Monday, May 21, 2007
Foreign security company lands $6 mn. parliament contract
Security
(Azzaman) - The Iraqi parliament is to sign a $6 million deal with a foreign security firm that will deploy guards to protect the deputies. Adel Barbari of the Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee said the company, which he declined to name would station guards at premises where the deputies meet protect them against violent attacks.
Foreign guards of whom there are tens of thousands in Iraq earn huge sums of money with a base annual salary of $150,000. In Iraqi parlance the guards are ‘mercenaries’ and are targeted by Iraqi armed and resistance groups. Their rough behavior and trigger happy character has earned them the wrath of the Iraqi people. Like U.S troops, they are immune from prosecution and standing trial under Iraqi law.
Barbari said the foreign guards would supervise “Iraqi security personnel, protect the parliament building and inspect anyone entering and leaving it.” Several people, including a number of deputies, were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the parliament’s cafeteria last month. Barbari said the deputies were determined not to let that kind of attack happen again.
Foreign guards of whom there are tens of thousands in Iraq earn huge sums of money with a base annual salary of $150,000. In Iraqi parlance the guards are ‘mercenaries’ and are targeted by Iraqi armed and resistance groups. Their rough behavior and trigger happy character has earned them the wrath of the Iraqi people. Like U.S troops, they are immune from prosecution and standing trial under Iraqi law.
Barbari said the foreign guards would supervise “Iraqi security personnel, protect the parliament building and inspect anyone entering and leaving it.” Several people, including a number of deputies, were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the parliament’s cafeteria last month. Barbari said the deputies were determined not to let that kind of attack happen again.
Labels: Adel Barbari, foreign security firm, Iraqi parliament
