I agree completely with LtCol Tom Hayden's viewpoint on the increase of private intelligence firms influence in the coming years. One clear example is the Private Military Company.

Private Military Companies (PMC)seemed to crop up out of nowhere with the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. It did not take long for them to grab the headlines either. Remember those images of the chared bodies hung from the bridge in Iraq.  Those were members of a PMC who were tasked with escorting supplise through enemy held areas in Iraq. This example is a fine one to show just how alone these private contractors really are.  To the best of my knowledge it was a convoy protection team of 4-5 members.  They were stopped by what looked to be an Iraqi police checkpoint and told to detour through an enemy held town.  Right then it would have been nice to have access to the wealth of knowledge held by the military intelligence agencies. The protection team had to make a critical decision under pressure and they made the wrong one.  They believed the police at the checkpoint and thought it was safe to travel through the town.  They were heading right for a kill zone. They must have been overwhelmed with the sheer number of attackers.  A four or five man protection detail can only hold their ground for so long.  Most likely the attack started with a RPG attack.  Then automatic weapons fire most likely centered on the  first and trailing convoy vehicles. If you stop in a KILL ZONE you will die....no ifs ands or buts. This team had no back up whatsoever.  I am sure they put up a valiant battle but four men can only do so much.  In comparison a military convoy would have air support, more than likely a quick reaction force would accompany the convoy on its journey.  Hummvee's with 50 cal's  would also proceed and trail any convoy. In hostile areas such a Iraq you need to be able to outgun your enemy in order to survive. This is one area which the US military has no problem doing.

Private intelligence companies were also central to the problems in the Abu Garab Prison problem.  Private interrogators were hired to help extract critical information from suspected insurgents in order to gain an upper hand in the area of tactical intelligence in terms of the insurgency.  The problem arose as to who is responsible for the work of the private intelligence workers.  Is the military responsible for their actions or are the PMC themselves responsible for their employees actions.  These are all issues which crop up when you mix the private sector intelligence with the military sector intelligence.