By, Nathan Hodge
WASHINGTON—The State Department is preparing to spend close to $3 billion to hire a security force to protect diplomats in Iraq after the U.S. pulls its last troops out of the country by year's end.
In testimony Monday before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, said the department plans to hire a 5,100-strong force to protect diplomatic personnel, guard embassy buildings and operate a fleet of aircraft and armored vehicles.
Underscoring the security risks in Iraq, five American troops were killed Monday in an attack in Baghdad, the largest single loss of life for the U.S. military there since April 2009.
Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. Under a 2008 U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, all U.S. troops are supposed to leave the country by the end of the year, leaving behind only a small military office to oversee arms sales.
While U.S. officials have expressed a willingness to station a small residual force in the country, it is unclear if the Iraqi government will make the request, which faces strong opposition in Iraq.
A large U.S. diplomatic presence will remain, however, and the departments of state and defense are wrestling with how to provide security for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad—which is a target of rocket attacks—and diplomatic outposts in the provinces.
As the military withdraws, Mr. Kennedy said, the State Department will rely on contractors to carry out a range of military-style missions that he said were "not inherently governmental," including providing emergency medical evacuation, operating systems to detect and warn against incoming rocket or artillery fire, or rescue diplomatic personnel under attack.
The contract security force slated for Iraq would far outstrip the State Department's in-house diplomatic security force. Mr. Kennedy said the State Department currently employs around 1,800 diplomatic security personnel around the world.
According to Mr. Kennedy, the military is handing over nearly 4,000 pieces of military hardware to the State Department, equipment valued at approximately $209 million. The hardware includes biometric equipment for screening personnel, and 60 armored vehicles designed to withstand roadside bomb attacks. The military is handing over systems that provide warning of attacks.
The State Department has awarded a series of multiyear contracts to private security companies for guard forces, including a $974 million award to SOC Inc. to guard the embassy in Baghdad, $1.5 billion to Triple Canopy Inc. for mobile security, and $401 million to Global Strategies Group Inc. for guarding a consulate in Basra. The State Department has also awarded a contract for medical services.
The department hasn't released a breakdown of how much, exactly, it will spend on security in 2012, the first year after U.S. troops withdraw. When the department's budget request was submitted in February, a senior State Department official said security costs would make up a "significant" portion of the department's operating budget for Iraq. The State Department awards security contracts, but overall funding levels must be approved by Congress.
Oversight of private security contractors has been a concern in both Washington and Baghdad, with some critics arguing that the U.S. has effectively outsourced military force. The Iraqi Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the plans to hire a private security force.
The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting panel was created in 2008 to help oversee U.S. government spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the hearing Monday, members expressed concern that contractors were performing missions that should more appropriately be done by government personnel.
Former Congressman Christopher Shays, a co-chairman of the commission, raised the possibility that contractors might have to use force to rescue diplomatic personnel caught in a roadside improvised explosive device attack, potentially leading to an overt combat role.
"If you have an IED and you need to get a medic to deal with the injuries that are outside the embassy and—and/or you are under fire and you have to shoot your way out to get back to safety—in either case, you have to get someone there to attend to the wounded and you have to aggressively use force or you have to aggressively use force to get out, why do you think that's not an inherently governmental function?" he asked Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy said he was comfortable with the distinction between the way the military used force, and the more defensive role of contract security.
"We fully understand that we still have challenges ahead as we carry out our diplomatic missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations where we rely on contingency contracting, but we believe we have instituted a sound foundation to carry us forward," Mr. Kennedy said.
