Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that she has cosponsored legislation
to ban the use of Blackwater and other private mercenary firms in Iraq."From this war’s very beginning, this administration has permitted thousands
of heavily-armed military contractors to march through Iraq without any law
or court to rein them in or hold them accountable. These private security
contractors have been reckless and have compromised our mission in Iraq. The
time to show these contractors the door is long past due. We need
to stop filling the coffers of contractors in Iraq, and make sure that armed
personnel in Iraq are fully accountable to the U.S. government and follow
the chain of command," said Senator Clinton.The legislation requires that all personnel at any U.S. diplomatic or consular
mission in Iraq be provided security services only by Federal Government Personnel.
It also includes a whistleblower clause to protect contract personnel who
uncover contract violations, criminal actions, or human rights abuses.
Obama’s evidently against it. The
Nation calls him out:
Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, one of Congress’s sharpest critics of the
war contracting system, says of Schmitz’s remark, "That’s why some of
us have been really careful about not just talking about a troop withdrawal
but a contractor withdrawal as well." Obama, she says, should make it
impossible for Schmitz and others "to think that Barack Obama would be
creating new opportunities for Blackwater after our troops are withdrawn."
The clearest way for him to do that would be to endorse legislation banning
the use of Blackwater and other mercenary firms in Iraq. In November Schakowsky
and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Stop Outsourcing Security
(SOS) Act, which mandates that US personnel undertake all diplomatic security
in Iraq within six months of enactment. The bill has twenty-three co-sponsors
in the House and one–Sanders–in the Senate. Sanders said he’d "love"
it if Obama and Clinton signed on. "If either of them came on board,
we’d certainly see more Democratic support," says Sanders. Will
Obama do that before November? "The answer is no, in all candor,"
says the senior Obama adviser. "Obviously it’s a dynamic situation, and
he’ll continue to analyze it."Schakowsky is pressing Obama to support the bill and says that if he becomes
President she will urge him to "cancel" any remaining Blackwater
contract in Iraq: "There’s plenty of justification to say this company
is trouble, and there’s no point in continuing our contract with them."The senior adviser said, "Senator Obama is concerned that Blackwater
remains in Iraq, and he’s concerned that they remain in Iraq and other countries
totally unaccountable to US law and totally unaccountable to the law in the
country in which they are operating." Which raises the question: If he’s
so concerned, why not throw his support behind a ban on the use of these forces
in Iraq?
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