Levin: Contractor cuts could strain troops

Levin: Contractor cuts could strain troops
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 1, 2008 14:58:37 EDT

A move by the Senate Armed Services Committee to limit the role of private security contractors in Iraq could have an unintended consequence of increasing the strain on Army and Marine Corps ground troops.

The Senate committee’s version of the 2009 defense authorization bill includes two provisions related to contractors.

One, effective when the bill is signed, would prohibit contract employees from performing “inherently governmental” security operations, including situations involving combat or extremely hazardous duties. The second would prohibit contract employees from conducting interrogations of detainees during or after hostilities.

“We’ve seen a real problem … where some contractors have been performing what are essentially governmental functions in combat areas,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman.

The Pentagon already has a policy preventing private security contractors from being given combat-related work, but the State Department does not, Levin said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_securitycontractors_strainforce_050108w/