This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, October 24th, 2007.

I'm Caleb Brown.

What legal process should govern in the case of contractors accused of killing

17 Iraqi civilians? Cato Institute Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Ilia Shapiro, says

there are rules under which justice should proceed but ultimately what happens

may be as much a political decision as a legal one.

Military forces, whether it be Army, Navy Marines, are all governed by the Uniform Code of Military

Justice, the UCMJ.

So whether a soldier on base in the United States or while acting on the battlefield in Iraq commits some sort of atrocity or whatever other kind of violation of the UC

MJ of this military code of justice he'll be prosecuted in a court-martial or

according to other related proceedings according to the military code.

Contractors as civilians are not typically bound by the UCMJ, although contractors to the Defense Department are theoretically

under its jurisdiction as well.

Although rarely in history, I can't think of an example off the top of my head,

and certainly not in Iraq, has a civilian contractor of the Defense Department been subject to prosecution under that code.

For contractors who have their contracts with other U.S. government agencies, like the biggest one being the State Department of course.

Those definitely are not subject to the UCMJ.

There are other federal statutes that would cover cases of wrongdoing or extra contractual abuse of power by State Department

or Justice Department or Transportation Department.

We have them from all sorts of agencies, contractors,

wrongdoing.

You hear about also the Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17, which granted immunity to government officials of all sorts for their

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