War contractor death toll

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/afghan-war-risks-are-shifting-to-co\

ntractors.html?hpw

 

 

February 11, 2012

Risks of Afghan War Shift From Soldiers to ContractorsBy ROD NORDLAND

KABUL, Afghanistan — Even dying is being outsourced here.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base

guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector.

Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal

bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian

contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in

Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

 

American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of

their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of

all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most

of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted — and in some cases, leave

their survivors uncompensated.

 

“By continuing to outsource high-risk jobs that were previously performed by

soldiers, the military, in effect, is privatizing the ultimate sacrifice,â€

said L. Schooner, a law professor at Washington University who has

studied the civilian casualties issue.

Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed

in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States

Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according

to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part

from the United States Department of Labor.

By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to

Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent

organization that monitors war deaths.

 

That trend has been growing for the past several years in Afghanistan, and it

parallels a similar trend in Iraq, where contractor deaths exceeded military

deaths as long ago as 2009. In Iraq, however, that took place as the number of

American troops was being drastically reduced until their complete withdrawal at

the end of last year. And last year, more soldiers than private contractors died

in Iraq (54 compared with 41, according to Labor Department figures).

 

Experts who have studied the phenomenon say that because many contractors do not

comply with even the current, scanty reporting requirements, the true number of

private contractor deaths may be far higher. “No one believes we’re

underreporting military deaths,†Mr. Schooner said. “Everyone believes

we’re underreporting contractor deaths.â€

 

Qais Mansoori, 20, may have been among the uncounted. An Afghan interpreter

employed by Mission Essential Personnel, a leading provider of interpreters in

Afghanistan, Mr. Mansoori was killed along with five other interpreters when

Taliban insurgents overran the military base where the interpreters were staying

in the Mirwais district of Kandahar Province in July 2010.

That attack, typically, was scantily reported, since no soldiers died —

although the death toll was 17, including an unidentified American civilian,

according to Afghan officials and Mr. Mansoori’s friends and family.

 

Under the federal Defense Base Act, American defense contractors are obliged to

report the war zone deaths and injuries of their employees — including

subcontractors and foreign workers — to the Department of Labor, and to carry

insurance that will provide the employees with medical care and compensation. In

the case of foreign employees, which many of the dead were, survivors generally

receive a death benefit equal to half of the employee’s salary for life;

American employees get even more.

 

Mr. Mansoori’s brother, Mohammad, 35, an employee of a mine-removal charity in

Afghanistan, said his brother’s employer, Mission Essential Personnel,

promptly contacted the family and made a lump sum payment of $10,004, never

mentioning the lifetime annuity to which they were entitled — which given Mr.

Mansoori’s salary of $800 a month would have been closer to $150,000 over his

survivors’ lifetimes. “I wish he was still here to look after my father and

mother,†Mohammad Mansoori said. Their father is blind, and Qais Mansoori was

his parents’ sole support, he said.

 

A spokesman for Mission Essential Personnel, Rushton, disputed that, saying

that his company has been making biweekly payments of $190 to Mr. Mansoori’s

family and will continue doing so for 29 years. The $10,004 lump sum payment was

a voluntary death gratuity paid by the company, Mr. Rushton said.

 

There were 113,491 employees of defense contractors in Afghanistan as of January

2012, compared with about 90,000 American soldiers, according to Defense

Department statistics. Of those, 25,287, or about 22 percent of the employees,

were American citizens, with 47 percent Afghans and 31 percent from other

countries.

 

The bulk of the known contractor deaths are concentrated among a handful of

major companies, particularly those providing interpreters, drivers, security

guards and other support personnel who are particularly vulnerable to attacks.

The biggest contractor in terms of war zone deaths is apparently the defense

giant L-3 Communications. If L-3 were a country, it would have the third highest

loss of life in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq; only the United States and

Britain would exceed it in fatalities.

Over the past 10 years, L-3 and its subsidiaries, including Titan Corporation

and MPRI Inc., had at least 370 workers killed and 1,789 seriously wounded or

injured through the end of 2011 in Iraq and Afghanistan, records show. In a

statement, a spokeswoman for L-3, Barton, said: “L-3 is proud to have

the opportunity to support the U.S. and coalition efforts in Iraq and

Afghanistan. We mourn the loss of life of these dedicated men and women.â€

 

Other American companies with a high number of fatalities are Supreme Group, a

catering company, with 241 dead through the end of 2011; Service Employees

International, another catering company, with 125 dead; and security companies

like DynCorps (101 dead), Aegis (86 dead) and Hart Group (63 dead). In all,

according to Labor Department data, 64 American companies have lost more than

seven employees each in the past 10 years.

 

The American dead have included people like McLaughlin, 55, who trained

pilots on a contract for MPRI and was killed by a rogue Afghan pilot who also

killed eight American soldiers last April; and Todd , Clawson and

Ozier, employees of AAR Airlift, who were killed in a helicopter

crash in Helmand Province last month for which Taliban insurgents claimed

responsibility.

For every contractor who is killed, many more are seriously wounded. According

to the Labor Department’s statistics, 1,777 American contractors in

Afghanistan were injured or wounded seriously enough to miss more than four days

of work last year.

 

Marcie Hascall began the Defense Base Act Compensation Blog after her

husband, Merlin, a former Navy explosives ordnance disposal expert, was injured

in 2003 while working for an American contractor. She and her husband have spent

the past seven years fighting for hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability

payments and medical compensation. “It was quite a shock to learn how little

my husband’s body, mind and future were worth,†she said.

Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.