Excepts from their email received today:
- This Week: "Private Warriors" (60min.),
Tuesday, Jun. 21, 2005 PBS (check your local listings)
- Inside FRONTLINE: A first encounter with the private side of the Iraq war
- Live Discussion: Chat with producer/correspondent Martin Smith this
Wed. at 11 am ET
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Louis Wiley Jr., Executive Editor of Frontline says :
"There is a story in Iraq that I'd call 'the elephant in the room' - the
huge role of private contractors in the war effort. " (more after the jump)
There are as many as
100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security
forces in the country. In "Private Warriors,"...
you will get an eye-opening look behind the scenes at the Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, the largest company running U.S. military supply lines and operating U.S. military bases. You'll also enter the world of the private security firms that are performing many military functions. The tension between these security teams and the military is just one
simmering and largely unreported problem in the private side of this war. The problem is reflected in an incident that didn't make it into
the film, but which producer/correspondent Martin Smith shared....
"It didn't take long for our story to slap us in the face. We had just arrived in Kuwait and were driving to Camp Arijan, southwest of Kuwait
City. It's a major staging area for the Iraq war. Captain David Tippett would be greeting us somewhere outside the first checkpoint to clear us in. Tippett's a guy a lot of journalists know well as he has helped hundreds move through Kuwait and over the border into Iraq ever since
the early days of the war. He's a savvy public affairs officer, and I knew we were in good hands.
But, just outside the main base gates we hit a long line of trucks.Tippett is on the phone telling us to skip the line and meet him at the
gate. We pull out of the line-up and move down the left lane. But, out of nowhere, two black Suburbans with tinted windows bear down on us
forcing us onto the left shoulder. Armed guards jump out.
The guards work for a Fort Worth, Texas private security company CSA (Combat Support Associates), which, I learn, has the contract to
protect the base. We get Tippett on the phone to get these guys off our backs. But the fun and games were just beginning. By the time we get to the gate and shake hands with the captain, we're already late and our first appointment on the base is threatening to cancel. We get out of our car and march over deep gravel up to a small trailer park of offices to get our ID's.
Next, I hear Tippett begin to raise his voice at one of the CSA guards, "They are my guests, they are approved." Our names are not on the list
of visitors. Tippett wants the guard to call an army officer on base but the guard refuses. It's an army base; Tippett is a captain.
By now, Tippett is yelling, "This is an army base! These are my guests!Call the base commander!"
"We don't do that," says the CSA guard.
"Well, goddamn it, what if a bomb went off out here? You wouldn't call the base commander?" asks Tippett.
"We don't talk with the army. We call our office," replies the guard.
There's always a silver lining. Because I'm thinking it could be part of our story. We can't even get onto an army base with an army escort.
Then, in the middle of Tippett's argument, sirens go off. We're told,"You gotta go, the dog sat down." We're herded, along with hundreds of
imported laborers also waiting to get onto the base, out into the desert.. a few hundred yards away from the gate. We stand for an hour or two
under a rising desert sun. One of the K-9's sniffed explosives and, as trained, sat down. We never did get on the base that day."
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Just in case you were wondering who was running things, I think this will make it perfectly clear !