What the law says about the recent killings in Iraq

[seemslikeadream]

By Phillip Carter, FindLaw Columnist
Special to CNN.com
Monday, April 5, 2004 Posted: 2:14 PM EDT (1814 GMT)

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To understand the reason for the murkiness, it's helpful to look at the Fallujah situation. The four men who died in Fallujah were American citizens with some past or present military affiliation. As employees of a government contractor, Blackwater Security Consulting, they were agents of the U.S. government -- although they formally worked for a private company.

The four men carried weapons, although unlike soldiers, they presumably had orders only to use them in self-defense within the scope of their contract and the coalition's rules of engagement. In addition, they had a quasi-military mission to defend convoys from Iraqi insurgents.

For these reasons, even though it's clear the four men were not U.S. military personnel, they may have been combatants for the purposes of international law.

During the past two decades, the problem of defining contractors' status has become increasingly more complex for the American military. Its forces routinely take contractors into battle with them, depending on them to maintain sophisticated communications and warfighting equipment.

(Interestingly, embedded journalists also present a close case, just as contractors do. Are they truly civilians? After all, they have chosen to link up with a U.S. military unit, and many traveled wearing military protective equipment such as body armor and chemical protective gear. Even given their link to a unit, embedded journalists appear to remain civilians. But the line is a thin one: Indeed, journalists were expressly ordered not to carry weapons during the recent war precisely because doing so could result in the loss of their non-combatant status and Fourth Geneva Convention protections.)

more
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/04/05/carter.iraq/

[MSgt213]

1. That's why if caught they are not afforded the same rights as POWs

[Gothmog]

2. Good article

I love Findlaw

[seemslikeadream]

3. Maybe like these guys

The mercenaries from Zimbabwe. Were they going to grab Taylor, execute a coup or guard a gold mine for Barrick? So many projects so little time!



Mercenaries were after Taylor: report
Alleged mercenaries facing charges of trying to topple the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea were actually on a mission to abduct former Liberian president Charles Taylor from Nigeria, a newspaper has reported.

This Day, quoting sources close to some of the South African nationals among the 70 presumed soldiers of fortune detained in Zimbabwe, said their objective was not to topple Equatorial Guinea's long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema but to deliver Taylor to a special war crimes court in Sierra Leone.

Fifteen other presumed soldiers of fortune have been detained in Equatorial Guinea on charges of trying to oust Mr Nguema. One of the men has since died of cerebral malaria.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/24/1079939716746.html