UN: Private Military Recruiting Booming

GENEVA - The use of private security guards like those involved in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians is part of a growing new form of mercenary activity - the recruitment of people around the globe to peform military jobs in other nations, a U.N. report says.

Independent human rights experts who wrote the report, which was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, say the reported killing of civilians in Iraq last month by guards recruited by the security firm Blackwater USA underscores the risks of using such contractors.