CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY TO INCLUDE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BACKGROUND:  This update reports 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), Iraq, and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

KEY POINTS: In 3rd quarter FY 2012, USCENTCOM reported approximately 137,000 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR.  This was approximately a 10.5% decrease from the previous quarter.  The number of contractors outside of Afghanistan and Iraq make up about 11.5% of the total contractor population in the USCENTCOM AOR.  A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:

DoD Contractor Personnel in the USCENTCOM AOR

*Includes DoD contractors supporting U.S. Mission Iraq and/or Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq 

Fluor Corp. has dropped a protest filed last month with the Government Accountability Office challenging a $500 million award to KBR Inc. for a logistics support contract in Iraq, according to KBR and a government website.

Irving, Texas-based Fluor withdrew its protest Wednesday, according to the GAO's website and KBR spokeswoman Gabriela Segura in an e-mail.

The contract was on hold until the protest was resolved.

KBR will support the State Department's embassy staff, including utilities management, fire fighting, food services, laundry, shuttle bus services, fuel and postal operations.Houston, Texas-based KBR announced August 2 it will continue for the State Department its previous Iraq role providing base support after U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw in December.

The one-year contract includes a one-year option. KBR has not received any similar contracts for Afghanistan yet.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from the mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted — and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.

Cargo gets loaded in preparation for U.S. troops to leave their base in Northern Baghdad. With just over three months until the last U.S. troops are currently due to leave Iraq, the Department of Defense is engaged in a mad dash to give away things that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to buy and build.

The giveaways include enormous, elaborate military bases and vast amounts of military equipment that will be turned over to the Iraqis, mostly just to save the expense of bringing it home.

Nasir Ahmad Ahmadi was hired to work as an interpreter alongside American troops in Afghanistan. But soldiers were alarmed by his strange behavior, his inability to do the job and the foul condition of his living quarters. They suspected he used drugs.

Just a few months after he arrived at an Army Special Forces base near Kabul, Ahmadi was ordered to pack his bags and leave. Instead of getting ready for the next flight out, Ahmadi grabbed an AK-47 assault rifle from another interpreter's room on the base and started shooting. He killed two unarmed soldiers and wounded a third.

On Monday, nearly 18 months after the January 2010 shootings, the survivor and family members of the slain soldiers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Mission Essential Personnel, the U.S. defense contractor that hired Ahmadi as it rushed to put more interpreters to work in Afghanistan.