Legal Commentary

Benjamin Hallman, a reporter at our sister publication, The American Lawyer, spent almost two weeks this month embedded with the U.S. Army in Baghdad.

?As far as I know, this is a first for the company,? says our CEO William Pollak. ?We?re not usually in the business of sending journalists into a war zone. But the development of a court system and introduction of the rule of law in Iraq is an important story which happens to involve quite a few American lawyers.?

As part of his assignment, Hallman blogged every day for Law.com and americanlawyer.com.

Hallman's Rule of Law: Dispatches From Iraq blog posts are compelling, sometimes funny, and always increased my anxiety level about having one of our own in harm?s way.

Here?s an excerpt:

?I had read about the outsourcing of functions once handled by the Army (from cooking to convoy security), but I never appreciated to what extent the military is reliant on independent contractors until I got here. KBR, in particular, seems like a fifth branch of the armed services. KBR workers are everywhere, and they make far more (in some cases) than their military counterparts. A convoy driver, I?m told, is paid between $6,000 and $8,000 a month.

?[A Navy Seals] officer told me the Seals had to dramatically boost their reenlistment bonus to staunch defections to the private side. At the other end of the spectrum, a Peruvian guard, also employed by KBR, told me he makes about $1,200 a month. The guard told me he is leaving soon, after two years in Baghdad.

?Baghdad, too much muerte,? he told me, pantomiming a rocket flying into the Green Zone. Iraqi army soldiers are also paid far less than senior KBR and U.S. military personnel. My conclusion: There is an inverse relationship here between a guard/soldier?s exposure to danger and his salary.

On my last afternoon in Baghdad, another reporter and I tried to get into the monument to the fallen soldier. Two lonely Iraqi army soldiers at the gate apologized and said it was closed. Then they asked for water. I told the Navy Seal about this and he said Iraqi soldiers are issued one bottle a day, never mind that it was easily 95 degrees. (Our escort, a
National Guard soldier from the media unit, bought the two Iraqis some water.)?

Watch for Hallman?s story in The American Lawyer. I?m glad he?s safely home.                 ? M.B.