Editorial: Test for attorney general

Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

Among the decisions facing Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who was sworn in last week, will be whether to prosecute private security guards who killed 17 Iraqi civilians Sept. 16.

Employed by Blackwater Worldwide, a North Carolina company, the guards' indiscriminate shooting in a Baghdad square enraged the Iraqi government.

Their actions also focused international attention on the Bush administration's heavy use of private forces to protect State Department diplomats in Iraq.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the FBI has found 14 of the deaths were unjustified and in violation of rules governing the use of deadly force.

Also reported by the newspaper were the findings of a separate U.S. military review of the shootings. The military found that none of the killings was justified and that, despite the murkiness of laws governing private American security forces in Iraq, their actions were potentially criminal.

Blackwater guards who opened fire that day claim they were responding to shots fired at them. Neither the FBI's ongoing investigation nor the military's review supports that contention.

The FBI does allow, however, according to reporting by the Times, that actions by three of the slain Iraqis could have been perceived as a threat. A military investigator, though, told the Times the FBI was being generous to Blackwater in characterizing any of the killings as justifiable.

Given the findings of the military and the FBI, Mukasey would have sound reasons for directing Justice Department prosecutors to seek indictments against the guards involved.