Agreement reached on contractor controls

Pentagon and State Department officials have reached a general understanding that U.S. military commanders in Baghdad should have more oversight of the government's private security contractors in Iraq and greater control over their movement, officials said Tuesday.

The military also wants to have a better understanding about how the private guards are trained and assurance that they are all following the same rules for the use of deadly force, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

"One entity has got to know who's going where and when and what they're doing there," Morrell told reporters. "And if it is unsafe or deemed not advisable to go there, someone is going to have the control to say, 'No, not at this time.'" That entity, he said, would be the military command in Iraq.

Speaking after a luncheon meeting between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Pentagon, Morrell said this does not mean the Pentagon would have full control over all private security or their contracts. He stressed that details are still being worked out and that the Pentagon's key priority is to have better coordination of the movement of security contractors on the battlefield.

The meeting came as officials try to improve control over private security guards in the aftermath of the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Morrell said a team of State Department and Defense Department officials reached a general understanding on some, but not all, aspects of reforming oversight of contractors. The group will travel to Baghdad in early November to present a set of proposals to Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Morrell said.

He said Gates firmly believes that Petraeus' approval is critical to any final agreement. But he added that "both secretaries want this matter urgently resolved. In my talking to the secretary, in his mind, he sees this all getting wrapped up before Thanksgiving."

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack echoed Morrell's account of the meeting.

He said there was "general agreement" between the agencies that operations of the State Department's private contractors in Iraq should be better coordinated between the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the military. He stressed, however, that there was no suggestion that the Pentagon assume control of those operations.

Morrell said that the Pentagon believes that the private guards should be subject to U.S. law and that they will be held liable for any illegal operations. The Iraqi government on Tuesday approved draft legislation lifting immunity for foreign private security companies, sending the measure to parliament.

"I think we believe at this point that we have the means by which to hold the people who work for us accountable," said Morrell. "And beyond that, I don't want to get into Iraqi politics."

Blackwater is the largest of the State Department's three security contractors working in Iraq.

There are about 7,300 private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Iraq, of which about 5,000 are guarding fixed sites important to the U.S. military or to the Iraqi government.

On another matter, Morrell confirmed that Gates will be traveling to Japan next week. It would be his first trip there as defense secretary.

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Associated Press writers Matt Lee and Robert Burns contributed to this report.

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