Stephen Helvenston

Stephen "Scott" Helvenston was Hollywood's image of a soldier -- blond, bronzed and broad shouldered. In fact, the 38-year-old former Navy SEAL trained health-conscious Californians how to pump iron like commandos and coached movie stars to play the role of combat-ready recruits.

Families of four American men who were killed and burned by Iraqi insurgents in Fallouja last March sued Blackwater Security Consulting on Wednesday, accusing the high-profile private security firm of fraud and of putting its employees at unnecessary risk. After the men were killed, two of the bodies were strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River, and photos were transmitted around the world. The suit, filed in Raleigh, N.C.

The families of four security workers killed by a mob in Fallouja, Iraq, told a congressional panel Wednesday that the workers' employer, Blackwater USA, had failed to provide the arms and armor they needed for their protection. Four female relatives said the men, whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets in the 2004 attack, had been sent on a dangerous mission in vehicles without needed armor, maps, heavy machine guns or rear gunners.

The four friends, best buddies since their football-playing days at a small-town high school, came together Tuesday for one final time on a muggy, overcast afternoon at a cemetery here. There was Eddy Twyford, now a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. Jimmy Tharpe, the smart one the others had cheated off of, flew in from Australia, where he runs a professional basketball team.