The Daily Lobo sat down with Christopher Butler, professor of political science, to discuss the Iraqi government's move to ban Blackwater USA, a U.S. security firm accused of fatally shooting eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack in Baghdad.
Daily Lobo: What are Blackwater USA's duties in Iraq?
Christopher Butler: It sounds like they have lots of duties. I'm not an expert on everything that they're doing, but they do a lot of guarding of embassy personnel and protecting congressional folks who go over. It sounds like they are also our helicopter pilots, in addition to security personnel. So, they're ferrying people around and all sorts of other things.
DL: How many Blackwater employees are in Iraq?
CB: The best I've found is about 1,000, but that's just from
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one source.
DL: What does this development say about Iraqi sovereignty?
CB: There are a couple different issues going on. The U.S. provisional authority, when Paul Bremer was the ambassador there, passed a law saying that the U.S. contractors - contractors in general - couldn't be prosecuted under Iraqi law. That basically provided protection for the contractors, both during that time period and, presumably, now, as (the law) hasn't been rescinded. The other issue is the ban on Blackwater. That might be different. And as much as an Iraqi judge has said that, "No, they can be prosecuted under Iraqi law," whether that actually follows through or whether the (Nouri) al-Maliki
government decides that, "Yeah, we're going to rescind the provisional authority's law and change things" - if things work the same way as they do here, the current mess wouldn't be something (Blackwater) could be prosecuted for, but it would change things in the future. So, that's a possibility - that it will be changed. Although, there probably will be pressure from the U.S. government that it won't be. The other thing, though, is the ban. If they are removed from the country, that's different from the spirit of the provisional authority law. That's something, again, that they're going to get pressure from the U.S. government on. But if the Iraqi government holds firm and says they have a review of all contractors, OK. But if they say, "After doing this review, it's Blackwater we want out," the other contractors - which are something on the order of 50,000 people in Iraq - if they're allowed to stay and the U.S. government can find 1,000 other people to replace the Blackwater contract - oh well. But Blackwater clearly is going to fight it tooth and nail, and it seems like the state department is going to, as well.
DL: How will this affect the 50,000 other contractors in Iraq?
CB: It could go any direction. From some of the things I was reading, the other contractors fear Blackwater as much as other people in Iraq do. It's possible that the other contractors have been conducting themselves better, and after an Iraqi review, they might say, "OK. These guys are being fine, but Blackwater, we don't like."
~Damian Garde
