BAGHDAD — The four American civilian security workers brutally killed and mutilated in Fallouja on Wednesday were among thousands of ex-soldiers and others who work in the murky universe of private security firms operating in Iraq, frequently outside the control of the U.S. military or any Iraqi authority.
Along with Blackwater USA, the elite North Carolina company that employed the victims of the Fallouja violence, more than 35 other security companies from around the globe employ an estimated 15,000 private security workers in Iraq. Dozens more companies are competing for lucrative contracts here.
The security firms operate in a world where the military, the intelligence community and private companies merge. Many of the employees once served in elite units such as the Navy SEALs or Army Green Berets.
Their clients, activities and even the names of employees are largely kept from public view. Security experts estimate that dozens of the heavily armed security workers have been killed since entering Iraq after Saddam Hussein's regime fell last April.
The vast majority of their work in Iraq is government-funded, either through direct contracts with government agencies or indirectly as security for firms that have contracts to help rebuild Iraq.
Blackwater's most high-profile client also is arguably the biggest target for insurgents: L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq. On Blackwater's website is a photo of a man who appears to be Bremer standing next to a German shepherd and the dog's handler.
Despite and in large part because of the continuing violence in Iraq, the private security industry is lucrative here. "This place is the biggest job expo going in the security world. If you can't make it here, you can't make it," said a security expert in Iraq who is working with a firm under government contract.
Business is booming, security experts said, because a surge in violence has come precisely as a flood of contractors is poised to roll into the country now that $8 billion in U.S. contracts have been awarded.
"Unless it's some nickel-and-dime American company that's wormed its way in here, every company has some security apparatus set up," said one security expert in Baghdad.
Unlike such hotspots as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Haiti, where international forces stepped in to maintain order, Iraq peacekeeping duties have been handled mainly by the U.S.-led coalition with the help of a growing number of Iraqi police and army officers.
