CBS EXCLUSIVE: Letter From Iraq Ministry-"ALL IMMUNITIES SHALL BE CANCELLED"

New Law May Spell End To Iraq Contractors
CBS News: Documents Show Iraqi Parliament Considering Ending Immunity For Private Firms
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2007

The Iraqi government is attempting to rein in out-of-control U.S. security contractors with new legislation that would end their legal immunity.

(CBS) The government of Iraq has notified private security firms their immunity from Iraqi law is about to end, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

The title of a letter sent by the interior ministry - and obtained exclusively CBS News - says it all: “Removing the legal immunity.” Until now, security firms like Blackwater have operated under a grant of immunity issued in 2004 by the then-top American in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.

But the draft of a new law says “all immunities … shall be cancelled."

That law still must be ratified by the Iraqi parliament, and if and when it is, private security firms would almost certainly pull out of Iraq.

“There’s no question it’s a disaster if this got passed,” said Carter Andress, one of an estimated 8,500 private security contractors guarding diplomats, convoys and reconstruction sites for the U.S. He is not willing to let his employees be subject to arrest by an Iraqi police force he believes is riddled with corruption and infiltrated by enemy fighters.

more at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/09/eveningnews/main3482676.shtml

Of course they'll pull out. The real worry is it leaves our troops to deal with the responsibilities -- and the mess -- these firms leave behind. And they're stretched thin as it is.

Or bomb them or something. Definitely time for a new "Iraqi" government!

Look for the U.S. to lean on the Iraqi leadership again, like they did after the Blackwater massacre.

Exhibit A. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush. You are hereby sentenced to...

So what is it? Are the Iraqis so hopelessly inept and corrupt that we can't trust them to police their own country after all these billions we've poured into their reconstruction? Or are our mercenaries so dishonest that holding them to account would expose the shameless way we've treated Iraq? It has to be one way or the other, and neither option reflects well on the Bush administration.

This is quite a pickle, isn't it?

And how distressing it must be for Carter Andress and the rest of the mercenaries: I mean, how unnerving must it be to be going about your business when the front door could be battered down at any moment, and a stream of armed men flood your office and take you into custody to God knows where to be questioned by God knows who? Oh, wait . . .

There is no question Iraq is a disaster created by the USA.....If Iraqis make their own laws, isn't that what "Iraqi Freedom" is all about?