Reply #23: 2,500 for the State Department. Less than 10,000 total...

[mvccd1000]

... including State Department and DOD.

From this link:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmWrnOqDy3WHd-7awW9RivtzCEtw

The New York Times, which reported on the issue Wednesday, said the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which wants to keep control over the 2,500 private security contractors it employs in Iraq, about 800 of them from Blackwater USA.



From this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/blackwater.state.review/

"Blackwater is one of three contractors being used by the U.S. and one of ten to fifteen being used in country by the U.S., the U.N. and others," one person familiar with the recommendations said. "The military can't do it all alone. You are going to be living with this for some time and so you need to have rules, regulations and a methodology."



From this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/washington/17blackwater.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is pressing for the nearly 10,000 armed security contractors now working for the United States government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely the American military, in an effort to bring Blackwater USA under tighter control, senior administration officials and Pentagon advisers say.