(CNN) -- An American contractor said Thursday that the U.S. mission in Iraq will be undermined if the Iraqi government succeeds in revoking blanket legal immunity for American security contractors. An armored vehicle of a foreign private security company drives in central Baghdad in October 2007. Carter Andress reacted to a Wednesday government report that said the removal of legal immunity for American private security contractors could set off an "exodus" from war-ravaged Iraq and "impose significant limitations" on American reconstruction efforts. The scenario is outlined in the quarterly report issued to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
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Report says loss of contractor immunity could spark "exodus" from Iraq
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Contractor says Iraq reliant on firms like his, "for better or for worse"
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Scholar skeptical that contractors would leave -- "Too much money to be made"
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About 70 private security companies have operated in Iraq since 2003
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Bowen says one result he can foresee is the growth of homegrown @placeholder security firms.
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He points out that the marketplace for security in Iraq is a big one, with @placeholder a minority in an industry that includes Iraqis and other third-country nationalities.
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This is, I would argue, a good thing because it's trying to take @placeholder and turn it into what is a more natural setting, where that government is in charge of the operations of what's happening on the ground from a legal standpoint."
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He said Iraqi contractors taking over security duties have improved but haven't reached the level of proficiency that @placeholder have.