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John Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people even know exists. The Pentagon secretly awarded him a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. He is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media.

Kuwaiti man remains at large on charges of fraud and bribery involving a Halliburton fuel contract for US military.

A former Halliburton worker has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in Illinois to taking more than $110,000 in kickbacks from an Iraqi company in 2004.

A North Carolina man who was charged yesterday with accepting kickbacks and bribes as a comptroller and financial officer for the American occupation authority in Iraq was hired despite having served prison time for felony fraud in the 1990's.

According to affidavits filed by government investigators, the two men allegedly conspired, starting in late 2003, to rig bids on contracts in the south-central region of Iraq from a CPA office in Al Hillah. One was the controller and funding officer at that office, in charge of some $82 million from the Development Fund for Iraq, which is made up of repatriated assets, receipts from the sale of Iraqi oil and transfers from the U.N. oil-for-food program.

• 174 War & Disaster Profiteers Campaign

In what is expected to be the first of a series of criminal charges against officials and contractors overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, an American has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to American occupation authorities and their spouses to obtain construction contracts, according to a complaint unsealed late yesterday.

In October, the U.S. Defence Department brought in new regulations to improve the controls it has over contractors providing services on the battlefield, as well as when such security personnel can carry weapons. It's unclear, however, just how effective the rules will be in dealing with issues of accountability and the legal status of contractors involved in
incidents of wrongdoing.

THE HAGUE -- Today, at the COP6 climate change negotiations, Shell's neighbors confronted them in their own backyard -- exposing their public relations ''greenwash'' as lies.

In October, the U.S. Defence Department brought in new regulations to improve the controls it has over contractors providing services on the battlefield, as well as when such security personnel can carry weapons. It's unclear, however, just how effective the rules will be in dealing with issues of accountability and the legal status of contractors involved in
incidents of wrongdoing.

While hundreds of millions in profits are being made by U.S. and British firms that provide support services to American forces in Iraq, it is citizens from poor nations such as the Philippines who do most of the work and are killed or injured in the process.

The industry brings in about $100 billion US a year in revenues and operates in over 50 nations. But, since it is largely unregulated, there are no firm numbers worldwide on how many private contractors or companies there actually are.

A trade group representing US, European and South African private security companies is lobbying to put pressure on the South African government to drop tough new anti-mercenary legislation now before parliament.

The International Peace Operations Association (IOPA) is lobbying the US and other European governments to put pressure on the South African government not to pass the anti-mercenary bill, saying it undermines the role played by South Africans in peace building missions worldwide.

In the lawless reality of much of the post-Cold War world, private security is a booming business. And Canada, once noted for peacekeeping, is emerging as a source of talented guns for hire. David Pugliese reports.

Fast-growing DynCorp provides security and training for police forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It may represent the first of a new generation of defense-related stock offerings.

The Rendon Group has garnered more than $56 million in work from the Pentagon since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. These contracts list such activities as tracking foreign reporters; "pushing" news favorable to U.S. forces; planting television news segments that promote American positions, and creating a grass-roots voting effort in Puerto Rico on behalf of the U.S. Navy.