State Department to field private army?

McClatchy Newspapers has published an article detailing the planned quasi-army that will answer directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

According to the article, the State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky.

In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance.

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