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British lawmaker George Galloway told a U.S. Senate panel today that Congress was were diverting attention from the failings of U.S. contractors in Iraq, the possible misuse of money by the U.S.-led Coalition, the spreading of money around the country by U.S. military commanders without accountability, and U.S. companies such as Bayoil (USA) Inc., which is accused of paying millions of dollars to Hussein for the right to sell Iraqi oil.

Halliburton-type profiteering only seems like a Republican specialty. But the immutable law of war is that while unlucky people die, lucky ones make a killing. That's been true whether Gengis Khan was pillaging his way across Asia, whether Abraham Lincoln was saving the Union, or George W. Bush was saving the world. Party registration has never had anything to do with it other than to give the minority party, when it exists, a chance to seem relevant.

Although private security forces often perform many of the same functions as U.S. troops, they are not governed by military rules mandating the amount of men and firepower they take along for tasks such as convoy protection, said Deborah Avant, associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. "There are situations when they are more at risk."

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

Oil-for-arms deals helped cement a relationship that would later enable little-known BayOil of Houston to emerge as the largest supplier of Iraqi crude to the U.S. market under the United Nation's oil-for-food program, Senate investigators say.

The United States did not do enough to curb corruption by American companies involved in the United Nations' oil-for-food program in Iraq, say Democrats on a Senate committee investigating abuses in the program.

All 62 were travelling on South African passports when they were detained by Zimbabwe but many were originally from Namibia and Angola -- including former members of South Africa's apartheid-era 32 Battalion, which recruited locals for bush fighting in Angola.

Top Kremlin operatives and a flamboyant Russian politician reaped millions of dollars in profits under the U.N. oil-for-food program by selling oil that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein allowed them to buy at a deep discount, a U.S. Senate investigation has concluded.

Iraq is by far the most lucrative cash cow for these soldiers of fortune, with at least 30 percent of the billions of dollars the US Department of Defence spends on Iraq every month going to "private military contractors".

Rep. David Price, D-N.C., reintroduced the legislation that would require private security firms to disclose costs, training, insurance, pay, benefits and other details about their business. The measure encompasses companies whose workers carry weapons for their contracts or are involved in security, training and logistics duties.