The laws governing contractors on the battlefield are vague and rarely enforced.
Four years into the occupation, there is absolutely no effective system of oversight or accountability governing contractors and their operations.
In a sign of the Pentagon's concern over private security contractors, Mr. Gates last Sunday sent a five-person team to Iraq to discuss with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, the rules governing contractors.
Several members of Congress and nongovernment analysts said that the oversight of thousands of private military personnel was plainly inadequate and were urging passage of new laws governing contractors, particularly those carrying weapons.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said that the case could be a test of Iraq's nascent judicial system and of new arrangements between Iraq and the United States governing contractors' legal status.
Perry notes that, Although Congress has increasingly attempted to assert control over contracted forces since 2007, congressional initiatives have been far more successful at governing contractors working in Iraq than those employed to support other aspects of the war on terror.
"There's also a very open constitutional question about whether we can try civilians in military courts," said Laura Dickinson, a professor of law at the University of Connecticut and an expert on laws that govern private contractors in conflict zones.
As contractors have more say in the actual contracts, in effect having more effect on regulations governing the contractors, the "gray area" in classifying [private security] contractors has the potential to grow.
But on August 27th a federal court in Oregon concluded that FedEx so closely governs the contractors' working conditions that they are in fact employees.
As details of the Blackwater shootings have emerged in recent weeks, Mr. Gates has signaled his unease with the existing command and legal authorities governing security contractors.
