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Blackwater, Now with Oversight
Nearly three months after the Nisour Square shootings, the long hard slog to establish effective oversight and control of security contractors continues. From The New York Times:
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top United States commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Baghdad, have agreed on the details governing the operations of Blackwater and other private security contractors there, American officials said Tuesday.The agreement requires all State Department convoys in Iraq to coordinate their movements with the military’s main operations center in Baghdad, sets minimum standards for training the contractors and outlines when armed guards may use force in self-defense.
But they're not quite there yet: "One important issue the agreement does not address is the legal framework to prosecute any State Department contractors who violate the law."
Update: ABC has more details.
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Comments (2)
m s wrote on December 5, 2007 5:21 PM:"One important issue the agreement does not address is the legal framework to prosecute any State Department contractors who violate the law."
God damnit, THAT IS the only oversight that will succeed in curbing cold blooded homicide, and is desperately needed. These people are absolutely useless humans.....
Roberta wrote on December 5, 2007 11:12 PM:Here's the juicy bit from the ABC update:
If evidence of criminal misconduct involving government security contractors arises, the embassy and MNF-I pledge to refer the case "to the appropriate prosecutorial authority." The text, however, also promises to "expedite the enactment of legislation to establish a clear legal basis" for holding private security contractors working for the government accountable under U.S. law.
If it's not more precise than this in the document, though, there might still be room for contractors to slip out.
This doesn't do anything for those who are already dead, though, and I hope someone with power makes the argument that if the contractors can be held legally responsible NOW, then some kind of accountability needs to apply to those who have already committed these crimes.
If ignorance of the law is no excuse for committing a crime (in our world), then the lack of explicit accountability on paper should not exempt bad acts.