Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17

Just before leaving office as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004, Paul Bremer signed the order, which says:


It took effect in December 2006.^[2] At that time, there were thought to be at least 100,000 private military contractors working directly for the United States Department of Defense, a tenfold increase since the Persian Gulf War just over a decade earlier.^[3] This activity led to the foundation of a trade group called the Private Security Company Association of Iraq.

Responses[edit]

In Iraq, the issue of accountability, especially in the case of contractors carrying weapons, is sensitive. One major incident in 2007 involved Blackwater guards who killed 17 Iraqi civilians in a mass shooting in Nisour Square. Iraq's government maintained that this was murder but was unable to prosecute the guards because they had immunity.


A month after the Nisour Square massacre, the Iraqi cabinet approved draft legislation intended to end contractors' immunity. Contractors would be required to license their weapons, to register their equipment including armored vehicles and helicopters, and (if foreign) to obtain visas, something not previously required when working for an agency of a country in the coalition.^[4] At the same time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2740) which would have made U.S. security contractors in Iraq subject to U.S. criminal law; however, the Senate never voted on it.^[5]


In December 2008, a Status of Forces Agreement between Iraq and the US made contractors subject to Iraqi criminal law.