Role of US Civilian Contractors in Iraq Prison Scandal Comes

Gary Thomas

The first court-martial in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal is set to open Wednesday. A U.S. Army soldier will be tried by a military court in Baghdad.

According to the U.S. Army's investigation 1 outlining abuse of the detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, some soldiers working at the jail say civilian 2 contract interrogators and translators encouraged the abuse of prisoners.

John Hutson, a former U.S. Navy lawyer and now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center, says that if contractors 4 did help encourage prisoner abuse, their legal status for any criminal prosecution 5 is murky 6.

"It's something that frankly 7 we did not anticipate very well, and I think we have left ourselves very vulnerable," he said. "And it comes at a particularly bad time because we are using contractors more and more and more and more to perform what are essential, fundamental military functions, so that this issue is likely to come up frequently, unfortunately."

There are no official figures available, but experts believe there to be at least 20,000 contractors working in security-related jobs in Iraq. Those who are not hired locally, such as facilities guards, are primarily retired 8 military or intelligence personnel.

Deborah Avant, a political science professor at George Washington University and a specialist on military privatization, says the U.S. military's use of security contractors exploded in the 1990s as the overall U.S. troop strength was reduced. She says it picked up steam since September 11, 2001, particularly with the demands and dangers of the Iraq occupation.

"Partly this is because the U.S. government is doing more and is hiring more contractors to go along with it," said Ms. Avant. "But it's also the fact that many more different kinds of entities 9, private sector 10, NGOs [non-governmental organizations], national organizations, are hiring their own security. And so these contractors work not only for governments."

But legal authority over civilian defense 11 contractors remains 12 unclear. They are exempt 13 from Iraqi courts. They are not subject to the military justice system except in wartime, and a military appeals court has ruled it has to be a war declared by Congress, something that hasn't happened since 1941. Mr. Hutson says that leaves an awfully 14 big legal loophole."

"The president has said there's a war, Congress has given us money for the war, so that it's arguable," he said. "But it's far, far, far from being perfect. There's a huge hole, a jurisdictional 15 hole, that you could drive a tank through, potentially."

Congress attempted to partially 16 close that loophole with a new law passed in 2000 that allows defense contractors working for U.S. forces to be prosecuted 18 in federal courts. The Bush administration contends the new law is sufficient to prosecute 17 any crimes committed by civilian contractors in Iraq. But, as Mr. Hutson points out, the law is untested, and it may not cover some of the offenses 20, such as assault, allegedly perpetrated at Abu Ghraib.

"The problem with that is that it's never been used," he said. "It's never been implemented 21 by DOD [Department of Defense], there have been no implementing 22 directives since Congress passed it. So that is a little less than perfect as a remedy."

In addition, that law applies only to contractors working for the Defense Department, not to those working for other non-Defense agencies such as the CIA.

注释：
court-martial 军事法庭
abuse [E5bju:z] n. 虐待
scandal [5skAndl] n. 丑行，丑闻
Baghdad [`bA^dAd] n. 巴格达（伊拉克首都）
detainee [dI5teInE(r)] n. 被拘留者
Abu Ghraib prison 阿布格莱布监狱
interrogator 3 [in5terE^eitE] n. 讯问者，质问者
U.S. Navy 美国海军
Franklin Pierce Law Center弗兰克林·皮尔斯法律中心
contractor [kEn5trAktE] n. 雇员
prosecution [7prCsi5kju:FEn] n. 起诉
murky [5mE:ki] adj. 黑暗的，阴暗的
anticipate [An5tisipeit] v. 预计，预见
vulnerable [5vQlnErEb(E)l] adj. 易受攻击的，易受……的攻击
intelligence [in5telidVEns] n. 情报局
personnel [7pE:sE5nel] n. 人员，职员
George Washington University 乔治华盛顿大学
privatization 私有化
entity 23 [5entiti] n. 实体
NGO 是non-governmental organizations的缩写，非政府组织
loophole [5lu:phEJl] n. 漏洞
jurisdictional adj. 司法的
potentially [pE5tenF(E)l] adv. 潜在地
offense 19 [E5fens] n. 进攻
assault [E5sC:lt] n. 攻击，袭击
allegedly [E5ledVIdlI] adv. 据称
perpetrate [5pE:pitreit] v. （正式）犯罪，做错事
implement [5implimEnt] vt. 贯彻，执行
DOD 是Department of Defense的简称，国防部
CIA abbr. Central Intelligence Agency 中央情报局