Order 17: Victors' Justice in Iraq?

MSNBC.com
Justice: Immune?
Newsweek

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July 17, 2006 issue - The arrest of former U.S. Army Pfc. Steven D. Green—for the alleged rape of an Iraqi woman and the murder of her and three relatives near the town of Mahmudiyah—brought apologies from U.S. officials. But that didn't stem a growing debate over Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17, which exempts members of the U.S. military from Iraqi laws.

"We cannot go on having these unfortunate incidents repeated, and we have to work on stopping them from happening again," Iraqi national-security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told NEWSWEEK. "There is no way we can accept CPA Order 17 anymore." U.S. officials, unnamed because of diplomatic sensitivities, said Iraqi P.M. Maliki's need to oppose the order might lessen if any wrongdoers in the Haditha and Mahmudiyah cases are held accountable. Green pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court last week.

—Malcolm Beith and John Barry