"Jackasses with Guns": Mercenaries Terrorize Iraq

from IPS, via AlterNet:



"Jackasses with Guns": Mercenaries Terrorize Iraq

By Ali Gharib, IPS News. Posted January 27, 2008.

Thousands of serious allegations of crimes in Iraq and only one mercenary has been prosecuted.




Out of the dozens upon dozens of reports of abuses by private contractors as part of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, only one prosecution of a contractor has taken place.

This, says a new report from Human Rights First, epitomizes the woefully insufficient response by the U.S. government to hold private contractors accountable for abuses against local nationals.

"Holding contractors responsible for criminal abuses has not been a high priority of the U.S. government," said the report, "Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity," which is based on interviews, court records, government reports, declassified documents and other documentary sources. "At times the government has appeared to view this issue with shocking indifference."

"There was little in the way of standards for hiring and training security contractors. There was no oversight of their activities. And most glaring of all, there was absolutely no legal accountability for misconduct," said Congressman David Price of North Carolina at a press conference to launch the report last week.

The report said that while the legal framework to deal with abuses by private security contractors is already in place, the U.S. Justice Department and in some cases the Defense Department have done little to respond to such charges, often forgoing investigations, let alone prosecutions.

"The Justice Department bears primary responsibility for this inaction," said the report. "Today most private security contractors operate in an environment where systems of criminal accountability are rarely used. This has created a culture of impunity." The now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority that ruled Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein issued CPA Order No. 17 which gave contractors immunity from the Iraqi justice system, but the report says that this does not affect the ability of the U.S. government to go after its own citizens. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/74955/