U.S. contractors and private businessmen say they will not be kept away from Iraq by a spate of kidnappings and killings — but they will be much more careful.
“You have to be more than conscious — you have to be insightful, shrewd,” said Barry Halley, a communications consultant who is heading back to Iraq after a five-week break at home in Texas.
Mr. Halley said he had postponed his trip when the latest explosion of violence began, raising the threat level for those traveling on the roads to the highest level in months.
But the business prospects are too good to pass up, and contractors, subcontractors and private firms are moving in to fill the gaps in communications, technology, services and trade that exist in Iraq.
“For me, this environment really brings some opportunities, because not everyone wants to go there and do business,” said Mr. Halley, a Vietnam veteran.
Asked how important the financial rewards are, Mr. Halley said: “On a scale of one to 10, 10. But it also gives me the opportunity to help the Iraqi people.”
For the large companies with U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts under their arms, task orders are coming out and personnel are booking their flights despite the news this week of an Iraqi security contractor being kidnapped and killed.
“There are still a lot of people willing to go,” said Doug Hartman, a Virginia-based consultant to a number of Turkish firms doing business in Iraq.
Others, despite big paychecks, have already left. Out of Halliburton’s roughly 25,000 employees in Iraq, 1 percent have left in the past few weeks because of the tumultuous situation.
Company officials said yesterday their departure would not affect their operations. While there was concern about the violence, one added, “there are still a lot of folks who want to do business in Iraq.”
Newcomers to Iraq are calling for information and advice from more-experienced companies, like the Washington Group International, which has been in Iraq’s infamous Sunni Triangle since summer.
“We haven’t had anyone leave yet,” said company spokesman Jack Herrmann. But he noted that WGI workers live in heavily secured base camps that have always been in a quasilockdown mode.
“All of our workers are contained within defended perimeters,” he said, and few are permitted to travel. WGI has four base camps in Iraq, but for safety reasons will not give their locations.
The company’s armed security force — provided by two U.S. firms — constantly compares notes with other contractors and the American military. Security has tightened at their camps.
Many of the contractors who do not have a significant presence in the country will initially put their bags down inside military installations such as Camp Victory and Camp Horizons, Mr. Hartman said.
Subcontractors with smaller operations who can afford the break have removed their employees from Baghdad until things calm down. Some are taking sorely needed rest and recreation, but are preparing for their return.
Nongovernmental organizations, which typically do not have armed guards around them, are not running back.
“Many, many have also received threats from different forces,” said Azza Karam, a specialist in political Islam and adviser at the World Conference of Religions for Peace, who follows Iraq closely.
As some frustrated Iraqis focus on the United States and anyone remotely connected with it as the enemy, “nobody is safe, no matter what they are doing,” Mrs. Karam said.
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