266: I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help
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William is part of a team that's rebuilding one of the power plants outside Bagdad. And for everything that you've probably heard about how dangerous it is to be in Iraq, and how difficult much of the work is, here's one occupational hazard you probably haven't heard of. Working seven days a week, it's very easy to lose track of the time. There's no difference in a Monday, or a Friday, or a Sunday. It's all the same day. We're joking there for what is the Groundhog Day. Jerry's training Iraqi police. Because you're not sure what day it is, and when you've come right down to it, it's not much different than yesterday. It's going to be the same as tomorrow. It visits a green zone, some business in the palace, some business at the police stations. Don works out at the airport for a private security firm. It says everybody was this track of time. We had a guy in a vehicle that hit a landmine, and miraculously nobody got hurt. And when they brought him to the dotter, the dotter asked, "What day is it?" I can't tell you what day it is most days, and I haven't been hit by a landmine. That was kind of an unfair question. Today's radio show came from a simple set of questions. We kept hearing about these private contractors who were working in Iraq. These are civilians doing everything for U.S. troops from serving meals and building housing, maintaining weapons systems. Private contractors interrogated prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Other contractors are the people who are actually rebuilding Iraq's sewage and water and electrical infrastructure. And here at our radio show we wondered, "Who are these people who signed up for this?" We decided the very best job they could get was going to be in the middle of a war zone. Should we just see them as mercenaries? Are they motivated by feelings that are more idealistic than that? Civilians are part of this war in unprecedented numbers. They're an important part of the war effort. They're part of what is going to determine if we're successful in Iraq or not. Nobody knows for sure, but it is at least 20,000 people in Iraq working just as soldiers for hire, escorting convoys, protecting stuff. That's more than any other countries in the coalition of the willing of sent. Britain, who said the most, only sent 9,000 troops. Private contractors, in a sense, are our biggest allies in Iraq. The coalition partners that nobody ever talks about. Partly does the private companies don't usually give access to reporters. Under no obligation to give access. As a result, we don't even know how many of their employees have died. There is a website called icasualties.org, which lists 243 confirmed deaths, actual names. This is far more casualties than all of our allies combined. About a year ago, April 2004, this is right at the moment when the violence in Iraq was really heating up. One of our contributing editors, Nancy Updike, headed into Iraq and managed to spend three weeks with employees of several different companies who are operating there. We're devoting our entire program today to her report. From Chicago Public Radio, it's this American life, distributed by Public Radio International, on my red glass. And we started the airport. When Nancy was in Iraq, one of the dozens of security firms operating there was an outfit based in Rhode Island called Custer Battles, named for the two guys who started the company. Among other things, they had a contract to run security for much of Baghdad International Airport, where there are also lots of U.S. soldiers stationed.
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