Editorial: Harness the hired guns

Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

A bill working its way through Congress would finally extend the rule of law to private security guards in Iraq. Although there have been many reports about the guards' reckless and violent actions since the war began, they have largely escaped government scrutiny until an incident on Sept. 16.

On that day guards working for Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad while escorting a State Department motorcade. Early reports said eight Iraqis were killed. Later reports listed 11 and the latest report says 17.

The incident, whose details are still being sorted out by the State Department, the FBI and a n American-Iraqi task force, incensed the Iraqi government and brought the issue of private guards to the forefront.

Reports by The Washington Post and The New York Times say there are more than 100 private security companies under federal contract in Iraq, employing as many as 30,000 guards.

In 2003, before there was an Iraqi government, American administrator L. Paul Bremer III decreed that private security forces would not be accountable under Iraqi law for any deaths or injuries inflicted in the course of their duties.

Left unresolved was whether they would be accountable under American law. Two years ago Congress directed the Pentagon to hold the contractors accountable under the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice.

According to the Times, though, "... no action (by the Pentagon) has been taken, leaving the contractors in a legal no-man's land - in effect, at liberty to treat all Iraq as a free-fire zone."

Congressional investigators and reporters have documented the reckless and lethal way the guards have behaved in Iraq since 2003, behavior that has turned many Iraqis against the U.S.

The bill in Congress, passed overwhelmingly in the House on Thursday, would make it clear that U.S. courts have jurisdiction over alleged crimes by private guards in Iraq. The Bush administration opposes the bill for reasons it has not made clear. We hope the Senate passes it quickly, and with a veto-proof majority.