'Mercenaries' to fill (UK) Iraq troop gap

[nosmokes]

or when is a pullout not a pullout? i thought shrubco was being awfully sedate about the whole thing.
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original-the scotsman

Sun 25 Feb 2007
'Mercenaries' to fill Iraq troop gap
BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR ([e-mail])

MINISTERS are negotiating multi-million-pound contracts with private security firms to cover some of the gaps created by British troop withdrawals.

Days after Tony Blair revealed that he wanted to withdraw 1,600 soldiers from war-torn Basra within months, it has emerged that civil servants hope "mercenaries" can help fill the gap left behind.
Click to learn more...

Officials from the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence will meet representatives from the private security industry within the next month to discuss "options" for increasing their business in Iraq in the coming years.

The UK government has already paid out almost £160m to private security companies (PSCs) since the invasion of Iraq, for a range of services, including the protection of British officials on duty and in transit in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

But, despite expectations that the booming market for private security would go into decline following the bursting of the "Iraq bubble", firms have now been told to expect even more lucrative work during the "post-occupation phase".
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complete article here

[DrDebug]

1. Does that include Paul Bremer's Control Risks Group?

Because one of the irony is that the British Government's security was being handled by Control Risks Group which is owned by Marsh Crisis Consultancy whose CEO is Paul Bremer who was also CPA at the time...

Paul Bremer fuels insurgency so British government hires Control Risks Group part of Paul Bremer for their protection

There is money to made in a war, you know as long as you don't believe in conflict of interests