Blackwater's Shari'a Defense

Everybody's favorite private security outfit has come up with a novel argument for how the U.S. courts should deal with a lawsuit over soldiers killed in the company's X-Wing fighter. Blackwater says the courts should use Shari'a law, because the crash occurred in Afghanistan.

Before everyone gets really excited about images of public flogging, the company is actually using this argument to get the court to throw out the lawsuit. "If the judge agrees, it would essentially end the lawsuit over a botched flight supporting the U.S. military," the Charlotte News & Observer notes. "Shari'a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work."

At issue is a 2004 crash of a plane operated by Presidential Airways, Blackwater's aviation arm. "You're an X-wing fighter Star Wars man," said the co-pilot, shortly before the plane smacked into the side of a canyon. Family members of the soldiers who died in the plane are suing the company.

I'm guessing the court is going to shy away from that whole Shari'a law; if it dismisses the lawsuit (and it may not dismiss it), it will likely go with more traditional legal argument the company is presenting. "Presidential Airways argued that the lawsuit must be dismissed; legal doctrine holds that soldiers cannot sue the government, and the company was acting as an agent of the government," the Charlotte News & Observer writes.

by Sharon Weinberger for Wired.com

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