I haven't got time right now to research this online, but I'm sure some information is out there. My understanding is that there are multiple corporate firms employing mercenary/paramilitary forces in Iraq to the US military.

The language being used to describe who and what they are is deliberately misleading and obfuscatory. They are hired guns, pure and simple.

What concerns me is that there isn't the accountability with a mercenary paramilitary force that we have with our official military. Who do they answer to if they engage in practices in violation of the Geneva Conventions for instance? Why has the government created this shadow military? Is this a phenomenon of our current regime, or past regimes as well?

This smacks of the sinister and shadowy School of the Americas, also run by "former Special Forces personnel" that trained the paramilitaries who propped up the bloody dictatorships of Central and South America that were so destructive and violent.