War & Disaster Profiteering

Contractors hired to clean up after Hurricane Katrina are fuming over delays in getting paid by FEMA, and some politicians fear the red tape will discourage companies from bidding on the big rebuilding projects that lie ahead for New Orleans. One company claims it is owed about $150 million, and some contractors have walked off the job or gone to court to get the money they say they should have been paid for demolition and debris removal completed as much as a year and a half ago. Read More

Taking the place of enlisted troops in every American army before this one, contract employees in Iraq cook meals, wash clothes, deliver fuel and guard bases. And they die and suffer alongside their brothers and sisters in uniform. About 1,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began; nearly 13,000 have been injured. The consequences of the war will be lasting for many of them and their families, ordeals that are largely invisible to most Americans. Read More

A Hammond security company, Inner Parish Security Corp., which admitted to several "serious" state violations, including hiring an underage officer, has been awarded a large federal contract to provide private security officers at FEMA trailer parks in metro New Orleans. Read More

After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, the federal government is getting rid of thousands of pounds of ice it had sent south to help Katrina victims, then north when it determined much of the ice wasn't needed. Read More

A former KBR employee pleads guilty to Kuwaiti kickback charges. Read More

Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict United States military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts. Read More

New U.S. data show how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of the war-torn nation. Read More

On the first floor of a tan building inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the full scope of Iraq's daily carnage is condensed into a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation. The intelligence was compiled not by the U.S. military, but by a British security firm, Aegis Defence Services Ltd. The Reconstruction Operations Center is the most visible example of how intelligence collection is now among the responsibilities handled by a network of private security companies that work in the shadows of the U.S. military. Read More

The families of four Blackwater employees who were killed in Iraq have filed a lawsuit that accuses the world's largest private security firm of negligence; Blackwater is suing back. Read More

The British and US governments are on a diplomatic collision course after the US Department of Justice launched a formal investigation into allegations of corruption at defence company BAE Systems. The US investigation will scrutinise BAE's dealings with Saudi Arabia to expose an account allegedly held by the Bank of England that is used to facilitate Saudi payments for arms. Read More