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Three levels of detail on Blackwater test case

By Mark Obbie

The Times' Ginger Thompson and James Risen, covering the indictment of five Blackwater security guards in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last year, made me hungry for more legal details. Thompson and Risen forecast that the case will revolve around "the first test of the government’s ability to hold private security contractors accountable for what it considers crimes committed overseas." The story then goes into a paragraph or two of detail about how the government's power is defined in the case by a vague provision of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Want to know more? McClatchy's Michael Doyle makes good use of his new blog to take the curious reader more deeply into the topic. In just a few grafs, he explains through legislative history what has led to this point, and then graciously links to an extensive analysis by Glenn Schmitt, published in 2005 by Army Lawyer. Burrowing down one more layer was enough for me, but the added detail will undoubtedly delight others.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on December 09, 2008 (boomark / email).