Security firms have 20,000 shadow soldiers in Iraq [View All]

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2515646

They have come from all corners of the world. Former Navy Seal commandos from North Carolina. Gurkhas from Nepal. Soldiers from South Africa's old apartheid government. They have come by the thousands, drawn to the dozens of private security companies that have set up shop in Baghdad. The most prized were plucked from the world's elite special forces units. Others may have been recruited from your local SWAT team.

But they are there, racing about Iraq in armored cars, many outfitted with the latest in high-end combat weapons. Some security companies have formed their own "Quick Reaction Forces," and their own intelligence units that produce daily intelligence briefs with grid maps of "hot zones."

Far more than in any other conflict in U.S. history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military. In addition to guarding innumerable reconstruction projects, private companies are being asked to provide security for the chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer, and other senior officials; to escort supply convoys through hostile territory; and to defend key locations.

The cost of this partnership is soaring. By some recent government estimates, payments to security companies could claim up to 25 percent of the $18 billion budgeted for reconstruction, a huge and mostly unanticipated expense that could delay or force the cancellation of billions of dollars worth of projects to rebuild schools, water treatment plants, electric lines and oil refineries. The initial estimate was 10 percent.

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