Can an allegedly unprovoked and fatal shooting of 17 civilians be grounds for criminal prosecution? That’s what a Washington, D.C. district court was trying to decide yesterday—whether State Dept. contractor Blackwater could be charged under U.S. law for its employees killing Iraqi civilians last September. ...

Two weeks ago the New York Times rpeorted that State Dept. contractor Blackwater was largely off the hook for their allegedly unwarranted shootings of Iraqi civilians. But the Wall Street Journal’s August Cole reports that the private security company’s bad reputation is hurting it in other ways.

And eventually everything calms down and you can get back to business as usual.  Based on James Risen's report in the New York Times, that's what appears to have happened with Blackwater USA, the private security contractor with the largest role in protecting U.S. personnel and resources in Iraq.  Eight ...

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reported yesterday that the U.S. army in Iraq is looking toward private contractors to train the Iraq military. Reliance on the private sector for Iraq security is well-documented but contracting out the military ...

Poorly grounded electrical wiring in Iraq installed by mega-contractor KBR has directly contributed to the deaths of at least five U.S. troops. The New York Times’ James Risen explained yesterday how the Pentagon and KBR have been unwilling and unable to confront a rudimentary problem. 

And pretty soon you're talking about real money.  If Pentagon overspending and misspending weren't so good for so many people, Scot Paltrow's piece in Conde Nast Portfolio would be ringing alarm bells all over the country.  Turns out that the Defense Department's accounting system is so outdated, cobbled together, and ...

The Washington Post’s Christopher Lee takes stock of an overlooked part of President Bush’s government reform agenda -- “competitive sourcing.” Bush wanted to translate 425,000 jobs performed by federal employees -- from janitors to IT specialists -- to the private sector, if companies could do the jobs more cheaply. ...

The Washington Post’s Josh White reports on a fishy $50 million contract given to Strategic Message Solutions. The company had “barely existed” in 2005, but the contract was given that year “to reward a recently retired four-star general and a millionaire civilian pilot who had ...

That’s at least the case with the people who process passports at the State Department. The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler reports that due to the backlog in passport applications, the State Department has hired an army of contractors. Currently 60 percent of the agency’s 4,400 employees ...

It is hard to keep track of all the Justice Department investigations alleging abuses by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Glenn R. Simpson of the Wall Street Journal writes that the Pentagon is targeting a lesser-known scandal -- food contractors overcharging for the meals they serve military personnel. ...