Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Security Contractors Criticized for Violence in Iraq, 10/10/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec07/blackwater_10-10.html

Initiating Questions:

1. If the U.S. military doesn't have enough soldiers to do everything that needs to be done in Iraq, what kinds of activities and functions might it "outsource"?

2. What kinds of private companies work with the military?

3. What happens if an American commits a crime in Iraq? Who decides whether a crime has been committed? Who decides the punishment?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What is Blackwater and why has it been in the news recently?

The American private security firm Blackwater is under scrutiny after its contractors shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in September, causing outrage from the Iraqi government and questions from the U.S. Congress.

2. What are contractors and why are they being used in war zones? What are some of the concerns regarding their use?

Contractors have been used to provide extra security in war zones, in part because the U.S. military is stretched thin as fighting continues in Iraq and Afghanistan and fewer young people volunteer to enlist.

These hired forces are paid for by the U.S. government, but are not bound by military law, raising concerns that they are not accountable for their actions and are too quick to use force.

3. Describe what is known about the significant Blackwater event that occurred in September that led to investigations in Baghdad and Washington, D.C.?

On the morning of September 16, 2007, a group of U.S. officials was being escorted through the streets of Baghdad by a squad of Blackwater security workers.

The exact details of what happened next are still being debated, but what is known is that security workers eventually fired on a crowd of Iraqi citizens in the street.

Iraqi police running to assist a wounded couple sparked suspicion of a car bomb, triggering more gunfire from the American contractors. In total there were 17 Iraqi fatalities, including a young boy.

Iraqi reports maintain that the American guards were unprovoked. Blackwater, meanwhile, insists that they were not the first to fire.

The event sparked investigations in Baghdad and Washington, D.C.

4. Where does Blackwater get most of its funding? What kind of work is it doing in Iraq?

Blackwater has received $1 billion in federal contracts, mostly from the U.S. State Department.

One of the company's chief responsibilities is to protect American diplomats visiting Iraq. For this service, Blackwater bills the U.S. government more than $1,000 per day for each security detail.

Blackwater landed its first high profile contract in 2003, guarding L.Paul Bremer, who had been appointed by President Bush to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq in the months after the initial U.S.-led invasion.

5. What is "Order 17" and how is it significant to the Blackwater story?

Before leaving Iraq in 2004, Bremer authorized "Order 17" granting all American personnel immunity from Iraqi law. The order was intended to protect foreign forces, including the military and security contractors, trying to stabilize the country after the United States handed control over to the new Iraqi government.

6. What did the House committee report say about Blackwater's record?

Although Blackwater employees operate under extremely dangerous conditions, a string of violent incidents has put their entire operation under question.

Blackwater personnel have been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005 according to a report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

In more than 80 percent of those cases, Blackwater guards fired first even though their contract with the State Department calls them to use defensive force only, according to the report.

7. What changes have occurred since the Blackwater incident?

In the meantime, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered video cameras be mounted in Blackwater vehicles and federal agents to ride with contractors who escort diplomatic convoys.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think about the role of security contractors in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan? What are the benefits of such arrangements? What are the challenges? What changes, if any, would you make to the current situation?

2. According to Order 17, American personnel, including security contractors such as those who work for Blackwater, are immune from prosecution under Iraqi law. Do you agree with this? Why or why not? Research this topic. What laws, if any, apply to American personnel in a war zone? What changes, if any, would you make if you could? Explain your reasoning.

3. Think of the position of the Iraqi government. On one hand they need the U.S. military and security contractors to help maintain stability so they can stay in power, on the other hand, granting Americans immunity under Order 17 is a sign of weakness to the Iraqi people and other Arab nations. What should Iraq's leaders do in this situation?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of the topics in this exercise providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.