Translation: Up Your Nose With a Rubber Hose

Regarding Blackwater, what to see what I'm talking about when I say that security firms there's little (um, none?) structural accountability?

From the tail end of the WP's article:

It was not immediately clear whether Iraq or the United States holds the authority to regulate Blackwater's operations. A regulation known as Order 17 established under the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority headed by L. Paul Bremer effectively granted immunity to American private security contractors from being prosecuted in Iraqi courts.

Another CPA memorandum requires private security companies to register with the Interior Ministry, but some of the companies in Iraq operate without doing so.

Lawrence T. Peter, director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, said Blackwater was licensed by the Interior Ministry. But Blackwater acknowledged as recently as two months ago that a license it obtained in 2005 had lapsed, and the company was having trouble getting the license renewed.

"Many Iraqis have come to me and complained bitterly to me about CPA Order 17, I understand that," said Peter. "But the fact that you complain bitterly doesn't mean you can wave a magic wand and change it."

Here's a detailed run-down of the trouble with relying so heavily on security contractors. It's by P.W. Singer, the guy who literally wrote the book on this stuff.  A clip from his post:

On Christmas Eve 2006, a Blackwater employee allegedly got drunk while inside the Green Zone in Baghdad and got in an argument with a guard of the Iraqi Vice President. He then shot the Iraqi dead. The employee was quickly flown out of the country and, 9 months later, has not been charged with any crime.

Comments

[jerry pekow]

The kid looks even better without the beard. Downright handsome. Mustache looks good. JP

[Dwain]

It is hugged daily, photographed hourly and is never alone for long.
http://ed4.competitionbill.com/map-3.html