[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10498-H10499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715
               BLACKWATER'S OPERATING LICENSE IS REVOKED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the Government of Iraq today took the 
extraordinary step of revoking the operating license of Blackwater 
U.S.A. in light of accusations that Blackwater employees killed eight 
Iraqi civilians. Blackwater is a North Carolina-based firm providing 
private security forces inside Iraq.
  This incident has caused another international uproar about the role 
of the United States in Iraq. Here at home, it is bringing long overdue 
attention to the role of the so-called contractors. Some call them 
mercenaries, as many of them are paid more than five times what our 
regular forces are paid.
  The role of private contractors is an issue about which I have been 
ringing the alarm bell in this House and in the House Appropriations 
Defense Subcommittee for a long time.
  Now the Government of Iraq has been compelled to pull the plug on 
Blackwater U.S.A. The company claims its employees were acting in self-
defense. Many people in Iraq claim the company committed atrocities. 
Who knows the truth? Who has the authority to investigate? Where is the 
accountability when it comes to private contractors? How many such 
hired guns are operating in Iraq? Some say 25,000. Some say more. How 
many contractors totally are operating in Iraq? Some have estimated the 
number at 180,000, which is more than the U.S. military we have based 
in Iraq.

  Here in Washington, Congress and the President are debating the 
proper troop levels for U.S. forces. But, meanwhile, there seem to be 
more and more contractors operating in Iraq. Due to the unpopularity of 
this war, I have little doubt that the Bush-Cheney plan is to replace 
our military forces with paid mercenaries. This would be the first time 
in U.S. history that our Nation will act as an occupying force by 
contracted mercenaries.
  Indeed, the contracting out process of the U.S. military started in a 
small way back in the 1980s when Vice President Cheney was Secretary of 
Defense. It expanded greatly under the first President Bush, and now it 
has exploded in this administration.
  America, pay attention. Make no mistake: private contractors are also 
very much the face of the West in the Middle East. They might be 
accountable only to their bosses and shareholders, but they are 
Americans in the eyes of Iraqis. Blackwater's eviction from Iraq comes 
as no surprise to those of us who have followed the now well-
established, usually irresponsible use of defense contractors as 
mercenary forces. In fact, I believe that you cannot win in an 
engagement through the use of mercenary forces.
  Blackwater is not the only defense contracting firm operating 
irresponsibly in lieu of our well-trained and well-respected military. 
Unlike our government, the Iraqi Government seems to recognize this.
  Today, The New York Times reported that the Iraqi Government said it 
would review the status of all foreign and local security companies 
working in Iraq. According to the Private Security Company Association 
of Iraq, the Iraqi Government has suspended the licenses of two other 
security companies, but they were reinstated after a review.

[[Page H10499]]

  Problems with private contractors are not a new phenomenon. In 
December, a Blackwater employee killed one of the Iraqi Vice 
President's guards but was never charged under Iraqi or American law 
because private contractors enjoy immunity, thanks to a law imposed by 
the United States.
  On July 12, 2005, I delivered a floor statement after Iraqis cheered 
the brutal death of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah. I pointed 
out that those soldiers of fortune are not bound by the same values of 
duty and honor like those brave young men and women serving in our 
regular forces, and those contracted forces are paid astronomically 
more than our regular forces.
  There aren't just problems in theater. There are problems right here 
in Washington, like the opaque and often unfair process of awarding no-
bid contracts. In fact, Blackwater has won over $505 million in 
publicly identifiable contracts since 2000 and in 2003 was awarded a 
$21 million no-bid contract to guard the Director of the Office for 
Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Mr. Bremer. Why aren't our 
regular forces doing that?
  I have raised questions before about these contractors and their 
behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan, but to no avail, in a Congress still 
not focused on upholding the great traditions of the U.S. military, and 
that means regular force, not mercenary force, not contracted force.
  Mr. Speaker, the private contractors in Iraq all too often are rogue 
elephants, operating beyond the command and control system of our U.S. 
military. It is time to restore the time-heralded tradition of regular 
forces of this U.S. military, committed to duty, honor and country, not 
bounty.

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