Blackwater Security Personnel: Illegal Combatants

George Bush has opened a can of worms. Although the worms might die, with a future rejection of the phrase "illegal enemy combatant" by the World community, it could now be applied to Blackwater USA personnel. Some might call that a backfire.

I'd be very anxious if I was a Blackwater operative going into a South American country under their new contract to fight drug trade (read "do the bidding of northern corporations".) The Village Voice reports:

In a major new outsourcing deal reported by only a few outlets, including the Army Times, Blackwater will divvy up a $15 billion pot of government gold, along with four huge defense contractors: Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Arinc.

In short, Blackwater personnel aren't covered by military law, and they aren't covered by local law in the nation of operations; they're currently illegal combatants. True, there's a scramble on to get them covered by some type of law, and the Democratic Congress seems all too happy to accommodate them (idiots missing an opportunity to nail this coffin). But for the time being, unless Congress votes them retroactive immunity, they are illegal, i.e., outside of the law.