House moves to make Iraq contractors accountable

by Aamer Madhani

In a move intended to bolster oversight of private security contractors in Iraq, the House passed a bill this morning that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution in the U.S. courts.

The bill was passed 389-30 and is the latest fallout from a Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad in which employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA are accused of killing at least 11 Iraqis. Even before the House voted the White House expressed concerns about such a bill.

The FBI has dispatched agents to investigate the case, and has triggered both the Defense Department and State Department to review their oversight of the thousands of contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. The incident has also resulted in a flood of Democratic lawmakers wagging their fingers over the use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are approximately 137,000 contractors in Iraq, a small fraction of which are used for security and protecting VIPs and diplomats. Others are used for pedestrian tasks such as running the chow halls, picking up trash and doing the laundry. The U.S. government pays Blackwater about $1,200 per day for each hired gun they provide to the U.S. missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of Blackwater employees are tasked with providing security for U.S. diplomats and other American VIPs, such as visiting Congressional delegations, visiting the war zones.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the White House said the bill would have "unintended and intolerable consequences for crucial and necessary national security activities and operations."

(Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) added an amendment requiring the Justice Department to release a description of charges brought against contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chicago Tribune staff photo by Heather Stone)

Presently, U.S. contractors in Iraq are immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts, a shield for American citizens that was instituted by former Ambassador Paul Bremer back in the early days of the war when the Coalition Provisional Authority was still in power.

Personnel working for the Defense Department in both Iraq and Afghanistan are subject the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Contractors with Blackwater, which has long had a reputation on the Iraqi street of being a band of rogue mercenaries, work for the State Department in Iraq, so it is uncertain whether they would fall under MEJA.

Included in the House bill is an amendment from Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that would require the Justice Department to release the description of charges that have been brought against contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan and a description of the legal actions that have been taken against them. Schakowsky has been one of the earliest critics of Blackwater and the U.S. government’s reliance in combat zones on the private security industry.

Earlier this week, Blackwater CEO Erik Prince testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and maintained that his company has “acted appropriately at all times."

But many Democrats are skeptical of Blackwater after the September incident and another incident last Christmas in which an intoxicated Blackwater employee shot and killed a bodyguard to the Iraqi vice president. That employee was fired and flown out of Iraq less than two days after the shooting, but no charges have been filed against him.