What Do You Do With a Drunken Contractor?

Documents obtained by the Associated Press detail offenses committed by more than 200 contractor employees in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere from 2004 to 2008. The violations include "excessive drinking, drug use, sexual misconduct and mishandling weapons," AP's Richard Lardner reports. Many of the contractors were working under an umbrella contract for security services awarded to three firms.

The problem, Lardner notes, is that some of the incidents of misconduct played out in public, causing embarassment to the United States and creating diplomatic problems. And even the incidents that did not turn into public scandals were problematic. In 2005, five DynCorp International security guards assigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's protective detail arrived in their compound drunk at 2:00 a.m., with a prostitute. This year, Karzai sought to ban security contractors from the country.

In the October issue of Government Executive, Robert Brodsky detailed efforts to establish a global code of conduct for security contractors.