Are American Troops Taking Orders From Civilian Contractors In Iraq?

In listening and reading about the Prison Scandal... it seems that there were not only troops involved but also Civilian Contractors and Intelligence Personnel.

In trying to understand the situation... it sounds as if our troops are being trained and ordered about by Civilians...

Is this a misconception?

and this is part of the problem

if it were, the screaming would be intolerable.
edit to say: I believe US soldiers taking orders from civilian contractors is against military code, I know our soldiers cannot take orders from another country's military.

might there not be a serious breach of Military Law? If so, shouldn't this be a topic of conversation here on DU?

Military Law would apply to "Civilian Contractors." Since the CC's are just now being exposed, it would be hard to have a conversation here, which wasn't just what "we" feel about it compared to what the reality of the Law is on it.

Hopefully we have someone on DU who would be an expert in "military law" but until one is available, we are left to speculation as to our sense of what we feel is either the "moral question about these folks" or what we might speculate comes under the "Geneva Convention Rules" which are pretty loose if one looks at them. :shrug:

the civilian contractors are not under the jurisdiction of the US military. They cannot be punished under military law. They cannot be punished under Iraqi law because no legal system exists yet. International law? It seems our government doesn't recognize it. They are also trying to remove any liability to the mega corporations doing biz over there. The worst that could happen to one of these guys would be to lose his job. So, just another day in the life of the elite neo-conservatives. Teacher's out of the room, no one to hold them or their friends accountable, write their own laws, insulate themselves from the 'commoners', death to anyone not like them, blah, blah, evil, evil, evil people.

Haliburton Shadow CEO Cheney is working the puppet.