Order 17

This from a weekly 'The Nation' update, explaining the order issued by proconsul (very strange title) Paul Bremer right before he high tailed it out of Baghdad. This goes directly to the issue of Blackwater killing 20 Iraqis in an alleged unprovoked confrontation.

On the eve of his departure as proconsul in Baghdad Paul Bremer issued a remarkable document that went by the name of Order 17 and that, in the US mainstream media, is still often referred to as "the law" in Iraq.

... Order 17 essentially granted to every foreigner in the country connected to the occupation the full freedom of the land, not to be interfered with in any way by Iraqis or any Iraqi political or legal institution. Foreigners--unless, of course, they were jihadis or Iranians--were to be "immune from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their Sending States," even though American and coalition forces were to be allowed the freedom to arrest and detain in prisons and detention camps of their own any Iraqis they designated worthy of that honor.

Order 17 and the Blackwater mercenaries who are taking full advantage of it raises, as John Nichols argues in The Online Beat, the fundamental question of who runs Iraq.

Something about Order 17 reeks of the situation told in the movie 'Braveheart.'

King Edward grants the noblemen of Scotland the right to have first sex with the wife from the newly married. Its a form of extreme repression of the people and a way to maintain control and dominance. Also it a way to simply abuse the people in any way you see fit. In my opinion the Iraqis have it worse than the folks from 13th century Scotland.