Private security contractors in Iraq face little accountability if they shoot

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none has been prosecuted for wrongdoing despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Instead, security contractors suspected of reckless behavior are sent home, sometimes with U.S. knowledge, stirring fierce resentment among Iraqis and raising questions about accountability.

Tens of thousands of the heavily armed private guards are under contract to the U.S. government and companies working to rebuild Iraq. The conduct of such security personnel has long been one of the most controversial issues in the reconstruction.

A week ago, a British newspaper publicized a so-called "trophy video" that appeared to show private contractors firing at civilian vehicles as an Elvis song plays in the background.

The contractors exist in a legal gray area. Under an order issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority that administered Iraq until June 2004, contractors suspected of wrongdoing are to be prosecuted in their home countries. But because the contractors are immune from Iraqi courts and have so far not faced U.S. prosecution, Iraqis seeking justice for wrongful shootings have little recourse.

"What was my innocent son's crime?" asked Zahra Ridha, the mother of a 19-year-old man shot and killed by security contractors in May. "Is this what we deserve?"

Although industry officials say some contractors have voluntarily set up compensation programs, there is no formal system in place.

That differs from cases involving U.S. troops in Iraq. The U.S. military has a commission that reviews damage claims and makes payments when troops are determined to have erred in opening fire on property or people.

U.S. troops suspected of shooting at Iraqis face trial in military tribunals. More than 20 have been accused of crimes leading to the deaths of Iraqis, and at least 10 have been convicted.

Poor oversight

A Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified because he is not an authorized spokesman, said the lack of prosecutions of contractors reflected poor oversight by U.S. officials in Iraq, who are under no compulsion to report suspected criminal behavior.

A Los Angeles Times survey of nearly 200 "serious incident" reports filed by private security companies since November 2004 shows that 11 percent of the incidents involved contractors firing toward civilian Iraqi vehicles believed to be a threat.

The reports, filed voluntarily with the Pentagon, do not indicate whether the shootings were justified and they contain limited information about the fate of the vehicle occupants. They say the contractors received no fire from the vehicles but shot at them because they were believed to be potential suicide bombers.

An additional 20 percent of the reports involved contractors who said they were fired on by U.S. forces in apparent cases of mistaken identity. Contractors frequently travel in unmarked vehicles and do not have reliable communications with military units.

Most of the remaining reports are harrowing accounts of attacks on contractors by insurgents involving roadside bombs, ambushes, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine-gun fire.

The reports, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Los Angeles Times, represent only a small portion of the serious incidents recorded since Pentagon tracking began in 2004. The Defense Department has denied a request that it provide the names of the private contractors in the reports and has yet to release an untold number of additional reports.

The Los Angeles Times has filed a federal lawsuit seeking release of all such reports and security-company identities.

The companies provide armed guards to protect U.S. officials and private contractors working in Iraq. Although most are paid with government money, no single U.S. agency regulates them.

Last year, the Pentagon estimated there were 60 such companies in Iraq with about 20,000 employees. They have been awarded at least $766 million in contracts since 2003, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.

At their best, security guards are highly trained former special-forces soldiers whose professionalism has saved countless lives. Their presence alleviates the need for additional U.S. forces.

Industry officials defended their safety record in Iraq. Insurgents frequently strike by driving explosives-packed cars into security convoys transporting officials from one site to the next.

A security contractor has only seconds to decide whether an approaching vehicle contains an insurgent or an innocent Iraqi, they said.

"Mistakes happen"

Security contractors "don't want to shoot innocent people," said Lawrence Peters, the former director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, an industry group. "But it's a war zone, and mistakes do happen."

At their worst, critics say, the contractors are expensive, reckless mercenaries who complicate the U.S. mission. Paying a team of private contractors to protect a single U.S. official can cost upward of $5,000 a day.

Security companies operating in Iraq have been cited for fraud and have clashed with U.S. forces.

More than 400 contractors, many of them security guards, have been killed in Iraq, according to the most recent statistics from the Labor Department. At the same time, security contractors have killed an unknown number of Iraqis in battles with insurgents, road collisions and accidental shootings, according to the records and interviews.

Their sometimes aggressive behavior has created a reservoir of anger at the U.S. presence. Countless Iraqis have endured the humiliation of being forced to stop or pull off the road as a convoy of unmarked SUVs races past, filled with men waving guns and making threatening gestures.

"This is not a particularly effective way to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis," said Joshua Schwartz, co-director of George Washington University's government-procurement program. "The contractors are making the mission of the U.S. military in Iraq more difficult."

A shooting in May is a case in point.

Bob Callahan, wrapping up his tour as spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, was en route to his offices in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone when his heavily armed convoy turned onto a broad thoroughfare, according to U.S. officials and Iraqi eyewitnesses interviewed by the Times.

At the same moment, Mohammed Nouri Hattab, 32, was headed north. He was moonlighting as a taxi driver, transporting two passengers he had picked up moments earlier.

Hattab looked up and saw a five-car convoy speed out of a side street in front of him. He was slowing to a stop about 50 feet from the convoy when he heard a burst of gunfire, he said.

Bullets slashed into the Opel's hood, cut into his shoulder and pierced the chest of Yas Ali Mohammed Yassiri, who was sitting in the back seat when he was killed, Hattab said. The convoy roared on, leaving chaos in its wake.

"There was no warning. It was a sudden attack," said Hattab, 32, who can no longer freely move his right arm.

Third time no charm

Hattab said it was the third time since the U.S. invasion that he has been fired on by Americans. On the first two occasions, U.S. troops mistakenly fired at him but later apologized, he said.

This time, he said, he has drifted in an endless legal fight for compensation, bouncing between Iraqi courts and U.S. officials. Hattab, an Oil Ministry employee now on disability leave, has seen his pay cut in half to $51 a month.

State Department officials did not respond to requests for comment on the incident. But a U.S. official with knowledge of it said embassy officials had reviewed the shooting and determined that employees of the security company involved, North Carolina-based Blackwater USA, had not followed proper procedures.

Two employees of the company were fired, the U.S. official said. Blackwater declined comment.

Los Angeles Times reporters Borzou Daragahi, Saad Fakhrildeen and Asmaa Waguih contributed to this report.