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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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November 30th,
2008 - End of Immunity Worries U.S. Contractors in Iraq |
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End of
Immunity Worries U.S. Contractors in Iraq By James Risen New York Times November 30, 2008 Washington - The thousands
of American contractors in Iraq who have been above Iraqi law since the war
began are suddenly facing a new era in which their United States passports
will no longer protect them from arrest and imprisonment. When the Iraqi government
ratified an agreement last week setting new terms for a continued American
presence in Iraq, private contractors working for the Pentagon faced the
inevitability that they would be stripped of their immunity from Iraqi law.
That immunity had been granted by the Coalition Provisional Authority before
a postwar Iraqi government was established. Now that the contractors’
legal protection is to lapse, officials in the defense contracting industry
are trying to come to grips with how their operations will change in Iraq,
how many of their American employees will be sent home, and whether the weak
and often corrupt Iraqi judicial system will become an impediment to
recruiting Western workers. If it is approved by Iraq’s Presidency Council,
as expected, the agreement will go into effect on Jan. 1. So far, no major company
working in Iraq has announced plans to withdraw from the country. Some
industry experts said that while the corporations would stay, they would be
forced to rely much more on Iraqi employees, rather than on Americans and
other foreigners who might fear working without legal protection. Spokesmen for many of the
major contracting companies declined to comment on the change in legal status
in Iraq, while others said it was premature to predict the impact. Some said
Americans working in Iraq would be watching how the Iraqi government dealt
with its new power, and would wait and see whether there were arbitrary
arrests or court rulings tainted by corruption before deciding whether to
stay. “I think the question of
what this means for recruiting American employees is complicated,” said one
official close to the contracting industry who was not authorized to speak on
the record about the issue. “I think it will depend on the first case, and
whether it is handled in a responsible fashion, or whether someone is left in
an Iraqi jail without recourse. If that happens, word will get around, and
that could have a chilling effect on recruiting.” More than 170,000
contractors now work for the military and other American agencies in Iraq,
more than the total number of American troops in the country. Only about 17
percent of the contractors are Americans, according to administration
figures; about half are Iraqis, and one-third are workers from third countries.
The proportion of Americans could drop quickly with the loss of legal
immunity. One of the biggest concerns
for contractors is the lack of details on how the security agreement with
Iraq will work. The legal immunity for
contractors was eliminated in negotiations between the Bush administration
and the Iraqi government on the agreement, which set the terms for the
continued American military presence while also establishing a withdrawal
date. Contractors were not involved in the talks. A major question is whether
under the pact the Iraqi government will be able to prosecute Americans for
past crimes. The Iraqi government’s insistence on an end to legal immunity
for contractors was fueled largely by the shootings of Iraqi citizens by
guards working for private security firms, including Blackwater Worldwide,
which has a contract to protect United States diplomats in Baghdad. In September 2007,
Blackwater security guards were involved in a shooting in downtown Baghdad in
which at least 17 Iraqis were killed. After the shooting, the Iraqi
government demanded that Blackwater be expelled from the country and that its
guards be held accountable. Despite the protests, the
State Department has continued to use Blackwater in Baghdad, although the
Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of the
shooting. The fact that Blackwater
continued to operate in Iraq contributed to the Iraqi government’s hard-line
stance on the legal immunity issue in the negotiations. Whether the Iraqi
government will now begin its own criminal investigation of the Blackwater
shooting is unclear, administration officials and contracting industry
executives said. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/world/middleeast/01contractors.html |