Iraqi Security Forces Arrest Five American Civilians

The Washington Post ^ | June 8, 2009 | Nada Bakri

[khnyny]

BAGHDAD, June 7 -- Iraqi security forces have arrested five Americans in connection with the killing of a contractor last month in Baghdad's Green Zone, Iraqi officials said Sunday. It could be the first case in which Americans face local justice under a security pact signed last year.

The Americans were detained Wednesday, although U.S. and Iraqi officials say no charges have been filed. James Fennell, a U.S. Embassy spokesman, said Sunday that consular officials had visited the men a day after their arrest to make sure "they're being afforded their rights under Iraqi law."

"The men appeared well," he said.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the men were being held at a police station in the Green Zone as part of a joint U.S.-Iraqi investigation. He said FBI agents had provided a tip to Iraqi forces, then accompanied them on a raid at a house where they had uncovered weapons and drugs.

But there were conflicting accounts about the arrest and possible charges.

[khnyny]

There is something not right about this story - I suspect there is much more. The following story is related, imho.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=116&pid=0&sid=1691509&page=1

"Panel finds lax oversight of wartime contracting" U.S. reliance on private sector employees has grown to "unprecedented proportions," yet the government has no central database of who all these contractors are, what they do or how much they're paid, the bipartisan commission found.

[stuartcr]

I agree, those 5 Americans were probably CIA or the like.

[khnyny]

That’s not what I was inferring. US contractors (and some recently indicted British contractors, among others) may have been operating their own personal criminal enterprises.

The Iraqi trade minister recently had to resign over internal corruption charges.

[stuartcr]

Yes, that too.