WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today stated, The report of indiscriminate violence by private contractors in Iraq is deeply disturbing. The accusations reported last night by NBC News again underscore my concern that there is a critical lack of oversight of private contractors in Iraq, and I urge the Pentagon to conduct an investigation of these allegations and establish guidelines for the contractors.After the deaths of four American security contractors in Fallujah in April 2004 Reed wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressing his concern about unregulated non-Iraqi private security forces operating in Iraq and asking for the creation of guidelines to regulate their activities.In the letter, signed by several Senators, Reed wrote, These security contractors are armed and operate in a fashion that is hard to distinguish from military forces, especially special operations forces. However, these private security companies are not under military control and are not subject to the rules that guide the conduct of American military personnel.Reed added, It would be a dangerous precedent if the United States allowed the presence of private armies operating outside the control of governmental authority and beholden only to those who pay them.Reeds letter requested that the Department of Defense provide an accurate tally of the number of privately armed non-Iraqi security personnel in Iraq, the adoption of written guidelines, including the legal justifications for their use, the rules of engagement for these contractors and the lines of coordination among U.S. military forces, the Iraqi Government and the contractor community.The Pentagon did not provide a response to the letter.The full text of the letter follows and is available on Reeds Internet site: http://reed.senate.gov/iraq.htm