Civilians in Prison Scandal Raise Issues

[Khephra]

One grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the other in Egypt.

One came home from a job in Australia to join in the war on terror. The other heeded the call for Arabic speakers to help his adopted country negotiate the world of the Middle East.

Both found their way to Iraq through private companies, part of a decades-long evolution where private firms provide the military with trained soldiers, intelligence, advice on high-tech weapons and more.

And both -- interrogator Steven Stefanowicz and translator Adel L. Nakhla -- have been named by an Army investigation as suspects in the graphic allegations of abuses at a prison outside Baghdad.

The allegations are raising thorny issues on oversight, accountability and how to ensure that civilians working for the military follow the rules of war.

"These people are clearly engaged in the prosecution of a war effort, and yet they're not combatants in the same terms," said associate professor Deborah Avant of George Washington University.

more........

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-prisoner-abuse-contractors,0,5584837.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've heard that Bush

wrote an executive order that exhonerated the contractors even before any abuses took place.

[LittleApple81]

2. But, if I am not mistaken, they needed to at least "touch oil".

It was geared at crimes committed while stealing Iraqi Oil.