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New taps? Or Iraqi security? East Europeans answer the call (cheaply)

First came the Polish plumbers, overturning the natural order by tackling U-bends in a more reliable and affordable way than their established British rivals. Now there is another field in which east Europeans are driving well-paid Brits out of work - on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.The market in which ex-military can earn six-figure sums as private security guards overseas is drying up, with salaries in sharp decline and contracts increasingly being offered to cheaper foreign soldiers, the Guardian has learned.The National Association of Security Professionals (Nasp), an organisation for those working in the private security industry, said former British soldiers are being laid off by companies in Iraq who are turning to east Europeans instead. The number of Britons providing security in Iraq has fallen from a peak of about 5,000 in 2004-05 to nearer 2,000 this year.Mark Shurben-Browne, a director of Nasp, said the market had reached saturation point, with companies receiving 10-20 CVs a day. But many firms were trying to reduce costs by hiring staff from eastern Europe, particularly Serbs and Croats."One company sacked half their British workforce and replaced them with cheaper guys with a special forces background from eastern Europe," said Shurben-Browne. "The companies are mixing the teams up, keeping two or three expat or British guys on in a team with the rest from eastern Europe."Shurben-Browne, who served in the 2nd battalion, the Parachute Regiment in the Falklands and as a private security guard in Iraq, said he knew of about 200 ex-British solders waiting six or seven months for a contract to go back to Iraq.Changing conditions on the ground in Iraq have also had an impact on wages. Firstly, heavy insurgent attacks after the 2005 elections meant a lot of firms cut back because they could not send staff outside the safe zones. Now, with a reduction in enemy activity in Iraq and Iraqi security forces taking a more active role, there has been an impact on demand from private security firms. "Jobs are hard to come by now," Shurben-Browne said. Andy Bearpark, director general of the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC), said: "There may be some blokes in Iraq earning £100,000 a year tax-free, but £50,000 tax-free is a much more likely figure now."Bearpark has heard of Fijians, Gurkhas, Ukrainians and Sierra Leoneans being employed, usually on much lower wages than British and US personnel. "There was a US firm which was not even paying Sierra Leoneans 10% of what they paid their US staff," he said.While most former British soldiers only did the private security work for a fixed length of time, a few did keep returning to it, he added, usually because they had invested the money they made unwisely. "It's not unusual for guys to go and buy shares in a Bangkok brothel and within three months they've lost it all and then they have to try to get another contract to pay off their debts. They're not people used to handling a lot of money. The average guy is earning £40,000-£45,000 in Afghanistan, which is nothing like what people were earning in Iraq," said Bearpark.A former corporal in the Royal Signals regiment who worked for a private security firm in Iraq, said he noticed work was dropping off when he left in January 2006. The 29-year-old, from Bournemouth, identified only as Andrew, has now trained as a building surveyor. He said: "I only wanted to do it for a fixed amount of time. It's dangerous work. The money's great but it's not worth it if you get killed."IraqAfghanistanMilitaryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

On PBS, Cokie Roberts falsely suggested Biden's reference to "Bosniaks" was a gaffe

During coverage of the October 2 vice-presidential debate on PBS' Charlie Rose, Rose asked, "Did either of them make any mistakes that you noticed?" National Public Radio senior news analyst Cokie Roberts responded that Sen. Joe Biden "talked about the Bosniaks." Roberts later said: "[I]f [Gov. Sarah Palin] had said 'Bosniak,' everybody would be making a big deal of it, you know." In fact, Biden correctly referred to certain residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Bosniaks. According to the U.S. State Department, as of 2002, the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina consisted of the following ethnic groups: "Bosniak 48.3%, Serb 34.0%, Croat 15.4%, others 2.3%." The CIA World Factbook states: "Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term in part to avoid confusion with the religious term Muslim -- an adherent of Islam." In a May 11 speech, U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Charles English repeatedly referenced "Bosniaks" and said: "Bosniak political leaders must examine their own their political conduct within governing institutions, particularly where they are the majority, and ask themselves, is this conduct assuaging concerns among other ethnic groups about domination or contributing to it?" Biden said during the debate: Look what we did in Bosnia. We took Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, being told by everyone, I was told by everyone that this would mean that they had been killing each other for a thousand years, it would never work. There's a relatively stable government there now as in Kosovo. From October 2 broadcast of PBS' Charlie Rose: ROSE: Did either of them make any mistakes that you noticed? DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN (presidential historian): I didn't really see any gaffes, nor were there many Tina Fey moments, or what might come on Saturday Night Live. The only one might be when she asked what might trigger a nuclear war, and she went into, "A nuclear war, that's the be-all and the end-all. That's bad. A lot of people, gone." I can see them using that as a moment, but other than that, no, they both handled everything pretty well. ROBERTS: He talked about the Bosniaks. ROSE: The Bosniaks, yes. ROBERTS: The Bosniaks. If she had said -- GOODWIN: Oh, and there was McKiernan versus McClellan, the name of the general in Afghanistan. ROBERTS: If she had said "Bosniak," everybody would be making a big deal of it, you know. GOODWIN: Correct. ROSE: Yeah, and some people took note of the fact that Senator Biden didn't correct at that point as a suggestion of his restraint during the entire debate.

Hague jails ex-Bosnian army chief

A Bosnian Muslim ex-army chief is jailed for three years for war crimes in a ruling Serbs and Croats condemn as lenient.