Gates unhappy with department's oversight of private contractors in Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has dispatched a fact-finding team to Baghdad to investigate the problem.

Gates' press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said Wednesday that the Pentagon chief began asking questions about the military's relationship with private contractors in Iraq after 11 Iraqis were killed Sept. 16 in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.

The Blackwater employees in that case were working for the State Department.

"He's asked some early questions, he's received some early answers," Morrell said. "Those answers, at least when it comes to the oversight component, have not been satisfactory."