Pictures of naked, abused Iraqi prisoners have aroused anger around the world since their revelation in late April. Congressional hearings into this abuse have found that some mistreatment may involve U.S. civilians who were brought into Iraqi prisons to interrogate detainees. Two of these civilian contractors are currently under investigation for misconduct, but so far, have not been officially charged. In addition, the New York Times and other sources report that the U.S. Justice Department is looking into the possible involvement of civilian contractors in the deaths of two persons detained by the United States in Iraq.
Some ask why would civilian contractors be employed in such sensitive positions? Washington Times Pentagon Correspondent Bill Gertz says the Defense Department is moving toward a smaller active-duty military supplemented by outsiders who can help soldiers fulfill their missions. He says ?It seems to be part of Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld?s transformation strategy ? to try and find jobs and missions within the military and the defense community that perhaps could be done more efficiently outside of a formal military or defense structure.?
George Washington University Professor Deborah Avant, a specialist in the outsourcing of traditionally military job functions, says in recent years the war on terror has made civilian interrogators especially necessary. ?The need for interrogations,? she says ?rose after September 11th. There are a lot of detainees all over the world, and the need for specific kinds of skills that were stretched thin in the U.S. military rose. People looked to resolve the problem by using contractors.?
What sort of persons would be hired to interrogate detainees or prisoners? After all, this is not a skill commonly found in the private sector. A Washington-based trade association called the International Peace Operations Association represents companies that provide services to the military. Its president, Doug Brooks, says these civilian contractors come to the job with the exact experience the Pentagon is looking for. ?Most of the interrogators that they hire,? says Brooks, ?are former military interrogators themselves, and in fact have much more experience than your average interrogator in the military.?
When a person takes off a military uniform and becomes a civilian contractor, more than clothing is shed. Jeff Kojac, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, points out that such civilians working overseas do not answer to the U.S. military?s legal system despite being under contract to the Pentagon. Mr. Kojac notes that ?A United States soldier is accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice regardless of what country that soldier does something wrong in. He adds ?But when these American citizens that are contractors do something wrong in another country, then it gets really murky.?
In 2000, Congress passed a law called the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which puts U.S. federal courts in charge over any crimes that may be committed by civilian contractors working overseas for the defense department. Peter Singer, of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, and an analyst of private military companies, explains why this law might not be usable in the case of wrongdoing by civilian interrogators. ?That act has two very clear problems with it,? asserts Mr. Singer, explaining ?One, it only applies to contractors who are working for the Defense Department, not those working for these other government agencies. The second problem is that the Defense Department has had four years to lay out the regulations of who, when, and where and how it is applied. For example, does the Defense Department apply it, or does the Justice Department apply it
Peter Singer says that so far, the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act has not been applied in any criminal case involving U.S. personnel in Iraq. He adds that if civilian contractors in Iraq charged with wrongdoing are not prosecuted under this act there are few other viable avenues. Mr. Singer notes the possibilility of pursuing wrongdoers through the court system of the U.S. state in which their company is registered, but says that is not likely to happen.