Allawi's government is resisting pressure from Washington to grant special immunity to US civilians in Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq’s interim government is reluctant to grant legal immunity to foreign contractors working with the U.S.-led forces in Iraq as press reports revealed that some of them are involved in the prisoners scandal.

"A new formula must be found for civilians and for contractors for the military," said Gurgis Sada, a spokesman for the new interim government, which will take over from the occupation authority in just over a fortnight, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He established a distinction between the military, who would enjoy a special status accorded to members of the multinational force -- the name given to the foreign military presence that will remain in Iraq after June 30 -- and the civilians.

Sada said that after the power transfer U.S. and British troops, operating as part of multinational forces, "will have the same rights and powers as any other member of the deployment who will work under the supervision of the Iraqi government."

Media reports revealed last month that US and British occupation troops in Iraq were to enjoy legal immunity from being prosecuted in Iraq after the planned power transfer, stealing away the right of Iraqis to sue them over abuses and other war crimes.

However, the Iraqi government spokesman stressed that as "for civilian contractors, we are going to discuss their status with coalition officials. The negotiations will take place at a prime ministerial level."

He stressed that "a foreign civilian should have the same status as an Iraqi civilian, while the military should benefit from immunity, but all this is still up for discussion."

The Washington Post said Monday, June 14, the new Iraqi government would resist pressure from Washington to grant special immunity to US military and civilians in Iraq.

If this demand is accepted, any American would receive the same legal status as a US soldier.

As a result, they would not be subject to US military justice or the Iraqi judicial code, the newspaper said, citing Iraqi sources.

About 15,000 personnel from private military firms (PMFs) are operating in Iraq, according to the estimation of Peter Singer, author of "Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry."

Claude Salhani, International Editor of United Press International (UPI), explains that the term civil contractors is nothing more than a replica of the now outdated term mercenaries.

"In other wars, such as in Africa's colonial conflicts during the late 1950s and early 1960, these civilian contractors were simply called mercenaries.

"In today's more politically correct world, the term mercenary has been sidelined for the more acceptable PC ‘civilian contractor’."

Contractors’ Abuses

The immunity wrangling came as press reports revealed Tuesday that foreign contractors and military intelligence officials instructed the guards of the notorious Abu Gharib prison to abuse Iraqi detainees.

The guards, for instance, kept some prisoners awake for as many as 20 hours a day at the direction of the contractors, the Associated Press reported citing a sworn statement by a private interrogator.

The statement from Steven A. Stefanowicz said that prison guards were given copies of written interrogation plans for each inmate, which were prepared by three-person teams comprised of contractors or military intelligence soldiers.

"Those plans specifically placed one detainee on a sleep/meal management program that involved letting the prisoner sleep only in small blocks of time totaling no more than four hours out of every 24, up to a total of three days. The prisoner then would be allowed 12 hours of sleep."

Stefanowicz described another instance of abuse that took place on December 20, after he, a military intelligence sergeant and private interpreter John B. Israel, an Iraqi native and naturalized US citizen who worked for a subcontractor to Titan Corp, interrogated a prisoner in a stairwell.

The US Army's own investigator, Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who documented "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse" at Abu Gharib prison, named Israel in his report as possibly being involved in the abuses.

Stefanowicz himself is named in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, June 9, by nine ex-Iraqi detainees against contractors of two US companies providing interpretation and interrogation services over abusing them during detention at Abu Ghraib prison.

Previous press reports had revealed that the torture and abuse of prisoners were okayed by senior Pentagon officials, chiefly Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

Photos from the prison, showing prisoners being beaten, stripped naked, sexually humiliated and intimidated by dogs, broke into public view last April to the embarrassment of the US administration.