December 10, 2008 12:00 am In September 2007, a caravan of security contractors from the firm Blackwater Worldwide rode into a busy traffic circle in Baghdad. Within minutes, a barrage of bullets and grenades fired by some in the Blackwater crew left 17 Iraqis dead and 20 others wounded. The contractors have consistently argued they were acting in self-defense. Federal prosecutors in the United States have concluded that what happened that day was criminal. This week, the Justice Department unsealed a 35-count indictment against five of the 19 Blackwater contractors in the convoy. All are charged with multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and firearms charges. The possible penalties are steep: Each manslaughter charge carries a 10-year prison sentence, each count of attempted manslaughter calls for a seven-year term, and a conviction on the gun charge would trigger a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years. A sixth contractor pleaded guilty last week to one count each of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Every defendant must be presumed innocent until proved guilty. ... Yet the government was right to file charges. Despite serious questions about the events surrounding the apparent massacre and the international outrage the violence spawned, the contractors would have escaped prosecution in Iraq because of a U.S. legal provision that shielded them. It would have been a travesty to have left these deaths and injuries unexamined and unexplained. ... The Justice Department relied on a 2000 law (the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act) that subjects contractors on foreign soil to U.S. prosecution if they commit acts that would be deemed crimes in the United States. ... Defense lawyers are almost certain to challenge the use of MEJA against their clients. But the federal government is on solid legal and moral footing in using all the tools available to pursue justice for the Iraqi victims and their families. The Washington Post
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