The New York Times’ Nina Bernstein reports that between 2004 and 2007, 66 detained immigrants died under custody of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Unlike prisons, ICE detention centers, some of which are privately-owned, have no procedures for detainees to exchange information with the ...

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 ...

Thomas Heath and David Cho of the Washington Post report moves by large investment companies to take over construction and management of major highways, with the potential for profit margins in the 12-15% range.  The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm, says it "can run most airports, highways and ...

While many want to pin the dominance of Blackwater in Iraq on the man with the Timberlands -- Paul Bremer -- it appears that interagency struggles did more to shape the company's expansion.

The U.S. Army has awarded a $475 million contract to a British firm, Aegis Defence Services, Alec Klein reports in the Washington Post.  The contract, a renewal for the British firm, is for "intelligence services to the Army and security for the Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction work in ...

Three opinion pieces in the Washington Post point out three plagues – ossified organizational behavior, lack of personal responsibility, and the dominance of outside contractors – underlying America's intelligence problems today. 

Two recent articles highlight problems with government contractors and personnel issues:

The article about some contractor employees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base not only conducting interrogations of detainees but also (possibly) giving orders to military staff regarding their raises huge questions about what work can and should be contracted ...

We know that the new Congress will be paying more attention, and providing less moral and political support, to job competitions between federal employees and contractors.  Yet, it was the old Congress– actually the still current one – that balked at earlier efforts to proceed with this initiative.

Many ...