State Department Struggles To Oversee Private Army
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Last Christmas Day in Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad received a furious phone call from Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi. An American -- drunk, armed, wandering through the Green Zone after a party -- had shot and killed one of his personal bodyguards the night before, Mahdi said. He...
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An executive order issued Friday night creates an agency to safeguard privacy and civil rights laws, but critics see problems with the apointees and the apparent lack of power. By Ryan Singel.
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An Army official said his command has not had enough trained people to properly oversee the giant logistical contract for food, housing and other services in Iraq and Kuwait.
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The Defense Department plans to continue hiring private contractors to provide security at reconstruction projects in Iraq and to train U.S. and Iraqi military officers in counterinsurgency, despite problems with past contracts for such jobs that traditionally have been done by military personnel.
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Two years after the nation's commando forces were given broad authority to attack terrorist networks, the elite units remain hampered by uncertainty over coordination, says the admiral chosen to head the U.S. Special Operations Command.
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An internal debate described by senior officials is the first indication that political pressure is forcing the Bush administration to consider what happens after the current troop increase.
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The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly &#36;9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.
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Criticized for the failings of  Pentagon planning for post-war Iraq, the Bush administration  has created a small civilian-led team to help nations emerge  from conflicts and crises, officials said on Tuesday.
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates has dispatched a small Pentagon team to Iraq to review procedures regarding private contractors, after expressing "real concerns" about oversight, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.
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Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the mission of private security contractors guarding individuals in Iraq is fundamentally at odds with the broader U.S. military objective of stabilizing Iraq, and that changes would be required to reconcile them.
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BAGHDAD, Sept. 25 -- A confrontation between the U.S. military and the State Department is unfolding over the involvement of Blackwater USA in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad square Sept. 16, bringing to the surface long-simmering tensions between the military and private secu...
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A US military unit that wouldn't make a risky delivery poses a challenge to discipline.
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WASHINGTON - Teaching local officials in Iraq to govern themselves and provide their citizens with basic services will take "years of steady engagement." It also will rely heavily on the US government's ability to recruit skilled civilians, investigators told a House panel yesterday.
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A senior US state department official resigns after criticism of how private security firms in Iraq are supervised.
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BAGHDAD -- Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in US military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire, and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to US and Iraqi officials and company representatives.
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The State Department's rewarding of one individual $5 million has received enough criticisms to warrant a reader vote.
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WASHINGTON - The No. 2 official at the State Department said Friday that the elections planned for January in Iraq must be "open to all citizens," contradicting Defense Secretary Donald H...