In Afghanistan, U.S. contract workers' toll rises AFGHANISTAN

Mohammed Mansoori clears the grave of his brother, Qais, who died working while working for an American contractor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 8, 2012. Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan, more than the number of American soldiers killed. (Andrea Bruce/The New York Times) less Mohammed Mansoori clears the grave of his brother, Qais, who died working while working for an American contractor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 8, 2012. Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors ... more Photo: Andrea Bruce, The New York Times Photo: Andrea Bruce, The New York Times Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close In Afghanistan, U.S. contract workers' toll rises 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Kabul, Afghanistan -- Even dying is being outsourced here.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many U.S. generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for U.S. companies than U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

U.S. employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted - and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.

Privatizing sacrifice

"By continuing to outsource high-risk jobs that were previously performed by soldiers, the military, in effect, is privatizing the ultimate sacrifice," said Steven Schooner, a law professor at George Washington University who has studied the civilian casualties issue.

Last year, at least 430 employees of U.S. contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the U.S. Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the U.S. Department of Labor.

By comparison, 418 U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.

Experts say that because many contractors do not comply with even the current, scanty reporting requirements, the true number of private contractor deaths may be far higher. "No one believes we're underreporting military deaths," Schooner said. "Everyone believes we're underreporting contractor deaths."

Qais Mansoori, 20, may have been among the uncounted. An Afghan interpreter employed by Mission Essential Personnel, a leading provider of interpreters in Afghanistan, Mansoori was killed along with five other interpreters when Taliban insurgents overran the military base where the interpreters were staying in the Mirwais District of Kandahar province in July 2010.

That attack, typically, was scantily reported, since no soldiers died - although the death toll was 17, including an unidentified U.S. civilian, according to Afghan officials and Mansoori's friends and family.

Under the federal Defense Base Act, U.S. defense contractors are obliged to report the war zone deaths and injuries of their employees - including subcontractors and foreign workers - to the Department of Labor, and to carry insurance that will provide the employees with medical care and compensation. In the case of foreign employees, which many of the dead were, survivors generally receive a death benefit equal to half of the employee's salary for life; U.S. employees get even more.

Compensation for loss

Mansoori's brother, Mohammad, 35, an employee of a mine-removal charity in Afghanistan, said his brother's employer, Mission Essential Personnel, promptly contacted the family and made a lump sum payment of $10,004, never mentioning the lifetime annuity to which they were entitled - which given Mansoori's salary of $800 a month would have been closer to $150,000 over his survivors' lifetimes. "I wish he was still here to look after my father and mother," Mohammad Mansoori said. Their father is blind, and Qais Mansoori was his parents' sole support, he said.

A spokesman for Mission Essential Personnel, Sean Rushton, disputed that, saying that his company has been making biweekly payments of $190 to Mansoori's family and will continue doing so for 29 years. The $10,004 lump sum payment was a voluntary death gratuity paid by the company, Rushton said.

There were 113,491 employees of defense contractors in Afghanistan as of January 2012, compared with about 90,000 U.S. soldiers, according to Defense Department statistics. Of those, 25,287, or about 22 percent of the employees, were U.S. citizens, with 47 percent Afghans and 31 percent from other countries.