The crackdown by the Iraqi government prompted a U.S. trade
group, the International Stability
Operations Association (ISOA), to send a letter to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton asking for asking for help with the detentions.
{mosads}The Iraqi government gained its sovereignty last month after
the last U.S. troops withdrew from the country. The United States had considered keeping
troops in the country beyond December, but was unable in part because Iraq
would not agree to grant U.S. soldiers immunity from Iraqi courts.
Iraq’s government has been hampered by infighting between Sunni and Shiite leaders since the U.S. military left, and many are worried that sectarian fighting will flare up again.
The U.S. currently has an embassy in Baghdad with more than
15,000 people in it. The embassy is mostly secured by private contractors now
that U.S. troops have left the country.
Doug Brooks, chairman of the ISOA, told the Times that the roots
of the detentions are more about political infighting within Iraq than hostility
toward the United States.
Contractors, however, have a poor reputation in Iraq, where groups
like Blackwater, now known as Academi, came under fire during the Iraq War for
incidents where Iraqi civilians were killed.