Now that Jeremy Scahill's book on Blackwater has hit the New York Times bestseller list it may signal the beginning of a media pile-on on the security sector in Iraq. Previous books, articles and documentaries covered major problems but made minor ripples. Having spent three years living, interviewing and traveling with contractors I knew that the landscape for dramatic investigative pieces was virtually unexplored. So its reassuring to see the main stream media suddenly discover this very closed and almost tribal world.

Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post leads with the latest shot across the bow of private contractors providing security for contractors. An out of control company is the subject of his newest piece on Triple Canopy working for KBR.

The article focuses on a routine trip to the airport from the Green Zone with a subtle difference. July 8, 2006 Team Leader 29 year-old ex-Marine Jacob C. Washbourne heading to the airport to go home said "I want to kill somebody today." What ensues is gripping journalism.

Although Triple Canopy's lawyers had threatened Slogger to remove the word "murder" from an earlier description of the same incident, the Washington Post article makes it very clear that something evil happened on that day... and apparently on other days.

"Before the day was over, however, the guards had been involved in three shooting incidents. In one, Washbourne allegedly fired into the windshield of a taxi for amusement, according to interviews and statements from the three other guards."

The Washington Post points out that although the "U.S. military has brought charges against dozens of soldiers and Marines in Iraq, including 64 servicemen linked to murders., not a single case has been brought against a security contractor."

Like many other violent incidents, this one could have been buried under the usual smoke screen but Fainaru went deeper and longer..all the way to Fiji to interview a witness Triple Canopy forgot about. Steve Fainaru has been tasked by the Washington Post to focus exclusively on security contractors and has banked some yet-to-be-published but devastating pieces on security companies and is working on more.

The time, effort, and money invested by the Post in his efforts have paid off on his first major piece. The Triple Canopy story first surfaced as a lawsuit by former employees and would have submerged if not for the investigative efforts of the Post. Fainaru hit paydirt when he flew half way around the world to interview the Fijian member of the group.

"Fijian army veteran Isireli Naucukidi, said Sheppard, who was driving, cut off the taxi on Washbourne's orders, giving him a better shot. Naucukidi said the three American guards laughed as they sped away, the fate of the Iraqi taxi driver unknown. Schmidt told Washbourne, "Nice shot," according to Naucukidi."

The front page piece provides the hard details and background few journos have provided on the inside story of security contracting.

"We never knew if we fell under military law, American law, Iraqi law, or whatever," Sheppard said. "We were always told, from the very beginning, if for some reason something happened and the Iraqis were trying to prosecute us, they would put you in the back of a car and sneak you out of the country in the middle of the night."

Naucukidi said the American contractors had their own motto: "What happens here today, stays here today."

A must read. Stay tuned for more from the Post on this rarely penetrated industry sector.