Blackwater's legal protections might end, page 1

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)

reply to post by SystemiK

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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.

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