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The civilian underbelly of the US military effort in Iraq was the topic of more House hearings. Blackwater USA is one of the leading contracting firms that provide logistics and security. NBC filed an In Depth report into the poor protection it offered its own workers. The case in point at the hearings was the massacre, mutilation and hanging of four contact workers in Fallujah in March 2004. The firm is accused of sending the men out "without armored vehicles, without heavy machine guns, even without a map," Lisa Myers related.
Under this "sub-contracting of the war with very limited government oversight," ABC's Brian Ross added, these firms make a massive mark-up, billing the Pentagon double what they pay their workers. ABC's Charles Gibson suggested that the key question is whether Blackwater had improved its security since that 2004 incident. Not necessarily. The key question is whether this outsourcing is cheaper, safer, more efficient or more accountable than having the work done in uniform.
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