WASHINGTON,
April 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Keening not to miss
the lion's share of post-war Iraq cake and securing the utmost profit
of the war it waged, the United States awarded a 50-million-dollar
contract (one-year contract) to a private firm to recruit 'advisors'
to train police in the war-battered country, the State Department and
the Virginia-based firm said Friday, April 18.
"We
have awarded a contract to DynCorp International to identify, deploy
and support up to 1,000 police, justice and prison advisors to
Iraq," said Brenda Greenberg, a department spokeswoman, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The
value of the contract could be as high as 50 million dollars in the
first year, she said, confirming a statement from DynCorp's parent
company Computer Sciences Corporation.
The
final amount of the contract will depend on assessments of Iraqi
capabilities and needs by initial 'advisors', who are expected to
arrive in the country shortly, the company said.
"Advisors
will work with Iraqi criminal justice organizations at the national,
provincial and municipal levels to assess threats to public order and
mentor personnel at all levels of the Iraqi legal apparatus," it
said.
The
company said it would be recruiting advisors from the ranks of current
and retired US law enforcement officers with a minimum of 10 years of
general experience and two years of specialized experience.
DynCorp
is a private military and security consulting company that has
extensive past experience in dealing with US government contracts.
Deplorable
Message
In
a related development, The New York Times said Saturday
that awarding the first major contract for Iraq's reconstruction to
politically-connected Bechtel sent "a deplorable message to a
skeptical world."
The
move "can only add to the impression that the United States seeks
to profit from the war it waged," the Times
charged.
"Bechtel
is undeniably one of the world's most experienced construction
companies and has a long history of doing business in the Middle
East," the Times acknowledged.
"But
like virtually all of the big American companies involved in global
construction, it has deep and longstanding ties with the power centers
in Washington," it went on.
