Legal News

Where Do Military Contractors Fit in U.S. Law and the Law of War?

By Dan Slater

Yesterday, the Law Blog noted recommendations for expanding and re-shaping our court system to accommodate Guantanamo detainees. Today, we’ve got an interesting story from Baghdad about the way military courts are expanding their jurisdiction to handle alleged crimes by civilian contractors.

On February 23, in Hit, a town west of Baghdad, Alex Mohammed Ali, a dual citizen of Iraq and Canada and a translator contracted by the U.S. Army, allegedly stabbed a fellow contractor during a fight. Ali was charged with aggravated assault under military law, the first military prosecution of a citizen since the Vietnam War. Click here for an AP article, and here for more in-depth coverage from U.S. News.

An evidentiary hearing was scheduled for today, but the hearing was stayed while prosecutors continue to build their case against Ali, who’s being detained at a stockade at Camp Victory. (Here’s an AP report.)

In 2006, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) added a measure to a defense spending bill that made civilians working for the U.S. military in a “contingency operation” subject to courts martial. The provision, according to the AP report, was intended to close the legal loophole that made it difficult to successfully prosecute such individuals in conflicts in which Congress had not formally declared a state of war.

But this is the first test case, according to Michael Navarre, a senior associate at Steptoe & Johnson in D.C. and a contributor to a military justice blog called CAAFlog. The Law Blog caught up with Navarre, 36, who, prior to law firm life, served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corp in the U.S. Navy. “It raises an interesting constitutional issue,” Navarre told the Law Blog. “How do contractors fit into US law and the law of war? If there was a scheme out there it would help everyone to know where they fall in the system.”

Ultimately, according to reports, Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the commanding officer of the Multinational Corps, will decide whether to order a trial for Ali.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).