WASHINGTON, 28 September 2007 — The fallout over the recent Blackwater USA shooting in Iraq may redefine how private security forces operate in hot spots around the world.
But while last week’s bloodshed attracted unprecedented international attention, the killings are viewed as simply the latest in a series of excesses by private contractors working in Iraq.
So, while Blackwater has become a lightning rod for critics of private security firms, many other security firms’ behavior is equally troubling.
But, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials, Blackwater has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department.
Following the recent killing of 20 Iraqi civilians by American guards working for Blackwater, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered US military commanders in Iraq to crack down on any abuses they uncover by private security contractors following the deadly shootings which enraged Iraqis.
Gates took the step after he decided that the thousands of heavily armed private guards in Iraq who work for the Pentagon may not be adequately supervised by military officers.
For years, there have been tensions between mid-level military officers who operate under strict rules and private security firm employees who work in Iraq under less-rigorous guidelines.
Publicly, Pentagon officials say they do not believe that wrongdoing is widespread among the agency’s 7,300 security contractors or that the armed guards operate with impunity.
Behind the scenes, however, Gates sent a five-man team to Iraq last weekend where they reported that military commanders there were not certain whether they had the authority to enforce existing laws, including the US Uniform Code of Military Justice [UCMJ].
The officers requested a clarification, the official said, prompting Gates to issue the directive.
In a three-page directive sent earlier this week to the Pentagon’s most senior officers, Gates’ top deputy ordered them to review rules governing contractors’ use of arms and to begin legal proceedings against any that have violated military law.
“Commanders have UCMJ authority to disarm, apprehend and detain DoD contractors suspected of having committed a felony offense” in violation of the rules for using force, said the memo, written by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England.
Thus the Blackwater contractors could be court martialed for wrong doing, a prospect that should satisfy all critics who insist that private military companies remain unaccountable.
Gates’ order contrasts with the reaction of State Department officials, who have been slow to acknowledge any potential failings in their oversight of Blackwater USA, that was hired to protect US diplomats in Iraq and was involved in the Sept. 16 shootings.
The Pentagon directive does not, however, affect private security guards under contract to other agencies, including the State Department, which is investigating the Blackwater shooting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered her agency to review its security practices in Iraq.
