Blackwater Guards Could Get 30 Years

AP: Justice Dept. Considers Trying Iraq Security Contractors Under Reagan-Era Anti-Drug Law

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2008

(CBS/AP) Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting of Iraqi civilians could face mandatory 30-year prison sentences under an aggressive anti-drug law being considered as the Justice Department readies indictments, people close to the case said.

Charges could be announced as early as Monday for the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. Prosecutors have been reviewing a draft indictment and considering manslaughter and assault charges for weeks. A team of prosecutors returned to the grand jury room Thursday and called no witnesses.

Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

“This is a big stretch under federal law," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "And judges, especially appeals court judges, are not always keen on approving the creative ways in which prosecutors go after defendants.

“Even if somehow this law applied to these facts it is not at all clear that the guards could be prosecuted here anyway because of where the alleged crimes occurred. So there are layers of problems for the feds.â€