Private Contractors Who Torture [View All]

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But what of the civilian contractors who worked hand in glove with the military at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison? Will the atrocities they committed be, at most, bad for their careers - a source of negative letters in their employment files? Or will the civilians who shared responsibility for the criminal abuse meted out to detainees at Abu Ghraib be tried, convicted, and sent to prison?

To facilitate its outsourcing of the business of war, the Pentagon has extended generous legal protection to civilian contractors in Iraq. Under a June 2003 order of the Coalition Provisional Authority, civilian contractors are protected from prosecution in Iraq for crimes committed as part of their official duties. (The exact, though convoluted, language is: "acts performed by them within their official activities pursuant to the terms and conditions of a contract between a contractor and Coalition Forces or the CPA.")

The most serious crimes could be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act of 1996. War crimes, as defined in the law, include grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (such as torture or inhuman treatment) and violations of the Conventions' common article 3 (such as "outrages upon personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment").

Rather than sending FBI agents to Iraq to investigate the crimes, Ashcroft has said that federal prosecutors would await the result of the Pentagon's investigation. But while military investigators may be expert in gathering evidence for court-martial proceedings, it is the FBI's job to respond to civilian crimes. In 1998, for example, after the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa, more than 900 FBI agents were sent on-site to investigate.

The government's lack of enthusiasm for a vigorous investigation is a worrying sign. To successfully prosecute crimes committed in Iraq would require a serious commitment of resources. Who would, for example, bring the victims to the United States to testify? And would an American jury really convict an American contractor responsible for harming a foreign - or even an enemy - detainee?

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