This is what the New SOFA agreement does for the American Contractor supporting OIF. Check out the link.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/12/...php?goback=.hom

I understand that some of the security dudes might have been overzealous in the past but this applies to every one in every field.

Link not working.

Question is will blackwater & the other private security companies stay in country, or will they now pull out. Or how about the guys working for the private security companies, would they want to keep working for them in country knowing there ass is hanging out?

Imagine that. Just another nail in the coffin of the good ol USA. This place is getting worse and worse.

did our country just agree to surrender it's citizens?

I know what I would do if working for a contractor. Quit. That is absolute garbage, and I wouldn't leave my butt in the wind like that.

Truly frightening.

NighthawkCarbine

While I think that while "military contractors" do need some more accountability, I don't believe this is the correct way to do so. A US citizen should be taken to US courts imo.


Nate

The way it reads, its simply a contractor has no more rights than say an employee of Exxon who's in Iraq. It pretty much means though their company is employed by the US government, they have no diplomatic status. At least not any more that any other civilian private US citizen in Iraq.

That pretty much means the US Government no longer recognizes their military role. Depending on how far its pushed, it could mean criminal charges for acts of war and even extradition from the US to face charges in Iraq.

How many of you guys remember Angola? Angola was another of those little covert wars that wasn't all that covert. The government recruited Vietnam Veterans openly in magazines like "Soldier of Fortune" and then shipped them out of Freeport TX to fight the communist in Angola. When the war lost support in the government, the government cut off all support and left them there. The Jimmy Carter administration not only ignored them but villianized them in the media. The actions of one group headed by a guy nicknamed "Mad Mike" was used to justify everyone of those men being abandoned and killed. This was a different "Mad Mike" than "Mad Mike Hoare" of the Congo and it was Hoare that the Angola "Mad Mike" was nicknamed from.

Our track history with mercenaries and the track record period isn't good guys. The number one advantage of a contractor/mercenary is they are disposable. That's not only from a financial standpoint but from a political one.

I've been telling the folks I know who were contractors this was coming, many before they even signed up, for a few years now. The first time I saw contractors being villanized on TV, I knew it was getting close. The TV even used similar names of real life organizations.

I totally do not expect the Obama administration to reverse this trend but if anything a liberal administration like the Carter Administration will make it worse.

Tj

In this context as a U.S. contractor I agree completely. Now if a US citizen was attempting to smuggle drugs into some country they should be left to the legal system of that country.

NighthawkCarbine

Exactly the money is not worth it, if you are fearful of jail time if you shoot the people trying to shoot you.