The crisis in Iraq has prompted U.S. contractors with personnel there to evacuate them from areas near Baghdad that are increasingly in the line of fire as insurgent fighters capture more territory with the apparent end goal of seizing the Iraqi capital.

The individuals are being “temporarily relocated by their companies due to security concerns in the area,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday evening. The individuals involved include U.S. citizens who are currently working under contract with Iraq’s central government in support of the Pentagon’s foreign weapons sales program.

As the Justice Department winds down its eight-year crusade against Swiss banks selling offshore tax-dodging services to wealthy Americans, the Internal Revenue Service is offering its own parting gift: softer penalties for taxpayers who come out of the woodwork to disclose their secret accounts. Call it the advent of the “I was clueless” defense.

The IRS announced last week it would ease the financial and legal pain for the estimated 6 million expatriate Americans who live and work abroad, many of whom don’t know that they must pay U.S. taxes on their foreign income. People who come forward under an amnesty program to disclose their foreign accounts and settle their U.S. tax bills won’t be charged any penalties and will simply owe back taxes and interest. Previously, they would have owed a penalty of 27.5 percent, computed as a percentage of each undisclosed foreign account.

An Army Reserve lieutenant colonel was sentenced to 3½ years in federal prison June 13 after pleading guilty to charges in connection with pocketing more than $9 million from a contract to train Afghan troops, according to the Justice Department. David Young, 51, of Hernando Beach, Florida, will begin serving his sentence Aug. 4.

According to a plea agreement, Young has agreed to forfeit more than $1.6 million that the government seized from eight bank accounts; 16 pieces of property in New Hampshire and Florida; money from the sale of a Hummer and a boat; a Jaguar; 225 1-ounce American Eagle gold coins; and 175 1-ounce South African gold Krugerrand coins.

A press release from Constellis Holdings signals major news in the High Threat Security Industry. Academi, the company formerly known as Blackwater and Xe, will join Triple Canopy along with a handful of other high threat security companies under a new management structure named Constellis Holdings.

“This move allows us to create a suite of services to better provide critical support capabilities for government and commercial clients and will utilize ACADEMI’s world-class training facility, the largest and most comprehensive private training center in the U.S.” said Jason DeYonker, Managing Director of Constellis Holdings, Inc.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) just released a top-level analysis of State Department reconstruction funding in Afghanistan. SIGAR found that State has obligated nearly $4 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction between the beginning of fiscal year 2002 and March 2013, more than two-thirds of which ($2.8 billion, or 69 percent) will go to just one company—DynCorp International.

The State Department’s reconstruction effort relies extensively on contractors. Nearly 90 percent of State’s reconstruction funding—$3.5 billion—was obligated in 55 contracts awarded to 19 recipients, the largest of which is DynCorp. Readers of this blog are probably familiar with DynCorp’s colorful history in Afghanistan, which includes instances of labor smuggling, weak performance and overpayments on a base support services contract, botched construction work on an Afghan Army garrison, and lawsuits filed by disgruntled subcontractors.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. House-passed Pentagon policy bill raises concerns about the Defense Department’s use of private contractors in Africa, citing problems encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The lower chamber’s version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed May 22, contains a provision that would require the US comptroller general to deliver lawmakers a detailed report about US Africa Command’s ability to “plan, manage and oversee contractors.”

As an Army Ranger, Capt. Matthew Griffin never really believed military action in Afghanistan was a solution — a necessary heavy boot in the door, sure, but not something that would build lasting peace. After multiple deployments to that war-ravaged country, he saw plenty of death and destruction. But it was when he returned as a civilian contractor that he was blown away at how growth could come out of that mayhem.

“I was amazed at how businesses were thriving in areas that I never thought could be recovered. I came to this realization that if you can give them something worth protecting on their own, they’re going to do that.” He found himself asking: Why aren’t we doing more to promote small businesses in conflict areas?

Some defense analysts believe a pending 10-year security agreement between the Philippines and U.S. could increase U.S. sales of weapons and maritime surveillance equipment to the Philippines, Reuters reported last week.

“What Manila needs most in the way of military technology is weapons that can help enforce its claim to areas in the South China Sea,” Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, told Reuters.

CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY

BACKGROUND:  This report updates DoD contractor personnel numbers in theater and outlines DoD efforts to improve management of contractors accompanying U.S. forces.  It covers DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)) and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).  

KEY POINTS: In 2nd quarter FY 2014, USCENTCOM reported approximately 78,638 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR.  This total reflects a decrease of approximately 20.5K from the previous quarter.  A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:

LT Scott Cheney-Peters, a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and the former editor of Surface Warfare magazine, gives his opinions on private maritime security in Asia:

In a week-long operation in June 2010, six vessels were attacked and robbed over a 130-mile span while in a nearby strait armed security contractors kept watch for the pirate threat. The same waters have played host to a “sophisticated syndicate…deploying speedboats from motherships” with raiding parties able to “board, rob, and disembark a vessel with fifteen minutes without the bridge knowing.” The location was not the Somali coastline or the Bab el-Mandeb, but rather 4,000 miles to the east, among the Anambas Islands and the Singapore Strait.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghan police working with American agents arrested an Afghan man on charges of stealing more than a half million dollars from an agricultural development fund supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The money was insured, and there was no actual loss of U.S. taxpayer funds.

Afghan National Police made the arrest on April 2 in the northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, along with agents from the USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG). The arrest followed a long-running joint investigation by Afghan law enforcement agencies, USAID OIG and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before Congress on the status of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) development assistance and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. According to the GAO, USAID has invested more than $15 billion in Afghanistan since 2002, but continues to face major oversight challenges. As an example, the GAO cited a recent Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction finding that billions of dollars in USAID direct assistance is at high risk of misuse and corruption.

“USAID continued to inconsistently apply performance management procedures, falls short in maintaining institutional knowledge, and needs to improve oversight of contractors,” the GAO testified. That last finding is of particular concern, as you’ll soon see.

An Illinois federal judge this week declined to dismiss a suit by the federal government claiming KBR Inc. overcharged for soldier housing in Iraq, saying the allegations were credible enough to allow it to proceed.

U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow rejected KBR’s argument that the government had failed to establish adequate standing to pursue claims that KBR and its Kuwait-based contractor, First Kuwaiti Trading Company, knowingly inflated the cost of trucks and cranes, causing its $80.9 million contract to build the housing to balloon to $129.5 million in 2003. The government alleges that the hikes constituted seven violations of the False Claims Act.