Featuring:

Jon Finer, Iraq Correspondent, The Washington Post

Doug Brooks, President, International Peace Operations Association

T.S. Sowers, Captain, Special Forces, and Instructor, West Point

José Luis Gomez del Prado, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on the use of Mercenaries

Patrick Radden Keefe, of the Century Foundation, Moderator

Description:

The recent controversy surrounding the activities of the American military contractor Blackwater have added urgency to discussions of the role of private military contractors assisting American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  What are the legal, ethical, political, and military implications of augmenting America’s uniformed military with large numbers of civilian combatants?  Was the Nisoor Square incident involving Blackwater an aberrant event, or symptomatic of deeper and more intractable problems associated with having large numbers of private contractors undertaking security functions in a conflict zone?  And if greater accountability for private military contractors is required, what form should that accountability take? Should contractors be allowed to self-police? Should they be subject to the domestic criminal law of the country in which they are deployed? Should they be brought within the Uniform Code of Military Justice?

A panel, including Doug Brooks, a representative of the security industry, Jon Finer, an Iraq correspondent for the Washington Post, who has written about private contractors, and T.S. Sowers, a Special Forces Captain with two tours in Iraq who teaches American politics at West Point, will consider these important questions. The panel will be moderated by TCF fellow Patrick Radden Keefe, who has written about the privatization of national security for the New York Times and the New York Review of Books.

Video of the Event

Introduction by moderator, TCF's Patrick Radden Keefe:

José Luis Gomez del Prado:

Del Prado and the Panel discuss accountability:

The panel discuss CIA Director, Robert Gates:

The Panel discusses prosecution of private military contractors:

The Panel discusses the FBI's role in contractor investigations:

Q & A:

Q & A:

Closing Remarks: