Private Military Firms

1. Private Military Firms (PMFs) are private businesses who recruit and train individuals, known as private military security contractors, in the techniques of arms and armaments, both for foreign wars and domestic policing. Such a company trains its contractors to use a wide range of weapons from pistols to rocket launchers. They also teach techniques of attack, capture, and interrogation. These companies maintain databases of contractors that can be assembled at a moment's notice, like a small army. For example Blackwater Worldwide boasts their database is 21,000.contractors. These contractors are then deployed on assignments for governments and for corporations.
2. Between 1994 and 2002 US-based Private Military Security Companies received more than 3,000 contracts worth over $300 billion from the U.S. Department of Defense.
3. Currently over 800,000 contractors have security clearances at 11,000 government facilities.
4. Blackwater's Federal Contracts from 2001 through 2006 totaled over $1 billion.
5. Blackwater charges the U.S. government $1,222 per day for services of a private military contractor. This is equivalent to $445,000 per year, over six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier.