civilian contractors is "critical, crucial" to the current effort.
"A lot of what we have done in terms of reducing the size of active and reserve component force structure means there's a greater reliance on contractors. And there's a lot of technology that requires contractor support," he said.
But as the use of civilian contract employees increases, so do the risks.
On Jan. 21, two men working for a San Diego-based software company under military contract to provide computer simulations were ambushed by a Kuwaiti civil service worker just a few miles from closely guarded Camp Doha. Michael Rene Pouliot, 46, was killed, and David Caraway, 37, was seriously wounded in the attack.
This past Monday, a civilian working for Virginia-based Military Professional Resources was injured when a 25 mm round exploded inside a Bradley fighting vehicle during a live fire training exercise involving soldiers from the Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized).
The firm has about 100 workers, most former military personnel, serving as observers and controllers for exercises being conducted in the Kuwaiti desert. Using civilians with military experience, officials said, frees active duty soldiers for other jobs.
In addition to the risks from terrorist attacks, friendly fire or enemy fire in a more conventional war, the use of local workers to do the menial chores soldiers now are able to largely avoid raises security concerns for the military. It is unclear just how rigorous the background checks are for foreign workers regularly admitted to facilities housing American military forces.
Officials with Combat Support Associates, a civilian agency responsible for contracting for the jobs, declined several requests for an interview.
Patrick Garrett, associate analyst with Global Security, a Washington-based organization that tracks military issues, said there is no solid information about how extensive the background checks are for civilian workers hired for the low-tech jobs. That could make it easy for terrorists to infiltrate the camps.
But greater than the danger of what a worker might do inside a base, Garrett said, is what he might do off it. "The intelligence they could supply would be very valuable to some groups," he said.
In January, Kuwaiti officials arrested a member of the nation's National Guard and charged him with spying for Iraq. Among his alleged admissions was that he was trying to find a way to get to food supplies going to American troops so he could poison and kill as many as possible. It was not known whether he had access to any American military facilities.
The food being fed to American troops is prepared by Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton Co. Vice President Dick Cheney became chief executive of Halliburton after retiring as defense secretary under the current President Bush's father.
Brown and Root also does major construction projects for the Pentagon. The company was heavily involved in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. Its crews were among the first to arrive at Taszar air base in Hungary to prepare for American troops heading for Bosnia. It also was involved in Afghanistan and has provided much of the housing for prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon's use of private contractors has become big business, especially for former military officers who still have close ties to colleagues in the Defense Department. Exact figures on how much outsourcing the Pentagon does are difficult to pin down. Chris Hellman, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said, "It's something that's significant and growing."
Some place the cost of such private contracts at $ 100 billion to $ 200 billion a year. Some companies contract with the Pentagon. Others contract directly with foreign governments after being approved by the U.S. State Department.
"There is an issue of how you control these guys when they provide military functions to a foreign government," Hellman said.
It has not been addressed to any extent by the Pentagon or Congress, both of which seem to have bought into the argument that private contractors save money.
But, Hellman said, in the end the contractors "are not in it for altruism or ideology; it's a business."
Copyright © 2003, Atlanta Journal and Constitution
