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At least 90 Private Military Companies are involved in the business of war and killing innocent people by operating in 110 countries worldwide, says a report by journalist Nasir Mahmood.

With the U.S. Army stretched by the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to spend $100 million to hire private security guards to protect its bases in Germany.

The Justice Department is in a difficult position because identifying the Coalition Provisional Authority as a U.S. entity could make the government legally responsible for the CPA's actions. On the other hand, "it's not a very attractive position to say, 'If you stole U.S. money, you're liable. But if you stole Iraqi money, the U.S. government just doesn't care.' "

National police confirmed that several South African companies and businessmen were being investigated by SAPS Crimes Against the State Unit (CASU) detectives for recruiting former specialised policemen and soldiers to work in Iraq.

At least 10 South African companies and businessmen are being investigated on suspicion of recruiting former specialised police officers and soldiers to work in Iraq.

Though contractors can use lethal force, the U.S. government does not vet who is hired. The Pentagon says it does watch how companies perform and investigates any alleged misconduct.

Six congressional committees are investigating the United Nations Oil-for-Food (UN) scandal, yet not a single Republican committee chairman will call a hearing to investigate the mishandling of $9 billion dollars by the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The picture that emerges from multiple, overlapping inquiries into the world's management of Iraq's people and oil wealth since 1991 is appalling. It is a portrait inhabited by crooks, inept managers and ostensibly well-meaning diplomats and security experts with hidden agendas.

Rep. Waxman, D-Calif., Asks Questions about Role of Ambassador Richard Jones in Controversial Halliburton Contract

A U.S. State Department official said that Washington had earmarked $35 million to recruit and train a new army in Liberia and Dyncorp was ready to start the project within the next few weeks.

Franklin Willis, a former official with the Coalition Provision Authority, told the Senate Democratic Policy Commmittee that after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was "like the Wild West -- awash in $100 bills." One contractor, Custer Battles, was paid with $2 million in fresh U.S. bills, stuffed into a gunnysack, he said.

The prospect of supplying the nation with the world's fifth-largest military budget is enough to make any European defense contractor take notice. Beijing's defense outlay has been growing by 10% to 12% a year for the past decade, to an estimated $151 billion.

The U.S. government hired South-African mercenaries as bodyguards and police trainers. The contract later proved embarrassing when two of the former bodyguards were arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.

There are new allegations that heavily armed private security contractors in Iraq are brutalizing Iraqi civilians. In an exclusive interview, four former security contractors told NBC News that they watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one crushed by a truck. The contractors worked for an American company paid by U.S. taxpayers. The Army is looking into the allegations.

just two weeks after an audit by the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction found inadequate oversight of unauthorized contracts and a loss of $9 billion in Iraqi funds, a witness told Democrats on Capitol Hill said key decisions by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq enabled contractors to bilk billions in reconstruction funds.

With South African mercenaries having shown up in civil wars in Sierra Leone, Angola, Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea, and, now being active in Iraq, South Africa will review tough new laws to try to dissuade citizens from becoming embroiled in war zones.

The U.N. oil-for-food program chief under scrutiny for alleged corruption and mismanagement blocked a proposed audit of his office around the same time he's accused of soliciting lucrative oil deals from Iraq, according to investigators.

DaimlerChrysler announced plans Wednesday to produce a version of the German military vehicle, the Unimog, for sale in the United States, with production planned to begin in January.

Despite extensive media coverage of the kidnappings, beheadings and suicide attacks on civilian workers, one in ten applicants for jobs with the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, remain willing to take those well-paying truck driver, food service, laundry and maintenance positions in Iraq.