An old story: An Iraqi policeman investigates the scene of a shooting in Baghdad, where one Iraqi was shot after foreign private security guards opened fire on his car, back in May 2004. That was before repeated shooting incidents involving private contractors forced a rethinking of their role. Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images.

The Pentagon and the U.S. State Department are announcing new rules they say will bring greater accountability to the conduct of private-security contractors in Iraq. The new rules are in response to a spate of incidents in which several security companies, including U.S.-based Blackwater Worldwide and DynCorp International, were involved in the apparently unprovoked shooting of Iraqi civilians.

But the agreement appears more cosmetic than substantial. A hint of its hollowness was apparent in the way the Times described it: "Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top United States commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Baghdad, have agreed on the details governing the operations of Blackwater and other private security contractors there." The obvious question is: where were Iraqi authorities in all this? When were they consulted, and to what extent will they have a say in how and whom to prosecute in case of future incidents? The answer: they were not consulted in so far as being given a role in handling future incidents. The immunity from Iraqi law that covers private security contractors since 2004 continues.

Security Contractors' New Rules

The changes: All movements of security agencies must be filed 24 hours in advance with military authorities. Private security companies' movements must be filed with military command centers in Iraq 24 hours in advance. Military authorities would determine whether those movements are feasible. Contractors would have to undergo annual training about the laws and procedures regulating their authority (you mean they weren't undergoing such training to date?). That's about it. The most salient issue--who prosecutes when laws are broken--is left unresolved. The military would, according to ABC news, merely pledge to refer the case "to the appropriate prosecutorial authority." Who would that be? Not clear.

In essence, nothing much has changed from the order set forth by the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004. That's the order (#17) that established private contractors' immunity from Iraqi law. It's also the order that, like all the orders issued by the CPA, had the force of law until explicitly overruled by Iraqi law. The Iraqi government moved to abolish immunity in November, making Order #17 moot. The move seems not to have registered with American authorities.

A Final Irony

Included among those CPA orders was a clear provision for oversight of private security contractors that included the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, referred to as MOI in CPA parlance. Order #17 put it this way:

MOI will establish an independent PSC [Private Security Contractors] Oversight Committee that will have general inspection and auditing responsibility (consistent with the provisions of CPA Order 57, Iraqi Inspectors General) over the implementation of this Memorandum. Such oversight shall include assessing enforcement of the standards set forth in this Memorandum as well as equitable and non-discriminatory treatment of PSC. The Minister will appoint the members of the Committee, which shall include the Inspector General of MOI, who shall be the only MOI representative on the committee, a member of the Judiciary and a representative of the MOT. The PSC Oversight Committee will report annually to the Minister on the implementation of this Memorandum.

What happened to that part of the order? American authorities in Iraq, it appears, are cherry-picking through their own paperwork. The media and the public in the United States may be confused enough not to pick up on the inconsistencies: obscure orders, memos and oversight committees are too much to keep up with. But the Iraqi public, daily affected as it is by the occupation's collateral aggravations, isn't likely to be as blind to what amounts to a hall of mirrors.

See also:

• Blackwater Mess: Unaccountable Mercenaries?
• Iraq: The Deadliest Year
• Is the "Surge" Working?
• Iraq: Country Profile