End of Immunity Worries U.S. Contractors in Iraq

[sabra]

Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON — The thousands of American contractors in Iraq who have been above Iraqi law since the war began are suddenly facing a new era in which their United States passports will no longer protect them from arrest and imprisonment.

When the Iraqi government ratified an agreement last week setting new terms for a continued American presence in Iraq, private contractors working for the Pentagon faced the inevitability that they would be stripped of their immunity from Iraqi law. That immunity had been granted by the Coalition Provisional Authority before a postwar Iraqi government was established.

Now that the contractors’ legal protection is to lapse, officials in the defense contracting industry are trying to come to grips with how their operations will change in Iraq, how many of their American employees will be sent home, and whether the weak and often corrupt Iraqi judicial system will become an impediment to recruiting Western workers. If it is approved by Iraq’s Presidency Council, as expected, the agreement will go into effect on Jan. 1.

So far, no major company working in Iraq has announced plans to withdraw from the country. Some industry experts said that while the corporations would stay, they would be forced to rely much more on Iraqi employees, rather than on Americans and other foreigners who might fear working without legal protection.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/world/middleeast/01co...

[amdezurik]

1. oh I weep for them...

[seemslikeadream]

2. I wonder where all the mercenaries will find work on Jan. 1?

[sarcasmo]

6. In Paraguay guarding the Bush land.

[TankLV]

3. ahh - if they didn't do anything WRONG, then they don't have anything to worry about, now, do they!

Otherwise - GOOD - I hope if the assholes among them DID, indeed, do something WRONG, then I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of Iraqi Law!

We know the US won't...!

[bemildred]

4. Accountability is such a downer. nt

[tularetom]

5. WTF - they think we want these pieces a shit HERE?

Fuck 'em -let them stay there and face the consequences of their actions. There's plenty of lampposts to hang their miserable asses from.

[gratuitous]

7. Of course they haven't announced plans to withdraw

Thieves and murderers don't habitually inform their victims of the time and circumstances of their getaway. But yes indeed, if they haven't done anything wrong, why in the world would they be worried about losing immunity?

[IndianaGreen]

8. Many of them are nothing more than mercenaries

There are contractors that are not in the "security" business like Blackwater. These are the contractors that often find themselves paying for the crimes of other contractors.

[Amonester]

9. "contractors in Iraq who have been above Iraqi law since the war began"

above the law...

just like the bush/chainy junta here...

just like the nazis in ww2...

just like...

[Javaman]

10. huh, I wonder if when they are out of work will they join the foreign legion like the germans

did after WWII? Or just become the mercs for hire that they already are?

when you hit mercury with a hammer...

[HopeHoops]

11. YA THINK????