With hostilities flaring in Iraq, the U.S.-led authority wants to tighten controls over the surging number of private armed security teams being hired to protect U.S. government agencies and contractors involved in rebuilding. With an estimated 20,000 private security workers on the ground, the Coalition Provisional Authority is increasingly concerned about the quality of the security teams, the weapons they use and the rules that will govern them after June 30, when the authority transfers political power to an interim Iraqi government. “It’s an important issue that needs to be addressed, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. A draft CPA document on vetting and registering the security firms said many “are already operating in Iraq without the benefit of appropriate registration and authorization of the Ministry of Interior.” “Appropriate mechanisms must be put into place” to register them, the draft said. Full Story
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