Blackwater's legal protections might end

Blackwater's legal protections might end

www.upi.com

WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- Blackwater Worldwide, the private U.S. security contractor guarding diplomats in Baghdad, may no longer have immunity from Iraqi courts, sources say.

The U.S. State Department has agreed to stop protecting employees of Blackwater and other American contractors in Iraq from prosecution in Iraqi courts, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday. The State Department said little about the agreement.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Details are a bit scarce at the moment but this is surprising news to me. I had been under the impression that immunity for private contractors in Iraq was pretty much 'bullet proof'.

It is imperative that any and all private military contractors be held within the rule of law, otherwise they are free to act as criminals and thugs with impunity. Diplomatic immunity for these organizations presents a very dangerous situation.

It will be very interesting to see how this story ultimately unfolds.

www.upi.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

when iraq can stand up against the american governments power, they have established some-what of a power themselves, good lets leave now!
thanks bush you've done one heck of a job, ttyl.

Blackwater are small fry and if they have their legal protections removed it is to distract you from the other companies that will move in to sweep up the mess. Check out Kroll.

reply to post by SystemiK


That's the new agreement in the works. They'll let us contractors fall under Iraqi law, not just security folks, all contractors. Iraq originally wanted the US military to fall under Iraqi law as well, but the US wouldn't budge on that.

Machine gunning down a crowd of people that were 'thought' a threat and walking scott free was a wash.
These high paid asaassins need to have some kind of governence. Another black eye to bringing 'freedom' everywhere.