Los Angeles Times
September 16, 2004
David A. Passaro was a mercenary working for the United States. A former
Special Forces soldier, he was on the job for the American government in
Afghanistan on June 19, 2003, when he was told to get information from a
detainee named Abdul Wali. When Wali insisted that he knew nothing, Passaro
allegedly beat him to death with a heavy metal flashlight.
Now on
trial for murder, Passaro is described in a recent criminal indictment as "a
contractor working on behalf of the United States Central Intelligence Agency
… engaging in paramilitary activities."
"Contractor" is the term
used by the Defense Department to avoid more pejorative terms like "mercenary"
to describe Washington's growing shadow army.
While Passaro awaits
trial in North Carolina, another self- described "contractor," Jonathan K.
Idema, was convicted Wednesday in Afghanistan and sentenced to 10 years in a
case involving charges of torture and other crimes. And in Iraq, 16 of 44
incidents of abuse at Abu Ghraib have b een tied to private contractors.
In all, there are about 20,000 military contractors currently working
in Iraq for the U.S. government, according to the Washington Post; that's the
equivalent of three army divisions of contractors. Soldiers-for-hire like
Passaro are often employed (for as much as $200,000 a year) by former generals,
who retired to run clandestine operations for profit and who have, in many
cases, become millionaires from the secret budgets of the CIA and Defense
Department.
One such company alone, MPRI, has dozens of former
generals and 10,000 former soldiers in the field, including many former members
of the Special Forces. But privatization of the military comes at a price. In
recent years, contractors have been linked to abuses ranging from ethnic
cleansing operations in Croatia to the trafficking of sex slaves in Bosnia.
They have been used to circumvent federal restrictions on the military. (For
example, when Congress imposed a cap of 20,000 soldiers in Bosnia, the military
simply hired 2,000 more private military contractors.)
In Iraq,
they're dying just like regular soldiers. To date, roughly 120 contractors have
been killed there (although some were not involved in paramilitary activities).
They include Vincent Foster, a former Marine sniper who was engaged in
"skirmishes" in Iraq, and Scott Helvenston, who died guarding a convoy.
The growing use of contractors and freelancers for paramilitary work has fueled
an industry of mercenaries that was long in decline. Consider the strange case
of Idema. On July 5, 2004, Afghan police entered the private prison run by him
in Kabul. They reportedly found three men hanging from the ceiling while five
others were found beaten and tied in a dark small room. Idema, also a former
Special Forces member, claimed to have been working with the CIA and offered to
supply proof that high-ranking U.S. officials supported his operation.
Idema's case highlights the increasingly fluid definitions of soldiers,
contractors and freelancers. While officials denied any contact with Idema's
operation, the Defense Department recently acknowledged it held an Afghan man in
custody for two months after Idema delivered him to U.S. forces. Likewise,
officials now admit that Idema sent messages and faxes to top Pentagon
officials. Idema also reportedly arranged and participated in raids on homes
with NATO forces in Kabul.
It is not clear whether Idema was actually
employed by the U.S., but clearly he is part of a radically expanded market for
soldiers of fortune, a market fueled by U.S. dollars. Unlike Passaro, Idema
was conveniently left to Afghanistan. Not only was he denied the right to
cross- examine witnesses, but the presiding judge, Abdul Baset Bakhtyari,
dismissed his efforts to show his connections to "high-ranking military
officials."
As for Passaro, the government secured a federal court
order in Raleigh, N.C., barring the public disclosure of many of the facts of
his case, including de tails of his work for the CIA.
There has never
been a national debate on the use of mercenaries or on the rules governing their
conduct. And, if some powerful forces in Washington have their way, there never
will be. Washington's clandestine army reportedly receives billions and employs
tens of thousands. It is a growing dependence that could come back to haunt us.
Like many nations in history, we may find that it is far easier to hire
mercenaries than to be rid of them.