GENERALS FOR HIRE

By Mark Thompson/Washington

THIS IS THE AGE OF PRIVATIZATION. All across America, communities are hiring for-profit firms to perform the tasks that have traditionally fallen to government--educating children, running prisons, even building and maintaining highways. There is one job, though, that seems to be an unlikely candidate for outsourcing: executing the foreign policy of the U.S. If that is not the business of the Federal Government, what is? In Bosnia, however, the U.S. has a problem: there is one particular aspect of its mission that is crucial but that it is loath to carry out. So the very 1990s solution is likely to be hiring a private company to do the job instead.

For anyone who wants to rent a general, the place to go is Military Professional Resources Inc., headquartered in a squat, red brick office building in Alexandria, Virginia. Eight years old and with annual revenues of about $12 million, MPRI is, according to its brochure, "the greatest corporate assemblage of military expertise in the world." With 160 full-time employees and some 2,000 retired generals, admirals and other officers on call, it is making a fair claim. Among its most prominent executives are retired four-star General Carl Vuono, who ran the Army during Desert Storm and now heads the company's growing overseas business, and Crosbie ("Butch") Saint, who was once the chief of the Army's operations in Europe and who oversees MPRI's work there. This is the outfit that the U.S. will probably turn to for help in Bosnia.

Why would the U.S. need MPRI? The Dayton accord calls for disarmament negotiations to reduce the Bosnian Serbs' military edge over the weaker Muslim-Croat Federation. While its European allies vigorously disagree, the U.S. believes that even if arms control shrinks the Bosnian Serb arsenal, the federation will require new weaponry to ensure a military balance in the region. The accord allows arms to start flowing into the region beginning in mid-March. "We will not be able to leave unless the Bosnian government is armed and prepared to defend itself," says Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware. "That's the ticket home for Americans."

The problem is the Bosnian Serbs. They object to the notion that the U.S., by agreement a neutral party, would make any move to strengthen the Bosnian army. The U.S. fears Serb attacks on its troops if it uses them to arm and train the Bosnians. In fact, the Clinton Administration has pledged that U.S. troops will not play an active role in rearming the Bosnians. So how is Washington to achieve what it considers the necessary balance of power in the region? After months of fretting, the U.S. has come up with a plan. Senior officials told Time that some private company, most likely MPRI, which has done work for the Croats, will train the Bosnians, who will be freshly outfitted with hundreds of tons of new weapons provided by the U.S. and its allies. "MPRI has got the know-how and the track record in the Balkans," says a senior Pentagon official.

Last week James Pardew, the Pentagon's point man in negotiating the Dayton accord, flew to Sarajevo to urge the Bosnian government to hire MPRI or a competitor like BDM Inc. or SAIC (Science Applications International). Pardew plans to tell the Bosnians that weapons will not begin to flow into Bosnia for months, but training (assuming the Bosnians act swiftly to organize the effort) is expected to begin within a few weeks, perhaps in Croatia, U.S. officials say. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton pact, recently spoke favorably of MPRI in testimony to Congress and says training "can begin as soon as the contracts are worked out."

MPRI is ready. "The Bosnians need training at the company level, putting battalion staff together, that sort of thing," says retired Army Lieut. General Harry Soyster. "It can be done pretty quickly." Formerly the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Soyster, MPRI's operations chief, is the only official who speaks publicly for the company. For the past year, MPRI has had 15 men in Croatia, a group headed by retired two-star General Richard Griffitts. They have been teaching the Croats to run a military force in a democracy, and recently signed a second contract to reorganize Croatia's Defense Ministry. Also during the past year, MPRI, under a State Department contract, has been monitoring cargo flowing from Serbia to the Bosnian Serbs as part of an international effort.

Croatia gave a dramatic demonstration of military power last August, when it drove rebel Serbs from the Krajina region. That offensive took place seven months after MPRI began its work in the country. Serb and European military analysts suggested that the Croats had outside help, and MPRI quickly found itself on the defensive. But Soyster insists MPRI's role in Croatia is limited to classroom instruction on military-civil relations and doesn't involve training in tactics or weapons. Other U.S. military men say whatever MPRI did for the Croats--and many suspect more than classroom instruction was involved--it was worth every penny. "Carl Vuono and Butch Saint are hired guns and in it for the money," says Charles Boyd, a recently retired four-star Air Force general who was the Pentagon's No. 2 man in Europe until July. "They did a very good job for the Croats, and I have no doubt they'll do a good job in Bosnia."

In a secret, just finished report that cost $400,000 to prepare, the Pentagon has determined the Bosnians' military needs. The study concludes that the Bosnian Serbs' advantage could be erased by giving the Muslim-Croat Federation about 50 tanks plus similar numbers of artillery and armored vehicles, say Pentagon officials familiar with the findings. The Muslims also need antitank and antimortar weapons, light arms and basics like boots and bullets. In an indication of how important MPRI's role would be, the report contends that the forces need more training than arming, especially in tactics for midsize units involving hundreds of troops.

Biden, who backs the Bosnians, has quietly won $100 million in Pentagon weaponry and supplies for Sarajevo in a 1996 spending bill. Some U.S. officials say it will take several times that amount to right the military balance. Nations likely to be asked for weapons and cash include Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan. Those countries, expecting nearly $3 billion in U.S. aid this year, may have a hard time saying no.

As for the Bosnians, this aid effort will come with strings attached. A key condition, senior U.S. officials told Time, requires Bosnia to sever all its military and intelligence links with Iran. Ejup Ganic, the federation Vice President, gave Time official confirmation that Bosnia had received arms from Iran, bringing them through gaps in the nato no-fly zone. "What we received from Iran," he says, "it's kind of a science-fiction solution. You cannot load a ship with ammunition and bring it in a normal way." But Ganic won't quibble about cutting Iranian ties now. "You bring us stuff," he says, and "we won't look anywhere else."

The Serbs remain disturbed by the entire business. Last month several U.S. lawmakers got a similar reaction from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. Over espresso and pastries, Milosevic told them that Americans "are looking for trouble," says Republican Representative Jim Ramstad of Minnesota. Milosevic, widely blamed for igniting the Balkan wars, has some unexpected allies. Retired top U.S. military officers who until recently were responsible for the Balkans say the plan may embolden the Bosnians to seize land now held by the Bosnian Serbs. Boyd suggests it would be better to leave well enough alone, saying both sides are war weary and that a rough military stability already exists. Retired General David Maddox, the chief U.S. Army officer in Europe until last year, also criticizes the policy. "The more we do to make sure they can fight well," he says, "the less motivation there is for peace."

Given the risks posed by training the Bosnians and the importance the U.S. has given the mission, it seems especially proper to ask if a private company ought to be undertaking it. The desire to protect American troops is understandable, but will the Serbs really distinguish between them and MPRI trainers? By hiring consultant mercenaries to do a messy job, it is easier for Washington to ignore the consequences and fudge the responsibility. Once again, for better or worse, that seems to be an overshadowing aim of America's policy in Bosnia.

--With reporting by Massimo Calabresi/Sarajevo and Alexandra Stiglmayer/Tuzla,with other bureaus

With reporting by MASSIMO CALABRESI/SARAJEVO AND ALEXANDRA STIGLMAYER/TUZLA,WITH OTHER BUREAUS