Blackwater Shooting Crisis Rallies Baghdad By PHILIP SHISHKIN September 24, 2007; Page A3
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An escalating controversy over the alleged shooting of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. security firm has triggered the strongest challenge yet to legal immunity for some foreigners in Iraq, while providing a rare rallying cry for the country's polarized factions.
Iraqi government statements have been contradictory on the Sept. 16 gunfire, in which Blackwater USA, based in North Carolina, is accused of having killed Iraqi civilians while escorting an American diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. They range from threats to prosecute Blackwater to promises not to expel the firm from Iraq.
• The News: The controversy surrounding Blackwater has galvanized Iraq's weak central government, providing a rare rallying cry for Baghdad officials. • The Context: Iraqis have chafed under an order that gives some foreigners immunity from criminal prosecution, but so far haven't pushed to amend it. • What's at Stake: Iraqi leaders now look set to curtail legal protection afforded private security firms such as Blackwater, raising questions about how they may operate in Iraq.
But the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has managed to galvanize broad-based opposition to an order issued in the waning days of direct American rule in Iraq that lays out broad immunity from criminal prosecution for U.S. diplomats, troops and private contractors operating in Iraq.
It is known as Order 17, issued by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004. Iraqi officials have long chafed at the law, viewing it as an encroachment on Iraqi sovereignty. But until now, no serious effort has been made to revise it.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119059638770436927...
I've always figured that if anything would unite the Iraqi factions again, it would be the creation of a front to expel the occupation. This may be the start. What would happen if someone floated a resolution in the parliament inviting the Americans to leave?
Now is the time to stage a provocation and attack Iran, if the Bush regime is ever going to do this. My current bet is that they won't, that they lack the support behind the scenes, and that the game (or this phase of it) is close to over. The elites will decide to profit by betting on the empire's decline. But ask me again tomorrow.