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Get Four
|  | APRIL 19, 2005
A Hole in Bush's Iraq Exit Strategy[Page 2 of 2]RICH REWARDS. When the committee finishes its work in August, the number of police could fall sharply, say officials. "It's safe to say there are tens of thousands on the payroll who aren't working," says Matt Sherman, a State Dept. official who served as senior security adviser to Iraq's Interior Minister for 14 months. To be fair, creating from scratch a police force nearly four times as big as that of New York City would make an ambitious task under any circumstances. Doing so in a nation still in the throes of an urban guerrilla war approaches the impossible. More than 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and cops have been killed, with 6,000 wounded. But the high risks bring high rewards for trainers. More than 800 former FBI agents, cops, and other private-contract employees are helping to build a police force. The majority work for DynCorp International, which has a $500 million contract, or SAIC, which has a $200 million contract and more than 250 personnel in-country. Last spring, the U.S. military's Civilian Police Assistance Training Team gave a $200 million contract to U.S. Investigations Services, which has 50 people in Iraq, to help train police in counterinsurgency operations. And in February, the Justice Dept. awarded a contract valued at up to $400 million to L-3 Communications Holdings (LLL ), a subsidiary of MPRI, to help provide police training. MPRI is taking over the work performed by SAIC. The pay typically exceeds $100,000 a year, but being a private-contract employee in Iraq may qualify as the most dangerous civilian job in the world. GETTING RESPECT. So far, 210 contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began. In fact, while an SAIC spokesman says "it made a business decision not to rebid for its contract," State Dept. officials say SAIC dropped out because of the work's danger. "My wife will change the locks on the door if I go back," says David Brannan, a former cop and now a terrorism analyst for RAND Corp., who narrowly escaped death by a mortar attack last year while helping to train the police in Iraq. Overall, U.S. military officials and contractors say the training of Iraqi police forces is gaining momentum. The most visible sign of progress came on Jan. 30, when Iraqi police and troops played a key role in protecting about 5,200 polling sites, allowing some 8 million citizens to vote. The leader of Iraq's Special Police Commandos, General Adnan Thabit, says his forces have benefited from a growing stream of intelligence from citizens who call in tips about insurgent activities. "Patrol officers are getting a lot more respect," says Vince McNally, an ex-FBI agent who teaches a hostage negotiation course for SAIC. The eventual goal is to have Iraqis training all of their security forces, but private contractors expect to continue working well into 2006. One small but revealing reason: McNally says half of his students suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. "They are the main targets of insurgents," he says. "It makes it difficult to maintain their attention span."
 By Spencer Ante in New York
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