Use of Force by PSCs Extremely Rare

United Press International reports that the use of force by private security contractors (PSCs) is extremely rare, according to congressional testimony by Jack Bell (pictured), the deputy under secretary of defense for logistics and material readiness.

"He said that between August 2004 and February 2008, 'a period of rampant insurgency and sectarian violence in Iraq,' there were 19,268 contractor convoys run for the U.S. military. There were 1,441 attacks against them. But in only 151 cases -- less than 1 percent of convoys overall, and just over 10 percent of those that were attacked -- was the discharge of firearms by [PSC] personnel reported. And in some of these 151 incidents, only warning shots or disabling shots aimed at vehicles were involved."

UPI points out that these figures are for PSCs operating with the Pentagon and does not include those under State Department contract; "nonetheless, these figures and documents challenge the popular conception of PMCs as out-of-control 'cowboys.'"

United Press International Calls Out Journalists

David Isenberg of United Press International, in an article on private security contractors, provides this insightful analysis of most journalistic coverage of the topic:

Articles about private military or security contractors have a depressing tendency to be formulaic. They are predictably mistrustful of business, suspicious of people carrying guns and disdainful of what is, for all practical purposes, a blue-collar profession.

Consider for example the frequently cited belief that private security contractors are unsupervised, out-of-control gunslingers who act with impunity. This was particularly in vogue after the killing of Iraqi civilians and police in Baghdad by Blackwater contractors last September.

If nothing else, that incident provided a great deal of evidence to suggest that the reality is, to say the least, more nuanced. Industry sources were able to show anyone who was interested the numerous rules, regulations, in-house codes of conduct, military rules of engagement, and national and international laws they operate under.