Obama says contractors raise risk for US troops

AIKEN, S.C. - White House hopeful Barack Obama said yesterday that private security contractors in Iraq are raising the risk for US troops because Iraqis don't distinguish between the forces.

He also criticized the pay disparity between soldiers and private contractors.

"You've got young men and women signing up to serve, willing to spill blood for America. How could they be treated less well than private contractors?" Obama told a crowd of more than 1,400 at a high school gymnasium in this early voting state.

"And these private contractors, they go out and they're spraying bullets and hitting civilians and that makes it more dangerous for our troops," Obama said.

Blackwater USA, the private contractor that provides heavily armed security for US diplomats serving in Baghdad, has been under scrutiny in recent weeks. Security forces employed by the company are accused of killing 13 Iraqi civilians in central Baghdad last month.

Earlier yesterday in Ottawa, Ill., Obama told a crowd of about 600 that when "this war is over, we can finally get back to facing the challenges we face here at home, the challenges you're grappling with every day."

The first-term Illinois senator said the war costs $10 billion to $12 billion a month. He said he'd pull a division or two of US troops out of Iraq every month and leave only enough there to do protect the embassy and diplomats.

Obama was to wrap up the evening at a Rock Hill, S.C., rally and attend church services today in Greenville.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Romney touts credentials

DOVER, N.H. - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney yesterday promoted his antitax credentials while taking on rival Rudy Giuliani and Democrats over taxes and spending.

Romney boasted of his accomplishments as Massachusetts governor and criticized Giuliani for his legal challenge to a law that allowed presidents to reject specific spending items in the federal budget.

As New York's mayor, Giuliani "went all the way to the Supreme Court to eliminate the line-item veto," said Romney, who used such an option 844 times in his state - a fact highlighted in a new direct mail campaign.

ASSOCIATED PRESS