Contractors on Trial

In the indictments of five Blackwater guards, a chance at justice for Iraqis cut down in Baghdad

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.

Yesterday, 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. Prosecutors will have a formidable task proving in court that the defendants' action were excessive in the midst of a war zone.

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. If these contractors are guilty, not holding them accountable also would have been unfair to the thousands of contractors who perform their dangerous jobs in Iraq with restraint and fidelity to the law.

The Justice Department relied on a 2000 law that subjects contractors on foreign soil to U.S. prosecution if they commit acts that would be deemed crimes in the United States. That law, the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), originally applied only to Defense Department contractors; it was amended a few years later to include contractors for any agency working "in support of the mission of the Department of Defense overseas." The Blackwater guards were working under contract to the State Department.

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.