Congressman David Price Asks, If Not US than Who?

David Price is doing a great job.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

Did you see that the Inspector General who was investigating Blackwater had to recuse himself because his brother is on Blackwater's board of directors?

Ooopsie.

and he is totally all over the interTubes these days because of contractor oversight. I hope he notices the spotlight and pushes this hard.

David is a level-headed guy who people will listen to. Folks know he's not a hot head, so he has enormous credibility when he finally does get fired up about something.

I've spoken with him personally on this issue and I can tell you he is absolutely fired up about this. It's about as close to outrage as I've ever seen in the good Congressman. May ya'll could help keep him fired up with words of support and encouragement. I want him to carry this issue all the way to the end, whatever that may be. For me personally, the only honorable end would be the complete elimination of the use of mercenary forces (armed contractors) by the United States government. If we can't fight our battles the old fashioned way (with a well-trained, fully staffed military) then we should not be fighting them at all.

You can reach him here. Please take a moment to write to him.

offices yesterday to thank him for holding contractors especially Blackwater accountable. Left an invitation for Con. Price on his communication's director, Paul Cox vm to come by BlueNC and post more about this. Hope that happens.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

holding my breath that anything remotely looking like justice will come from this. Jeremy Scahill recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times about the loopholes Blackwater can dance through ...

Who will prosecute the killers?

The answer may be no one. That certainly seemed to be the view of veteran diplomat Patrick Kennedy, who recently reviewed the State Department’s use of private security. Kennedy and his team came back from Baghdad concluding that they were “unaware of any basis for holding non-Department of Defense contractors accountable under U.S. law.”

Although the FBI conclusions appear damning, each of the three potential avenues for prosecuting Blackwater have fatal flaws:

U.S. civilian law: The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 provides for prosecution in federal court of U.S. contractors for crimes committed overseas. The problem is that this law only applies to contractors working for or directly accompanying the U.S. military. Blackwater works for the State Department in Iraq as “diplomatic security,” which is separate from military operations. Legislation has been introduced that would expand the act to apply to all contractors, but not retroactively. The Justice Department might argue that the Blackwater guards were indeed accompanying the military, but courts could well throw out such a case.

U.S. military law: In late 2006, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) inserted an amendment in the Defense Authorization Act that places all U.S. contractors under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the court-martial system. But this has not been tested, and the Department of Defense has shown no desire to use this option against any security contractors — let alone ones who aren’t working for the military. Facing a military prosecution, Blackwater could even get support from civil libertarians, who would see it as a creep toward applying military law to civilians.

Iraqi law: The Iraqi government wants to prosecute the Blackwater shooters in its courts, but that isn’t going to happen. The day before L. Paul Bremer III ended his tenure as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in June 2004, he issued Order 17. It grants all contractors sweeping immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. There is a provision that allows the U.S. to lift immunity in individual cases, but Washington would never hand over a U.S. citizen to an Iraqi court.

“These legal loopholes amount, in practice, to a license to kill with impunity,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is suing Blackwater for wrongful death and war crimes in federal court over the shootings. “There is no genuine deterrence to acting unlawfully.”