Leahy Provisions Holding Private Security Contractors

And War Profiteers Accountable Under U.S. Law

Added To Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill

 

WASHINGTON (Friday, May 16, 2008) – Three measures sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to hold private security contractors and war profiteers accountable under U.S. law for the first time were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday afternoon and included in the Senate version of the emergency supplemental spending bill for Iraq, Afghanistan, and key domestic programs.

 

In response to the killings of 17 innocent civilians by Blackwater security guards in Iraq last September, a provision to close a jurisdictional gap in the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) was adopted by the Appropriations Committee.  Leahy’s MEJA measure would make all U.S. security contractors worldwide accountable under U.S. law for the first time, and it would apply the same laws to all contractors working in foreign countries where the United States is engaged in military operations.  Previously, only contractors working for the Department of Defense or in support of their missions were covered under U.S. law.  This measure would also create investigative units to enforce MEJA worldwide and require reporting to Congress on prosecutions under this law.  To date, the Justice Department has only filed one prosecution under MEJA, despite hundreds of shootings and other possibly criminal incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Two additional bills authored by Leahy – the War Profiteering Prevention Act and the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act – were also approved in the supplemental spending bill.  These provisions would make intentional over-billing under war contracts, such as the abuse of "cost plus" contracts, a federal crime and would update current law to extend the statute of limitations for contracting offenses while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ongoing.  The Leahy provisions would bring greater accountability to contractors working overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and would give the government new, more potent tools to prosecute fraud and abuse by private companies filling government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

"The war on terrorism should not be used to waive accountability for crimes – whether fraud or murder or rape – occurring during these wars,” said Leahy.  “The United States is a beacon or justice and human rights around the world.  We cannot excuse the criminal behavior of a few in the name of combating terrorism.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been waged for six years and counting, yet earlier Congresses have been slack in their oversight.  Now we finally are on the verge of giving law enforcement authorities the necessary tools to hold private security contractors accountable under U.S. law, which will help combat waste, fraud and abuse by war profiteers." 

 

The House of Representatives this week also passed the same three measures in that body’s version of the Supplemental Appropriations Bill. 

 

Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and chairs the panel’s subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.  He is also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

 

MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act

 

Legislation to expand MEJA was introduced last year in the Senate by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).  The language adopted in the supplemental spending bill would close an existing loophole in MEJA and apply U.S. criminal law to all private security contractors worldwide, as well as to all contractors – whether or not they do security work – in a foreign country where the United States is conducting a military operation.  Currently, only workers contracted by the Department of Defense or working in support of their mission are subject to MEJA.  Last year, private security guards working for Blackwater USA and contracted by the State Department in Baghdad killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians, and reports by the military and the FBI have found all but one of the shootings unjustified.  The case exposed the jurisdictional gap in MEJA.  The language also creates investigative units for contractor oversight in the Justice Department. 

 

Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act (WEFA)

 

The Senate Appropriations Committee also included The Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act (WEFA) of 2008, introduced in April by Leahy and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to improve the enforcement of contracting fraud in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The language would close a loophole in current law, and give the government the power to prosecute contracting fraud, even after the wars are over.

 

The language updates a law first passed by Congress during World War II that suspends the statute of limitations for contracting fraud offenses during times of war.  Under WEFA, the World War II-era law would be updated to apply when Congress specifically authorizes the use of military force, as well as during declared wars.  The legislation would also extend the statute of limitations from three to five years after the end of hostilities, consistent with the current statute of limitations for criminal offenses. 

 

War Profiteering Prevention

 

The supplemental spending bill reported by the Appropriations Committee also includes a Leahy-sponsored provision to combat widespread contracting fraud, waste and abuse in Iraq.  The language, drawn from the War Profiteering Prevention Act passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2007, expands earlier efforts by Leahy to crack down on the rampant and expensive fraud and abuse that has been seen for more than six years by companies and contractors being employed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Leahy introduced similar legislation in 2003, which was passed by the Senate as part of an appropriations bill, but was later thwarted by the White House and then-Republican leadership in the House of Representatives.  The language adopted by the Appropriations Committee on Thursday creates a new tool for federal prosecutors to combat war profiteering and provide clear authority to prosecute those who exploit times of war or national emergency to commit fraud.  It would also, for the first time, make it a crime for contractors to materially overvalue goods and services with the specific intent to excessively profit from war, military actions or relief or reconstruction activities.

 

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