Iraq approves draft to lift contractors' immunity

updated 5:31 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2007

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government approved a draft law Tuesday to lift immunity for foreign security companies including Blackwater USA, a bid to overturn a decree imposed more than three years ago by the U.S. official who ran the country after the American-led invasion.

The legislation could have a chilling effect on security companies operating in Iraq, though the vast sums they and their guards are paid are likely to weigh more heavily than the possibility of legal jeopardy.

The draft law, expected to be passed overwhelmingly by parliament, is also certain to deepen tensions between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to push through the legislation amid public outrage over Blackwater’s seemingly unprovoked killing of 17 Iraqis last month as well as a series of other Iraqi civilian deaths allegedly at the hands of foreign contractors.

The U.S. and Iraq were already at loggerheads over Blackwater, which guards American diplomats in Iraq. The problem was compounded by reports that the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security granted limited immunity to the Blackwater guards involved in the Sept. 16 shooting in west Baghdad’s Nisoor Square.

Murky legal territory
Because the Iraqi draft law would not be retroactive, any punishment for those shootings would be left to the United States, said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. It is unclear what U.S. criminal laws might cover acts in a war zone; civilian contractors cannot be tried in military courts.

A Pentagon official said Tuesday that Defense and State department officials had reached a “general understanding” that the American military command in Baghdad should have more oversight of the U.S. government’s private security contractors in Iraq.

“We need to be more clear” on rules for the use of force and coordination of the movement of the contractors, whether they work for the State Department or the Defense Department, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

Democrats react to immunity reports
On Capitol Hill, Democrats criticized the Bush administration for giving immunity to the bodyguards, calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for the shooting deaths.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who sits on two Senate panels that oversee the State Department and the Justice Department, called the deal an example of “the amnesty administration.”

Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat running for president, demanded to know whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was aware of the immunity offers and agreed with it.

In a letter to Rice Tuesday, Obama asked whether the FBI and Justice Department were consulted before limited immunity was offered.

Bush ignores question
The White House had little to say about the matter Tuesday. President Bush ignored a question on the arrangement shouted after his meeting with the president of Uganda. And his spokeswoman dodged most questions about it at her daily briefing for reporters, referring them to the State Department.

“It is under review,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “Anyone who has engaged in criminal behavior will be prosecuted.”

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