Contract Security work in Iraq

[studentcj]

Do any of you know someone that is doing contract security work in Iraq. I know the risk is high but Ive heard the pay is really high. To my knowledge a person has to have prior law enforcement and/or military experience. Does the military experience have to be in infantry or military police. Also, are these job openings only open to men or are they open to women as well. How is the process like, and how long does the contract last for. I would think a person would do a 1 yr stint before coming back to america. Can anyone direct me to some valuable websites with info on doing contracting security work in the middle east

[MSG6972]

I know a few guys in Iraq doing that right now. The pay is around 100k plus, tax free, so the money is good. The guys I know were not MP's or Infantry however you have a better chance of getting hired if you are in some sort of combat arms type job. Not sure about women, i haven't seen any women do it so I guess there is a good chance it is male only. The process basically consists of you getting hired, going through the training, and waiting for a spot on a team to open up. I am pretty sure you need a security clearance as well. They work 3 months and then get 1 month off. I think it is a year long contract. Look up Triple Canopy, they are the company doing alot of the security work in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. I havent heard alot of good things about doing that job though other than the money is good.

[Piggy]

They are not all police, unless that is the career you specifically want to know about. There are IT guys, translators and a whole host of other jobs over there. You can look at the websites for L3 Communications, Dyncorp, or a few other government contractors who have positions over there.

[Switchback]

What people don't get is that you can do contract work over there as a cook, truck driver, and maintenance guy. It doesn't matter, it will all pay pretty well. Obviously, heading over the wire will get you some extra coin. You need to look into the company that you are interested in working for and talk to them. KBR is one of the most diverse. If you are looking to be a gun-toter, you should have some experience toting a gun... PERIOD. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

[Norm357]

LOL Triple Canopy is a crap company.

[TSOC357]

Do any of you know someone that is doing contract security work in Iraq. I know the risk is high but Ive heard the pay is really high. To my knowledge a person has to have prior law enforcement and/or military experience. Does the military experience have to be in infantry or military police. Also, are these job openings only open to men or are they open to women as well. How is the process like, and how long does the contract last for. I would think a person would do a 1 yr stint before coming back to america. Can anyone direct me to some valuable websites with info on doing contracting security work in the middle east

No offense, but if you don't have military or substantial Civilian Law Enforcement in you background, you won't get hired doing security work over there. It's big boy rules over there for those types of gigs.

All the guys I know doing it are all prior military and that's what the companies seem to be looking for. Especially, people that have 2-3 deployments to the Middle East under their belts and are use to harsh conditions at times.

As stated, if you don't have to tools to do the security work, KBR (and others) hires folks from truck drivers to cooks. One of my buddies kid is over there now doing IT work for a company and making some serious cash.

Good luck.

[Trip]

LOL Triple Canopy is a crap company.

And you know this from your vast experience either working for them or being protected by them? Triple Canopy protected several of the FOBs in Iraq I worked or lived on, and did an exceptional job at it, they provided personal security detail for many trips I took into the red zone, which they did an exceptional job at, and the State Department seems to think they're pretty good - they keep racking up contracts that Blackwater once had.

Do they have issues like most companies have? Yep. Do they have issues probably like your own organization has? Yep. Do people like the job they do for them? As in any organization, they haven't been perfect, but I had EXCEPTIONAL protection from then when I was the client. I then worked for them years later based on that experience.

[Trip]

Oh, and the answer to whether women have worked for these companies is yes. When I worked in Adnan Palace, Dyncorp provided at lease one female gun toter for our security.

[Trip]

And you can take a one year contract but since they know a lot of the folks don't stay a whole year, they usually add an extra incentive to encourage you to stick it out for a year. That's pretty standard among all the companies.

Go to Dyncorp's site, Triple Canopy, Xe (was Blackwater), Global to start doing research but there are many, many of these companies.

[studentcj]

thanks guys I will pass this info to my friend, this question wasnt for me because im still working on my masters, and want to stay doing local LE. SHe has prior military (served 8 years in Army MP) and has been with a state LE agency for about 18 months

[TSOC357]

has been with a state LE agency for about 18 months

No offense, but why in God's name would ANYONE want to leave a State LE Agency and go to the ME? It's ok money (not like it use to be) and its going to go away soon enough. 2-3 of my guys just got out to go work for State Dept. as PSD Officer (or whatever they call them). Looks like that's the route State is going to take and Security Contractors will be going away.

I've got 20 or so service members in my BDE that would love to trade places with her.

[Switchback]

IMO, the contract work is good for 2 groups of individuals. You have those young guys, getting out of the military who have been getting paid too little for too long and need to pay off their bills before making a career somewhere. Then you have those retiring military & LEO personnel who want to make a few bucks to put away for retirement. That's it. It is pretty much a dead-end job that provides no resume-building for anything outside of working as a military contractor. I am along the lines of the previous poster, questioning the judgment of someone early in their LEO career leaving for this type of job.

[Trip]

No offense, but why in God's name would ANYONE want to leave a State LE Agency and go to the ME? It's ok money (not like it use to be) and its going to go away soon enough. 2-3 of my guys just got out to go work for State Dept. as PSD Officer (or whatever they call them). Looks like that's the route State is going to take and Security Contractors will be going away.

I've got 20 or so service members in my BDE that would love to trade places with her.

IMO, the contract work is good for 2 groups of individuals. You have those young guys, getting out of the military who have been getting paid too little for too long and need to pay off their bills before making a career somewhere. Then you have those retiring military & LEO personnel who want to make a few bucks to put away for retirement. That's it. It is pretty much a dead-end job that provides no resume-building for anything outside of working as a military contractor. I am along the lines of the previous poster, questioning the judgment of someone early in their LEO career leaving for this type of job.

Totally agree with both these posts, except that I believe State will keep a certain amount of a contract contingent because it's easy to either fire or not renew the contract....which gives them more budget flexibiity...but they are hiring more of them as employees. But yes, please do your friend a favor and have them really think about what they're doing for the long term because I do agree with the other two posts from that perspective. Plus if she thinks she's running away from bureaucratic BS, there is no such thing. IMHO.

[retdetsgt]

And, you can indulge in some "interesting" entertainment.

Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals

A scandal involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young "dancing boys" to entertain them in northern Afghanistan caused such panic that the interior minister begged the US embassy to try and "quash" the story, according to one of the US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

In a meeting with the assistant US ambassador, a panicked Hanif Atmar, the interior minister at the time of the episode last June, warned that the story would "endanger lives" and was particularly concerned that a video of the incident might be made public.

The episode helped to fuel Afghan demands that contractors and private security companies be brought under much tighter government control. However, the US embassy was legally incapable of honouring a request by Atmar that the US military should assume authority over training centres managed by DynCorp, the US company whose employees were involved in the incident in the northern province of Kunduz.

There is a long tradition of young boys dressing up as girls and dancing for men in Afghanistan, an activity that sometimes crosses the line into child abuse with Afghans keeping boys as possessions.

Although rarely discussed or criticised in Afghanistan, it is conceivable that the involvement of foreigners could have turned into a major public scandal. Atmar himself warned about public anger towards contractors, who he said "do not have many friends" and said they needed far greater oversight.

He also said tighter control was needed over Afghan employees of such companies as well.

"He was convinced that the Kunduz incident, and other events where mentors had obtained drugs, could not have happened without Afghan participation," the cable said.

Two Afghan policemen and nine other Afghans were arrested as part of investigations into a crime described by Atmar as "purchasing a service from a child", which the cable said was against both sharia law and the civil code.

He insisted that a journalist looking into the incident should be told that the story would endanger lives, and that the US should try to quash the story. But US diplomats cautioned against an "overreaction" and said that approaching the journalist involved would only make the story worse.

"A widely-anticipated newspaper article on the Kunduz scandal has not appeared but, if there is too much noise that may prompt the journalist to publish," the cable said.

The strategy appeared to work when an article was published in July by the Washington Post about the incident, which made little of the affair, saying it was an incident of "questionable management oversight" in which foreign DynCorp workers "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party".

In fact, the episode was causing palpitations at the top of government, including in the presidential palace.

The cable records: "Atmar said that President Karzai had told him that his (Atmar's) 'prestige' was in play in management of the Kunduz DynCorp matter and another recent event in which Blackwater contractors mistakenly killed several Afghan citizens. The President had asked him 'Where is the justice?'"

According to a separate cable both incidents helped fuel Afghan government demands "to hold a tighter rein over [private security companies]" – a demand that also led Atmar to offer that the overstretched police should take over protection for military convoys in the south of Afghanistan.

Earlier this year Karzai issued a decree calling for the dissolution of all private security companies by the end of the year, an edict that has since been slightly watered down.

In a meeting between Atmar and the assistant ambassador Joseph Mussomeli, the US diplomat said he was deeply upset by the incident and that the embassy was considering Afghan demands that the US military should beginning overseeing the DynCrop operations.

Privately, however, they knew that such an arrangement was not "legally possible under the DynCorp contract".

Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals | World news | guardian.co.uk

[Trip]

And, you can indulge in some "interesting" entertainment.

Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals

A scandal involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young "dancing boys" to entertain them in northern Afghanistan caused such panic that the interior minister begged the US embassy to try and "quash" the story, according to one of the US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

In a meeting with the assistant US ambassador, a panicked Hanif Atmar, the interior minister at the time of the episode last June, warned that the story would "endanger lives" and was particularly concerned that a video of the incident might be made public.

The episode helped to fuel Afghan demands that contractors and private security companies be brought under much tighter government control. However, the US embassy was legally incapable of honouring a request by Atmar that the US military should assume authority over training centres managed by DynCorp, the US company whose employees were involved in the incident in the northern province of Kunduz.

There is a long tradition of young boys dressing up as girls and dancing for men in Afghanistan, an activity that sometimes crosses the line into child abuse with Afghans keeping boys as possessions.

Although rarely discussed or criticised in Afghanistan, it is conceivable that the involvement of foreigners could have turned into a major public scandal. Atmar himself warned about public anger towards contractors, who he said "do not have many friends" and said they needed far greater oversight.

He also said tighter control was needed over Afghan employees of such companies as well.

"He was convinced that the Kunduz incident, and other events where mentors had obtained drugs, could not have happened without Afghan participation," the cable said.

Two Afghan policemen and nine other Afghans were arrested as part of investigations into a crime described by Atmar as "purchasing a service from a child", which the cable said was against both sharia law and the civil code.

He insisted that a journalist looking into the incident should be told that the story would endanger lives, and that the US should try to quash the story. But US diplomats cautioned against an "overreaction" and said that approaching the journalist involved would only make the story worse.

"A widely-anticipated newspaper article on the Kunduz scandal has not appeared but, if there is too much noise that may prompt the journalist to publish," the cable said.

The strategy appeared to work when an article was published in July by the Washington Post about the incident, which made little of the affair, saying it was an incident of "questionable management oversight" in which foreign DynCorp workers "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party".

In fact, the episode was causing palpitations at the top of government, including in the presidential palace.

The cable records: "Atmar said that President Karzai had told him that his (Atmar's) 'prestige' was in play in management of the Kunduz DynCorp matter and another recent event in which Blackwater contractors mistakenly killed several Afghan citizens. The President had asked him 'Where is the justice?'"

According to a separate cable both incidents helped fuel Afghan government demands "to hold a tighter rein over [private security companies]" – a demand that also led Atmar to offer that the overstretched police should take over protection for military convoys in the south of Afghanistan.

Earlier this year Karzai issued a decree calling for the dissolution of all private security companies by the end of the year, an edict that has since been slightly watered down.

In a meeting between Atmar and the assistant ambassador Joseph Mussomeli, the US diplomat said he was deeply upset by the incident and that the embassy was considering Afghan demands that the US military should beginning overseeing the DynCrop operations.

Privately, however, they knew that such an arrangement was not "legally possible under the DynCorp contract".

Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals | World news | guardian.co.uk

Old news. Story was covered on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, in the W Post, etc earlier in the year. Anyone looking for perfection in a war zone isn't going to find it. Never have. Never will.