As the federal government moves ahead with its prosecution of Blackwater employees involved in civilian deaths in Iraq, U.S. Rep. David Price says the courts — not the Department of Defense — will decide whether the guards can be prosecuted under the law.

Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians on Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad during a convoy detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Barb Barrett reports.

The U.S. Department of Defense told Price in December 2007 that because Blackwater was working for the Department of State during the incident, the guards could not be subject to prosecution in the United States. The letter came from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.

The U.S. Department of Justice now disputes that. It filed a legal brief last week arguing that Defense and State were working together, and therefore the guards could be prosecuted.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed Dec. 5, 2007, — after the incident — says the State and Defense departments will "jointly develop, implement and follow core standards" of private security contractors such as Blackwater.

The memo says the standards would include a "clear legal basis for holding (U.S. Government) private security contractors accountable under U.S. law."

Price spokesman Paul Cox said this morning that, "regardless of the views expressed in the Deputy Secretary's letter, it's up to the courts alone to determine whether these security contractors fall under federal criminal jurisdiction."

U.S. Rep. David Price wants to rein in intelligence contractors who deal with detainees.

As part of a national intelligence reauthorization bill, the Chapel Hill Democrat has written several provisions which would bar contractors from interrogating detainees.

The bill would require a detailed report to Congress about the use, cost and training of contractors. It would also require the director of national intelligence to determine whether they are being properly used.

"Interrogations should be carried out by individuals who are well-trained, fall within a clear chain of command, and have a sworn loyalty to the United States -- not by corporate, for-profit contractors," he said in a statement. 

The bill passed the House on Wednesday and now goes to the Senate. The White House cited the contractor oversight provisions among its top reasons for why President Bush may veto the bill. (N&O)

The national intelligence reauthorization bill being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives today tries to rein in intelligence contractors who deal with detainees.

The provisions, authored in part by U.S. Rep. David Price, would bar contractors from performing interrogations on detainees, Barb Barrett reports.

It also would require a detailed report to Congress about the usage, cost and training of intelligence contractors and would require the national director of intelligence to assess whether contractors are being appropriately used.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, wrote the language with U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Price pushed through language in the defense authorization bill prohibiting defense contractors from performing interrogations on detainees, and now he's extending his efforts to the intelligence community, such as the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Interrogations should be carried out by individuals that are well-trained, fall within a clear chain of command and have a sworn loyalty to the United States, not for-profit corporate contractors," said Paul Cox, Price's spokesman.

The House is expected to vote on the bill this afternoon. It then goes to the full Senate.

U.S. Rep. David Price is working behind the scenes this week to keep provisions he wrote in the war supplemental bill being debated by Congress.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, has long ticked away at regulations on private security contractors working in President Bush’s war on terror, Barb Barrett reports.

Among those is a provision that would bring contractors working for non-military agencies inside war zones under the U.S. judicial code.

That would, for example, have meant a judicial investigation into the Blackwater guards accused of killing civilians last fall while working for the U.S. Department of State.

Price’s language, along with money to pay for FBI investigators in Iraq, was in the House version of the war spending bill. But it was stripped out of the final Senate version along with several other policy provisions.

Contractors working for the military already are under the military judicial code for crimes committed in war zones.

The House could take up the war spending bill as soon as this week. The bill is meant to provide emergency funding for the war in Iraq. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that goes beyond dollars for the troops, but Congress has tried to include in it several new policy provisions.

U.S. Rep. David Price says Barack Obama can "change the equation."

In a conference call this afternoon, the Chapel Hill Democrat said that he was endorsing Obama because he can help bring independent voters in North Carolina to the Democratic column in November.

"With Barack Obama as our nominee, I believe we can turn North Carolina blue this year," Price said.

He also said he supports Obama's approach to the Iraq war, the use of security contractors by the U.S. military and the economy. He said Obama would also be in the "strongest position" to announce to the world "a new day in American diplomacy."

He said Obama would help "transcend the conflicts and resentments of the past" and energize a new generation of voters. 

A leading congressman today asked three federal agencies to investigate the conduct of Blackwater, the private military contractor based in North Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman said Blackwater may be violating tax, small businesss and labor laws, and he requested investigations from the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Labor, reports Joseph Neff.

Blackwater's director of public affairs, Anne E. Tyrrell, called Waxman's claims "completely without merit."

Waxman repeated the complaint he first aired in October, that Blackwater has evaded tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes by treating its security guards, pilots and support staff as independent contractors instead of employees.

Since then, Waxman said, his investigators have reviewed 20,000 documents and interviewed former Blackwater personnel and officials at the State Department, which hired Blackwater to protect its diplomats in Iraq and worldwide.

Companies must withhold Medicare and Social Security taxes for employees, but not independent contractors. Blackwater may have failed to pay or withhold up to $50 million dollars in taxes.

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U.S. Rep. David Price has opposed Blackwater since 2004.

In an e-mail to Dome, Paul Cox, a staffer for the Chapel Hill Democrat, said that a recent Virginian-Pilot story (linked here) incorrectly described Price's role:

Price's legislation was not a response to the Sept. 16th incident, and Price's efforts are not focused on one company – he criticizes the lack of oversight and accountability for all security contractors, Blackwater being one of many. 

He said that Price has been trying to close the "legal loopholes" that allow contractor misconduct since 2004, though the Nisour Square incident focused public attention on the issue and get the bill through the U.S. House.

Cox added that the bill is currently "stalled" in the Senate. 

An international human rights organization said today that a lack of political will – not a fuzzy legal framework – should be primarily blamed for the dearth of prosecutions against private security contractors accused of abuses in Iraq.

Human Rights First said the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to hold such contractors, including Blackwater USA of Moyock, accountable for accused abuses, amounting to what the organization calls a “culture of impunity,” reports Barb Barrett.

“The biggest obstacle is not the law, but political will,” said Maureen Byrnes, executive director of the group.

Still, the group said that clarifying the law – along the lines of a bill authored by U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill – would ensure that prosecutors have a path for investigating alleged criminal activities by guards.

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U.S. Rep. David Price said Blackwater should be covered by American laws.

In an interview on NPR's "All Things Considered" yesterday, the Chapel Hill Democrat said that the U.S. should bring private military contractors in a war zone under the rule of U.S. law. His bill to do that awaits action in the Senate.

He pointed out that currently contractors for the Defense Department are covered under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, but contractors for the State Department are not.

"It would fill a gap in the law," he said.

Still, he said the bill would not solve the problem. He said the White House would still have to prosecute those who break the law. That would include contractors like Blackwater, which has been accused of killing 14 Iraqis without justification in a Sept. 16 incident.

"The military people will be the first to tell you that this sort of behavior threatens the mission," he said. "As we're trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis, this does us enormous damage."

U.S. Rep. David Price thinks it's time to rein in rogue security contractors.

In a guest column in the Miami Herald, the Chapel Hill Democrat writes that Blackwater USA and other private security contractors are not covered enough by U.S. laws and the Bush administration has chosen not to uphold those that do apply.

Rogue contractors have been accused of acting like cowboys in the Wild West. But should we be surprised, when neither U.S. nor Iraqi law can hold them to account? If this administration chooses to replace military personnel with private contractors, it has a clear responsibility to ensure that such contractors operate under the rule of law. If it cannot uphold this basic duty, then the contractors must come home.

Price's bill to bring private contractors under U.S. law passed the House earlier this month. It awaits action by the Senate.