Abstract

Security companies have widely spread in most countries in the world. They are evidently subject to precise and strict rules. However, the activities of the security companies, which entered Iraq after the American occupation in 2003, were different from those practiced in the rest of the world. That was evident through the big number of companies, the variety of tasks, not being subject to laws, transgressing civilians' honor, life, and properties.
The subject falls into an introduction and five sections. The first section tackles the security companies as a new form of mercenary according to the international conventions. The second tackles the duties assigned to these companies. The third tackles their participation in combat operations beside the American occupation forces. The fourth tackles their relation with the Republican Party and the American Right. The fifth tackles their legal position. The research concludes that the first loser from all these practices are the Iraqi civilians, who stand helpless in front of companies that have the power of states in weapons and equipment.
In addition of being backed by the strongest military superpower, in a condition that all legal ways are blocked on the face of those civilians who are seeking their rights, confronting many legal and procedural obstacles. Moreover, carelessness has reached an extent that shooting un armed civilians by some of the affiliated in these security companies is done just for fun.