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Hardly any mainstream news sources are reporting on it yet, but there was a very important vote in the House of Representatives this morning. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007, by a vote of 389-30. MEJA stands for Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a law that was designed to make sure that contractors working overseas for the American government would be held accountable for any criminal behavior that they engage in.

The trouble with the original Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act is that it created a huge loophole because it applied to contractors hired by some government agencies, while allowing contractors hired by other government agencies to get away with criminal behavior scott free. The MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007, H.R. 2740, fixes this loophole, by making the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act apply to all government contractors, regardless of which agency hires them, so long as they are working within a “contingency area” designated by the Department of Defense. Iraq would be such an area. The new law also forces the Department of Justice to compile reports of suspected criminal incidents by contractors and to give those reports to Congress.

The MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007 thus closes the loophole that has allowed Blackwater mercenaries hired by the US State Department to literally get away with murder, violently attacking Iraqi civilians without provocation in huge numbers without any fear of punishment. The State Department has also helped Blackwater executives cover up those crimes, and ordered Blackwater to withhold information about the crimes from Congress. Those actions are now without a doubt illegal.

I would like to think that it is common sense that nobody should be allowed to get away with murder. Unfortunately, it isn’t really common sense. 30 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007.

Among these 30 House Republicans are two of the Republican candidates for President in 2008, congressmen Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. Tancredo and Hunter voted to keep Blackwater, and other mercenary firms like it, in a special place above the law. Tancredo and Hunter thought it would be a mistake to have Blackwater mercenaries accountable to the American government, and seem to prefer the current system of allowing employees of companies like Blackwater USA to commit whatever crimes they want, so long as they are not on American soil.

Let me put this in terms that a Republican voter can understand. With the vote today, we can see that Tom Tancredo is soft on crime. Duncan Hunter is soft on crime. They favor letting murderers walk free. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter show how truly dangerous right wing ideology can be.

I’m grateful that most members of the House of Representatives saw that the position of Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo is morally bankrupt. Two other presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, had the basic decency to say no to amnesty for murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

(Source: The Library of Congress)