Congress Crackdown on Private Contractors

Congress Crackdown on Private Contractors

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to close a loophole in the law that has left private security contractors in Iraq like Blackwater immune to criminal prosecution, despite warnings by the White House that expanding the law could cause new problems.

The House was expected to pass legislation on Wednesday by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., that would extend criminal jurisdiction of U.S. courts to any federal contractor working alongside military operations.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I hope the crackdown on "private contractors" like this continues.

It says in the article that a Blackwater employee killed a guard of an Iraqi Vice President. He just got fired and fined and sent home. No criminal punishment.

It's sickening that these people are allowed to do this, get paid to do it, AND are immune from criminal punishment.

Yet, Americans get arrested for protesting their government, which is a constitutional right.

Nice to see the legal system in such an effective order.

Lets hope this continues and eventually leads to a crackdown on these mercenary groups killing our soldiers and innocent Iraqis.

Does anyone think there may be any hidden agenda in exposing these news stories? We all know full well that they can cover up anything they want to. So why wouldn't they want to cover this up?

Anyone have any theories?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I also think it is high time to start holding contractors accountable. I think that would completely change their attitude toward the civilian population. However, I have a feeling that this bill will pass both houses and it will be the fifth bill Bush vetoes. Mark my words.

Originally posted by NovusOrdoMundi
Does anyone think there may be any hidden agenda in exposing these news stories? We all know full well that they can cover up anything they want to. So why wouldn't they want to cover this up?

Anyone have any theories?

I don't think they can cover this up and it has been a well known continuing problem. The difference is now with a democratic majority in the house we are actually seeing some oversight. The Dems may not be able to get a timetable for withdrawal, but oversight is another avenue to make it difficult for war profiteers. It may not be what the majority of the people elected them for, but it is better than what we have seen the previous six years.

Well for the first time congress is working for somebody else than themselves, so far they have forgotten all about the people they are serving here in America and the ones we supposedly liberated from the terrors of Saddam.

Now they need to get liberated from the terrors of the Bush administration policies and blackwater.

If only they will do something to liberate us the American people from the grip of the Bush administration.

At this point I don't think it matters what this administration does or don't, all we need to do is make sure that they don't involve this country in another war.

Its going to take more than a generation to repair all the damage this administration has done to this country from foreign policy issues, to domestic ones. Is funny that he vetoed today a bill that would expand health coverage for the needy childrens of this country that would have cost 35 billion dollars over 5 years but he is going to come next week to ask for 180 billion dollars for his buddies war.

This President has some nerve, the biggest representative of big business sitting at the Oval office. Seriously we need to do better next time.

Its high time comedy central!

Pa'leeeeese...

congress, the same congress who cant grow enough balls to put a stop to this illegial war,
the same congress that cant stop the illegial wiretapping,
the same congress that allowes facist laws to come into play..

are going to crack down on their corporate leaders piggy banks by allowing people such as blackwater to face charges?

Who are they kidding?

It seems this administration can get away with what ever, and the American people are going to do nothing about it.

Do you think our founding fathers would have put up with this kind of government?

Yet, we call ourselves patriots

Sad. Very sad.

They do one thing after the other. They even expose their screw ups, from their ties to Al Qaeda in the 80's, to their security failures on 9/11, to this Blackwater news, to the Iraq War failures, and even to other things like blocking funding for children's health care while approving funding for an illegal war, as well as higher and higher gas prices, and what the hell do Americans do about it?

They complain for about two days, then move on.

Pathetic

Well the house passed the bill to hold contractors accountable last week by a vote of 389-30, but for some reason no one mentioned it here on ATS, so I will add a few links as well as an article on Condi ordering more oversight on contractors.

House OKs making private security in Iraq subject to U.S. prosecution

Rice orders more oversight of contractors in Iraq

It will be interesting to see if the bill passes the senate and if Bush will veto it. With such a majority vote from the house, he knows they can over-ride the veto and it will still become law and he would wind up looking like... well I guess no different than he normally does.