iraq

Mission Essential Personnel (MEP) is the leading supplier of translators for the U.S. military for the war in Afghanistan. Founded in 2006 by Chad Monnin, a U.S. Army Special Forces reservist who was injured in a parachute accident, and two of his colleagues, the firm benefitted from the performance problems of Titan Corp., the company (now part of L-3 Communications) that had been the dominant translation contractor for the U.S. forces in Iraq in the early years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Halliburton is a leader in the oil services industry as a provider of engineering and construction services for oil extraction and development. After separating from Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) in 2007, it is no longer in the business of providing military logistics support.

Blackwater USA is a private military company and security firm founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. It is based in the U.S. state of North Carolina, where it operates a tactical training facility that it claims is the world's largest. The company trains more than 40,000 people a year, from all the military services and a variety of other agencies. The company markets itself as being "The most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world".

Triple Canopy, a mercenary company created out of nothing by a couple of U.S. Army Special Forces veterans, has benefited from the more notorious reputation of its rival Xe (formerly Blackwater). It gradually built its U.S. government business in Iraq (and elsewhere) and in April 2009 was chosen by the Obama Administration to take over a $1 billion Iraq contract that had been held by Blackwater. Triple Canopy’s record is far from spotless, however.

U.S. Investigations Services traces its origins back to 1883 as a part of the federal government’s Civil Service Commission (CSC). Tasked with checking backgrounds of prospective government employees, CSC evolved into the Investigations Service arm of the Office of Personnel Management. In 1996, the Clinton administration privatized this office, purportedly to save money, and sold it for $545 million to the Carlyle Group and the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe.