David Phinney | The Rough Cut

W E L C O M E

At the urging of the US State Department, Texas-based DynCorp hired The Sandi Group to help perform an $800-million contract aimed at training over 100,000 Iraqi police officers. This top-priority Bush administration project is now mired in controversy for unexplained cost overruns, questionable orders for work and much more. Read More...

Wounded Contractors Face Battle at Home

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of injured employees for US-funded contractors return home from Iraq only to battle in court for medical coverage and disability payments. The administrative backup has become a logjam as insurers confront an unforeseen condition among civilians: post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by wartime conditions. "No one is counting, no one is noticing and no one cares," one medical professional says. Read More...

Blood, Sweat & Tears: Privatized War and Low-Wage Labor

Employed through complex layers of US-funded companies working in Iraq, tens of thousands of low-wage laborers from Asia make up the largest civilian workforce ever hired to support a US war. Many endure long hours and unsafe working conditions; live in crowded and squalid camps; and eat lousy food. Some now say their employers pressured them into Iraq against their will then and pocketed much of the pay they were promised. Read More...

Private Security Companies Confront Civilian Shooting Scandals

Wherever Tim Spicer turns up, he carries the kind of baggage that gives the private military business a bad name. An internet video showing private contractors shooting at civilian cars in Iraq, loosely linked to his company, Aegis Defence Services, ignited a firestorm about unregulated gun-wielding security convoys, escorting reconstruction or government advisors, roaming the country. Read More..

Marines Jail Contractors in Fallujah

Dozens of Marines watched on and laughed. They taunted the private security contractors about their large salaries -- often more than $100,000 a year and sometimes over $200,000. The Marines jeered: “How is that contractor money now?” Read More...

Filipino Worker's Escape From Iraq

Ramil Autencio thought he was traveling to Kuwait for a job in a luxury hotel. The employer, a major Kuwait contractor working for the US government, instead pressured him to work on US military camps in Iraq. The father of two recounts his escape with more than 40 others. Read More...