The U.S. is spending billions of dollars to reconstruct Iraq while combating an insurgency that has targeted military & contractor personnel & the Iraqi people. This environment created a need for those rebuilding Iraq to obtain security services. This report evaluated the extent to which: (1) U.S. agencies & contractors acquired security services from private providers; (2) the U.S. military & private security providers developed a working relationship; & (3) U.S. agencies assessed the costs of using private security providers on reconstruction contracts. Includes recommendations to the Secretaries of Defense & State & the Admin., U.S. Agency for International Development. (USAID). Charts & tables.

We know more today.about how the Administration has mismanaged the contracts to reconstruct Iraq. And what we have learned shows that the problems are even worse than we thought. All.perspectives point to the same conclusion: Halliburton is gouging the taxpayer and the Bush Administration doesn't seem to care.-Statement of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Government ReformREBUILDING IRAQ: U.S. Mismanagement in the Middle East discussed the oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq funds through the national budgetary process. Originally issued in late January 2005 by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the main objective of this audit was to determine whether the Coalition's Provisional Authority (CPA) implemented adequate procedures for the recording, reviewing and reporting disbursements for the reconstruction of Iraq. The results of the audit contain detailed information relating to managerial, financial, and contract controls as well as formal recommendations about the oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq funds.Organized chronologically from early December 2004 through end of July 2005, additional documents contained in this report include numerous Facts Sheets on the value of Halliburton contracts including a comprehensive overview of the total value these contracts as well as information pointing to serious problems from severe contract abuses to the mismanagement of funds in Iraq.

The Global Arms Trade is a timely, comprehensive and in-depth study of this topic, a phenomenon which has continued to flourish despite the end of the Cold War and the preoccupation with global terrorism after 11 September 2001. It provides a clear description and analysis of the demand for, and supply of, modern weapons systems, and assess key issues of concern. This book will be especially useful to scholars, policy analysts, those in the arms industry, defence professionals, students of international relations and security studies, media professionals, government officials, and those generally interested in the arms trade.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The founder of Blackwater offers the gripping true story of the world’s most controversial military contractor. In 1997, former Navy SEAL Erik Prince started a business that would recruit civilians for the riskiest security jobs in the world. As Blackwater’s reputation grew, demand for its services escalated, and its men eventually completed nearly 100,000 missions for both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was a huge success except for one problem: Blackwater was demonized around the world. Its employees were smeared as mercenaries, profiteers, or worse. And because of the secrecy requirements of its contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA, Prince was unable to correct false information. But now he’s finally able to tell the full story about some of the biggest controversies of the War on Terror, in a memoir that reads like a thriller.