The immorality of Blackwater  American soldiers in Iraq should
fight because the cause is right, not because the price is
right.   • Jump to comments ()  The apparently unjustified
killings of Iraqi civilians by employees of the private military
company Blackwater USA in al-Nissour on September 16 has
triggered debate and hand-wringing about the legal situation of
contractors involved in the US military operation in Iraq.
Despite Congress's expansion of the uniform code of military
justice last November to cover contractors, the defense
department has failed to give implementation guidelines for this
expansion. Therefore, the provision that originated as Paul
Bremer's Order 17 granting contractors immunity from prosecution
persists in Iraqi law, and means that contractors continue to
exist above the law and outside its grasp - unlike soldiers,
they can't be court-martialed; unlike civilians, they can't be
prosecuted under the laws of the land. Sadly, as the
investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill has testified