Steve Fainaru of The Washington Post raises some repeatedly unanswered questions about the July shooting of an Iraqi taxi driver by a Triple Canopy detail in Baghdad. Two employees are now suing the company in U.S. court. They claim the company fired them for reporting the incident as a crime.

THIS raises a whole festering can of worms: U.S. authorities have either failed to acknowledge or failed come to grips with incidents involving the shooting of unarmed civilians by some U.S.-funded private security contractors:

The U.S. military has brought charges against dozens of soldiers and Marines in Iraq, including 64 servicemen linked to murders. Not a single case has been brought against a security contractor, and confusion is widespread among contractors and the military over what laws, if any, apply to their conduct. The Pentagon estimates that at least 20,000 security contractors work in Iraq, the size of an additional division.

Here’s Fainaru’s long-awaited story: Four Hired Guns in an Armored Truck, Bullets Flying, and a Pickup and a Taxi Brought to a Halt. Who Did the Shooting and Why?