Tension Grows Between US Soldiers and Mercenaries

[babylonsister]

Tension Grows Between US Soldiers and Mercenaries
Submitted by danielifearn on Tue, 2007-08-14 14:19. General Discussion

By Deborah Hastings
The Associated Press
Saturday 11 August 2007

There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers - and a large percentage of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.

They operate with little or no supervision, accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys.

Not one has faced charges or prosecution.

There is great confusion among legal experts and military officials about what laws - if any - apply to Americans in this force of at least 48,000.

They operate in a decidedly gray legal area. Unlike soldiers, they are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under a special provision secured by American-occupying forces, they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committed there.

The security firms insist their employees are governed by internal conduct rules and by use-of-force protocols established by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq for 14 months following the invasion.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25786

[n2doc]

1. I only hope our Soldiers use all available force if any mercs shoot at them.

[babylonsister]

5. I'd wager it's already happened. nt

[Xipe Totec]

2. The term illegal enemy combatant comes to mind

that's what these mercs are.

And our commander has already set an example for handling those so designated.

What's good for the goose...

[TahitiNut]

3. Absolutely. These are precisely what the Geneva Conventions had in mind, imho.

Almost nowhere is the criminality and monarchical ambitions of the Cheney/Bush regime more evident than in granting Letters of Marque to these privateers.

[gratuitous]

4. "Governed by internal conduct rules"

Oh yeah, we've seen the wonderful job American corporations do of policing themselves and their personnel. Hint: As long as the Treasury money keeps rolling in, it doesn't matter what their employees do.

Here is a cash spigot that is just aching to be turned off by whatever branch of government is responsible for spending.