Prince claimed Blackwater could have saved Rwandan lives in '94.
Blackwater Loses Its License To Kill.......
- Thread starter Obadiah Plainman
- Start date
source: msnbc.msn.com
Blackwater bodyguards promised immunity
State Department gave protection to all guards in deadly Iraq incident
WASHINGTON - The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can — if ever — bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government.
“Once you give immunity, you can’t take it away,” said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
A State Department spokesman did not have an immediate comment Monday. Both Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd and FBI spokesman Rich Kolko declined comment.
FBI agents were returning to Washington late Monday from Baghdad, where they have been trying to collect evidence in the Sept. 16 embassy convoy shooting without using statements from Blackwater employees who were given immunity.
Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved — both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above — were given the legal protections as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.
Strained relationship with Iraq
The investigative misstep comes in the wake of already-strained relations between the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined comment about the U.S. investigation. Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater USA is the largest private security firm protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
The company has said its Sept. 16 convoy was under attack before it opened fire in west Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, killing 17 Iraqis. A follow-up investigation by the Iraqi government, however, concluded that Blackwater’s men were unprovoked. No witnesses have been found to contradict that finding.
An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq, also indicated “no enemy activity involved” in the Sept. 16 incident. The report says Blackwater guards were traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circle when they “engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire” at a distance of 50 meters.
The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, after prosecutors in the Justice Department’s criminal division realized it could not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the Diplomatic Security investigators.
Official: Guards spoke after given protection
Officials said the Blackwater bodyguards spoke only after receiving so-called “Garrity” protections, requiring that their statements only be used internally — and not for criminal prosecutions.
At that point, the Justice Department shifted the investigation to prosecutors in its national security division, sealing the guards’ statements and attempting to build a case based on other evidence from a crime scene that was then already two weeks old.
The FBI has re-interviewed some of the Blackwater employees, and one official said Monday that at least several of them have refused to answer questions, citing their constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination. Any statements that the guards give to the FBI could be used to bring criminal charges.
A second official, however, said that not all the guards have cited their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination — leaving open the possibility for future charges. The official declined to elaborate.
Prosecutors will have to prove that any evidence they use in bringing charges against Blackwater employees was uncovered without using the guards’ statements to State Department investigators. They “have to show we got the information independently,” one official said.
Rare move
Garrity protections generally are given to police or other public law enforcement officers, and were extended to the Blackwater guards because they were working on behalf of the U.S. government, one official said. Experts said it’s rare for them to be given to all or even most witnesses — particularly before a suspect is identified.
“You have to be careful,” said Michael Horowitz, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and senior Justice Department official. “You have to understand early on who your serious subjects are in the investigation, and avoid giving these people the protections.”
It’s not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.
Bureau of Diplomatic Security chief Richard Griffin last week announced his resignation, effective Thursday. Senior State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said his departure was directly related to his oversight of Blackwater contractors.
Tyrrell, the Blackwater spokeswoman, said the company was alerted Oct. 2 that FBI would be taking over the investigation from the State Department. She declined further comment.
Government oversight boosted
On Oct. 3, State Department Sean McCormack said the FBI had been called in to assist Diplomatic Security investigators. A day later, he said the FBI had taken over the probe.
“We, internally and in talking with the FBI, had been thinking about the idea of the FBI leading the investigation for a number of different reasons,” McCormack told reporters during an Oct. 4 briefing.
Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a series of measures to boost government oversight of the private guards who protect American diplomats in Iraq. They include increased monitoring and explicit rules on when and how they can use deadly force.
Blackwater’s contract with the State Department expires in May and there are questions whether it will remain as the primary contractor for diplomatic bodyguards. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said his Cabinet is drafting legislation that would force the State Department to replace Blackwater with another security company.
Congress also is expected to investigate the shootings, but a House watchdog committee said it has so far held off based on a Justice Department request that lawmakers wait until the FBI concludes its inquiry.
Blackwater bodyguards promised immunity
State Department gave protection to all guards in deadly Iraq incident
WASHINGTON - The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can — if ever — bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government.
“Once you give immunity, you can’t take it away,” said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
A State Department spokesman did not have an immediate comment Monday. Both Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd and FBI spokesman Rich Kolko declined comment.
FBI agents were returning to Washington late Monday from Baghdad, where they have been trying to collect evidence in the Sept. 16 embassy convoy shooting without using statements from Blackwater employees who were given immunity.
Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved — both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above — were given the legal protections as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.
Strained relationship with Iraq
The investigative misstep comes in the wake of already-strained relations between the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined comment about the U.S. investigation. Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater USA is the largest private security firm protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
The company has said its Sept. 16 convoy was under attack before it opened fire in west Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, killing 17 Iraqis. A follow-up investigation by the Iraqi government, however, concluded that Blackwater’s men were unprovoked. No witnesses have been found to contradict that finding.
An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq, also indicated “no enemy activity involved” in the Sept. 16 incident. The report says Blackwater guards were traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circle when they “engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire” at a distance of 50 meters.
The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, after prosecutors in the Justice Department’s criminal division realized it could not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the Diplomatic Security investigators.
Official: Guards spoke after given protection
Officials said the Blackwater bodyguards spoke only after receiving so-called “Garrity” protections, requiring that their statements only be used internally — and not for criminal prosecutions.
At that point, the Justice Department shifted the investigation to prosecutors in its national security division, sealing the guards’ statements and attempting to build a case based on other evidence from a crime scene that was then already two weeks old.
The FBI has re-interviewed some of the Blackwater employees, and one official said Monday that at least several of them have refused to answer questions, citing their constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination. Any statements that the guards give to the FBI could be used to bring criminal charges.
A second official, however, said that not all the guards have cited their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination — leaving open the possibility for future charges. The official declined to elaborate.
Prosecutors will have to prove that any evidence they use in bringing charges against Blackwater employees was uncovered without using the guards’ statements to State Department investigators. They “have to show we got the information independently,” one official said.
Rare move
Garrity protections generally are given to police or other public law enforcement officers, and were extended to the Blackwater guards because they were working on behalf of the U.S. government, one official said. Experts said it’s rare for them to be given to all or even most witnesses — particularly before a suspect is identified.
“You have to be careful,” said Michael Horowitz, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and senior Justice Department official. “You have to understand early on who your serious subjects are in the investigation, and avoid giving these people the protections.”
It’s not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.
Bureau of Diplomatic Security chief Richard Griffin last week announced his resignation, effective Thursday. Senior State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said his departure was directly related to his oversight of Blackwater contractors.
Tyrrell, the Blackwater spokeswoman, said the company was alerted Oct. 2 that FBI would be taking over the investigation from the State Department. She declined further comment.
Government oversight boosted
On Oct. 3, State Department Sean McCormack said the FBI had been called in to assist Diplomatic Security investigators. A day later, he said the FBI had taken over the probe.
“We, internally and in talking with the FBI, had been thinking about the idea of the FBI leading the investigation for a number of different reasons,” McCormack told reporters during an Oct. 4 briefing.
Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a series of measures to boost government oversight of the private guards who protect American diplomats in Iraq. They include increased monitoring and explicit rules on when and how they can use deadly force.
Blackwater’s contract with the State Department expires in May and there are questions whether it will remain as the primary contractor for diplomatic bodyguards. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said his Cabinet is drafting legislation that would force the State Department to replace Blackwater with another security company.
Congress also is expected to investigate the shootings, but a House watchdog committee said it has so far held off based on a Justice Department request that lawmakers wait until the FBI concludes its inquiry.
2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions
2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions
By James Risen
The New York Times
Thursday 10 January 2008
Washington - The helicopter was hovering over a Baghdad checkpoint into the Green Zone, one typically crowded with cars, Iraqi civilians and United States military personnel.
Suddenly, on that May day in 2005, the copter dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.
"This was decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous," Capt. Kincy Clark of the Army, the senior officer at the scene, wrote later that day. "It's not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness."
Both the helicopter and the vehicle involved in the incident at the Assassins' Gate checkpoint were not from the United States military, but were part of a convoy operated by Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor that is under scrutiny for its role in a series of violent episodes in Iraq, including a September shooting in downtown Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.
None of the American soldiers exposed to the chemical, which is similar to tear gas, required medical attention, and it is not clear if any Iraqis did. Still, the previously undisclosed incident has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes.
"You run into this issue time and again with Blackwater, where the rules that apply to the U.S. military don't seem to apply to Blackwater," said Scott L. Silliman, the executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at the Duke University School of Law.
Officers and noncommissioned officers from the Third Infantry Division who were involved in the episode said there were no signs of violence at the checkpoint. Instead, they said, the Blackwater convoy appeared to be stuck in traffic and may have been trying to use the riot-control agent as a way to clear a path.
Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, said the CS gas had been released by mistake.
"Blackwater teams in the air and on the ground were preparing a secure route near a checkpoint to provide passage for a motorcade," Ms. Tyrrell said in an e-mail message. "It seems a CS gas canister was mistaken for a smoke canister and released near an intersection and checkpoint."
She said that the episode was reported to the United States Embassy in Baghdad, and that the embassy's chief security officer and the Department of Defense conducted a full investigation. The troops exposed to the gas also said they reported it to their superiors. But military officials in Washington and Baghdad said they could not confirm that an investigation had been conducted. Officials at the State Department, which contracted with Blackwater to provide diplomatic security, also could not confirm that an investigation had taken place.
About 20 to 25 American soldiers were at the checkpoint at the time of the incident, and at least 10 were exposed to the CS gas after "rotor wash" from the hovering helicopter pushed it toward them, according to officers who were there. A number of Iraqi civilians, both on foot and in cars waiting to go through the checkpoint, were also exposed. The gas can cause burning and watering eyes, skin irritation and coughing and difficulty breathing. Nausea and vomiting can also result.
Blackwater says it was permitted to carry CS gas under its contract at the time with the State Department. According to a State Department official, the contract did not specifically authorize Blackwater personnel to carry or use CS, but it did not prohibit it.
The military, however, tightly controls use of riot control agents in war zones. They are banned by an international convention on chemical weapons endorsed by the United States, although a 1975 presidential order allows their use by the United States military in war zones under limited defensive circumstances and only with the approval of the president or a senior officer designated by the president.
"It is not allowed as a method or means of warfare," said Michael Schmitt, professor of international law at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "There are very, very strict restrictions on the use of CS gas in a war zone."
In 2003, President Bush approved the use of riot control agents by the military in Iraq under the 1975 order, but only for such purposes as controlling rioting prisoners. At the time of Mr. Bush's decision, there were also concerns that the Iraqi Army would use civilians as shields, particularly in a last-ditch battle in Baghdad, and some officials believed that riot control agents might be effective in such circumstances to reduce casualties.
A United States military spokesman in Baghdad refused to describe the current rules of engagement governing the use of riot control agents, but former Army lawyers say their use requires the approval of the military's most senior commanders. "You never had a soldier with the authority to do it on his own," said Thomas J. Romig, a retired major general who served as the chief judge advocate general of the United States Army from 2001 to 2005 and is now the dean of the Washburn School of Law in Topeka, Kan.
Several Army officers who have served in Iraq say they have never seen riot control agents used there by the United States military at all. Col. Robert Roth, commander of Task Force 4-64 AR of the Third Infantry Division, which was manning the Assassins' Gate checkpoint at the time of the Blackwater incident, said that his troops were not issued any of the chemicals.
"We didn't even possess any kind of riot control agents, and we couldn't employ them if we wanted to," said Colonel Roth, who is now serving in South Korea.
But the same tight controls apparently did not apply to Blackwater at the time of the incident. The company initially got a contract to provide security for American officials in Iraq with the Coalition Provisional Authority, an agreement which did not address the use of CS gas. After the authority went out of business, the State Department extended the contract for another year until rebidding it. Blackwater and two other companies - DynCorp and Triple Canopy - that now provide security are not permitted to use CS gas under their current contracts, the State Department said.
The State Department said that its lawyers did not believe the Blackwater incident violated any treaty agreements.
In a written statement, the State Department said the international chemical weapons convention "allows for the use of riot control agents, such as CS, where they are not used as a method of warfare. The use of a riot control agent near a checkpoint at an intersection in the circumstances described is not considered to be a method of warfare."
Yet experts said that the legal status was not so clear cut. "I have never seen anything that would make it permissible to use tear gas to get traffic out of the way," Mr. Schmitt said. "In my view, it's an improper use of a riot control agent."
Blackwater's regular use of smoke canisters, which create clouds intended to impede attacks on convoys, also sets it apart from the military. While it does not raise the same legal issues as the CS gas, military officials said the practice raised policy concerns. Col. Roth said that he and other military officers frowned on the use of smoke, because it could be used for propaganda purposes to convince Iraqis that the United States was using chemical weapons.
Officers and soldiers who were hit by the CS gas, some of whom asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, have described it with frustration. They said no weapons were being fired or any other violence that might have justified Blackwater's response.
In a personal journal posted online the day of the incident, Captain Clark provided a detailed description of what happened and included photos.
While standing at the checkpoint, he wrote, he saw a Blackwater helicopter overhead.
"We noticed that one of them was hovering right over the intersection in front of our checkpoint," he wrote. "There was a small amount of white smoke coming up from the intersection. I grabbed my radio and asked one of the guard towers what the smoke was. He answered that it looked like one of the helicopters dropped a smoke grenade on the cars in the intersection. I asked him why were they doing that, was there something going on in the intersection that would cause them to do this. He said, nope, couldn't see anything. Then I said, well what kind of smoke is it?
"Before he could say anything, I got my answer. My eyes started watering, my nose started burning and my face started to heat up. CS! I heard the lieutenant say, "Sir that's not smoke, it's CS gas."
After reporting the incident to his superiors, Captain Clark wrote, a convoy that the helicopter was protecting showed up. Because the gas caused a "complete traffic jam in front of our checkpoint," the captain wrote, "armored cars in the convoy made a U-turn - and threw another CS grenade."
"It just seemed incredibly stupid," he wrote. "The only thing we could figure out was for some reason, one of them figured that CS would somehow clear traffic. Why someone would think a substance that makes your eyes water, nose burn and face hurt would make a driver do anything other than stop is beyond me."
Army Staff Sgt. Kenny Mattingly also was puzzled. "We saw the Little Bird (Blackwater helicopter) come and hover right in front of the gate, and I saw one of the guys dropping a canister," Sergeant Mattingly said in an interview. "There was no reason for dropping the CS gas. We didn't hear any gunfire or anything. There was no incident under way."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/world/middleeast/10blackwater.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions
By James Risen
The New York Times
Thursday 10 January 2008
Washington - The helicopter was hovering over a Baghdad checkpoint into the Green Zone, one typically crowded with cars, Iraqi civilians and United States military personnel.
Suddenly, on that May day in 2005, the copter dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.
"This was decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous," Capt. Kincy Clark of the Army, the senior officer at the scene, wrote later that day. "It's not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness."
Both the helicopter and the vehicle involved in the incident at the Assassins' Gate checkpoint were not from the United States military, but were part of a convoy operated by Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor that is under scrutiny for its role in a series of violent episodes in Iraq, including a September shooting in downtown Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.
None of the American soldiers exposed to the chemical, which is similar to tear gas, required medical attention, and it is not clear if any Iraqis did. Still, the previously undisclosed incident has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes.
"You run into this issue time and again with Blackwater, where the rules that apply to the U.S. military don't seem to apply to Blackwater," said Scott L. Silliman, the executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at the Duke University School of Law.
Officers and noncommissioned officers from the Third Infantry Division who were involved in the episode said there were no signs of violence at the checkpoint. Instead, they said, the Blackwater convoy appeared to be stuck in traffic and may have been trying to use the riot-control agent as a way to clear a path.
Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, said the CS gas had been released by mistake.
"Blackwater teams in the air and on the ground were preparing a secure route near a checkpoint to provide passage for a motorcade," Ms. Tyrrell said in an e-mail message. "It seems a CS gas canister was mistaken for a smoke canister and released near an intersection and checkpoint."
She said that the episode was reported to the United States Embassy in Baghdad, and that the embassy's chief security officer and the Department of Defense conducted a full investigation. The troops exposed to the gas also said they reported it to their superiors. But military officials in Washington and Baghdad said they could not confirm that an investigation had been conducted. Officials at the State Department, which contracted with Blackwater to provide diplomatic security, also could not confirm that an investigation had taken place.
About 20 to 25 American soldiers were at the checkpoint at the time of the incident, and at least 10 were exposed to the CS gas after "rotor wash" from the hovering helicopter pushed it toward them, according to officers who were there. A number of Iraqi civilians, both on foot and in cars waiting to go through the checkpoint, were also exposed. The gas can cause burning and watering eyes, skin irritation and coughing and difficulty breathing. Nausea and vomiting can also result.
Blackwater says it was permitted to carry CS gas under its contract at the time with the State Department. According to a State Department official, the contract did not specifically authorize Blackwater personnel to carry or use CS, but it did not prohibit it.
The military, however, tightly controls use of riot control agents in war zones. They are banned by an international convention on chemical weapons endorsed by the United States, although a 1975 presidential order allows their use by the United States military in war zones under limited defensive circumstances and only with the approval of the president or a senior officer designated by the president.
"It is not allowed as a method or means of warfare," said Michael Schmitt, professor of international law at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "There are very, very strict restrictions on the use of CS gas in a war zone."
In 2003, President Bush approved the use of riot control agents by the military in Iraq under the 1975 order, but only for such purposes as controlling rioting prisoners. At the time of Mr. Bush's decision, there were also concerns that the Iraqi Army would use civilians as shields, particularly in a last-ditch battle in Baghdad, and some officials believed that riot control agents might be effective in such circumstances to reduce casualties.
A United States military spokesman in Baghdad refused to describe the current rules of engagement governing the use of riot control agents, but former Army lawyers say their use requires the approval of the military's most senior commanders. "You never had a soldier with the authority to do it on his own," said Thomas J. Romig, a retired major general who served as the chief judge advocate general of the United States Army from 2001 to 2005 and is now the dean of the Washburn School of Law in Topeka, Kan.
Several Army officers who have served in Iraq say they have never seen riot control agents used there by the United States military at all. Col. Robert Roth, commander of Task Force 4-64 AR of the Third Infantry Division, which was manning the Assassins' Gate checkpoint at the time of the Blackwater incident, said that his troops were not issued any of the chemicals.
"We didn't even possess any kind of riot control agents, and we couldn't employ them if we wanted to," said Colonel Roth, who is now serving in South Korea.
But the same tight controls apparently did not apply to Blackwater at the time of the incident. The company initially got a contract to provide security for American officials in Iraq with the Coalition Provisional Authority, an agreement which did not address the use of CS gas. After the authority went out of business, the State Department extended the contract for another year until rebidding it. Blackwater and two other companies - DynCorp and Triple Canopy - that now provide security are not permitted to use CS gas under their current contracts, the State Department said.
The State Department said that its lawyers did not believe the Blackwater incident violated any treaty agreements.
In a written statement, the State Department said the international chemical weapons convention "allows for the use of riot control agents, such as CS, where they are not used as a method of warfare. The use of a riot control agent near a checkpoint at an intersection in the circumstances described is not considered to be a method of warfare."
Yet experts said that the legal status was not so clear cut. "I have never seen anything that would make it permissible to use tear gas to get traffic out of the way," Mr. Schmitt said. "In my view, it's an improper use of a riot control agent."
Blackwater's regular use of smoke canisters, which create clouds intended to impede attacks on convoys, also sets it apart from the military. While it does not raise the same legal issues as the CS gas, military officials said the practice raised policy concerns. Col. Roth said that he and other military officers frowned on the use of smoke, because it could be used for propaganda purposes to convince Iraqis that the United States was using chemical weapons.
Officers and soldiers who were hit by the CS gas, some of whom asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, have described it with frustration. They said no weapons were being fired or any other violence that might have justified Blackwater's response.
In a personal journal posted online the day of the incident, Captain Clark provided a detailed description of what happened and included photos.
While standing at the checkpoint, he wrote, he saw a Blackwater helicopter overhead.
"We noticed that one of them was hovering right over the intersection in front of our checkpoint," he wrote. "There was a small amount of white smoke coming up from the intersection. I grabbed my radio and asked one of the guard towers what the smoke was. He answered that it looked like one of the helicopters dropped a smoke grenade on the cars in the intersection. I asked him why were they doing that, was there something going on in the intersection that would cause them to do this. He said, nope, couldn't see anything. Then I said, well what kind of smoke is it?
"Before he could say anything, I got my answer. My eyes started watering, my nose started burning and my face started to heat up. CS! I heard the lieutenant say, "Sir that's not smoke, it's CS gas."
After reporting the incident to his superiors, Captain Clark wrote, a convoy that the helicopter was protecting showed up. Because the gas caused a "complete traffic jam in front of our checkpoint," the captain wrote, "armored cars in the convoy made a U-turn - and threw another CS grenade."
"It just seemed incredibly stupid," he wrote. "The only thing we could figure out was for some reason, one of them figured that CS would somehow clear traffic. Why someone would think a substance that makes your eyes water, nose burn and face hurt would make a driver do anything other than stop is beyond me."
Army Staff Sgt. Kenny Mattingly also was puzzled. "We saw the Little Bird (Blackwater helicopter) come and hover right in front of the gate, and I saw one of the guys dropping a canister," Sergeant Mattingly said in an interview. "There was no reason for dropping the CS gas. We didn't hear any gunfire or anything. There was no incident under way."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/world/middleeast/10blackwater.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
Grand Jury Probes Blackwater Shootings
Iraqis Testify About Incident
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imposed new rules on the contractors after the shootings. (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)
By Karen DeYoung and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 28, 2008; Page A03
At least three Iraqis appeared yesterday before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the September shootings in Baghdad by Blackwater Worldwide security guards that left 17 Iraqis dead.
After an FBI investigation last year, federal prosecutors have been seeking to determine whether the contractors, who are immune from Iraqi law under a 2003 U.S. occupation decree, can be charged with any crime in the United States. The Iraqi government alleged that the Sept. 16 shootings in Baghdad's Nissor Square were an unprovoked attack on civilians.
Virginia-based Blackwater, whose personnel said they were responding to a threat against a U.S. diplomatic convoy, insisted they had acted in self-defense after being fired upon. A preliminary U.S. military inquiry shortly after the incident concluded that only the contractors had fired.
The Iraqis testifying yesterday did not respond to reporters' questions as they entered the grand jury room at the U.S. District Court building in Washington. When they left three hours later, they were escorted by two prosecutors and trailed for blocks by a platoon of television cameramen and photographers. One of the witnesses clutched what appeared to be a family photograph.
The witnesses were flanked by federal prosecutors Kenneth Kohl and Stephen Ponticiello, who also declined to comment. Kohl carried a large rolled-up street map.
An Iraqi police major told the Associated Press in Baghdad that two of his officers were flown to the United States several days ago to testify and would remain here for two weeks. The grand jury has also heard testimony from Blackwater personnel and U.S. officials.
The Sept. 16 shootings caused a rift between the U.S. and Iraqi governments and exposed Pentagon dissatisfaction with civilian security guards under contract with the State Department. U.S. military officials said that the contractors were "cowboys" whose actions put others at risk and interfered with ongoing military operations. State Department officials responded that the contractors were necessary because the military did not have the resources to protect U.S. civilian officials in Iraq.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imposed new rules on the contractors after the incident, placing video cameras in their vehicles and ordering that State Department Diplomatic Security Service agents accompany all contractor security convoys. State and the Defense Department negotiated a memorandum of understanding requiring civilian contractors to coordinate their activities with the military and firming up regulations on the use of force.
Blackwater is one of three private U.S. security companies under contract with the State Department in Iraq. The other two are Triple Canopy and DynCorp. The five-year contract for the three firms, signed in 2006, is rolled over on an annual basis and was renewed for a third year early this month. Officials said at the time that there had been no significant problems with the contractors since the September shootings, and that there was no reason not to renew the contract in the absence of any charges in the case.
Iraqis Testify About Incident
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imposed new rules on the contractors after the shootings. (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)
By Karen DeYoung and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 28, 2008; Page A03
At least three Iraqis appeared yesterday before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the September shootings in Baghdad by Blackwater Worldwide security guards that left 17 Iraqis dead.
After an FBI investigation last year, federal prosecutors have been seeking to determine whether the contractors, who are immune from Iraqi law under a 2003 U.S. occupation decree, can be charged with any crime in the United States. The Iraqi government alleged that the Sept. 16 shootings in Baghdad's Nissor Square were an unprovoked attack on civilians.
Virginia-based Blackwater, whose personnel said they were responding to a threat against a U.S. diplomatic convoy, insisted they had acted in self-defense after being fired upon. A preliminary U.S. military inquiry shortly after the incident concluded that only the contractors had fired.
The Iraqis testifying yesterday did not respond to reporters' questions as they entered the grand jury room at the U.S. District Court building in Washington. When they left three hours later, they were escorted by two prosecutors and trailed for blocks by a platoon of television cameramen and photographers. One of the witnesses clutched what appeared to be a family photograph.
The witnesses were flanked by federal prosecutors Kenneth Kohl and Stephen Ponticiello, who also declined to comment. Kohl carried a large rolled-up street map.
An Iraqi police major told the Associated Press in Baghdad that two of his officers were flown to the United States several days ago to testify and would remain here for two weeks. The grand jury has also heard testimony from Blackwater personnel and U.S. officials.
The Sept. 16 shootings caused a rift between the U.S. and Iraqi governments and exposed Pentagon dissatisfaction with civilian security guards under contract with the State Department. U.S. military officials said that the contractors were "cowboys" whose actions put others at risk and interfered with ongoing military operations. State Department officials responded that the contractors were necessary because the military did not have the resources to protect U.S. civilian officials in Iraq.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imposed new rules on the contractors after the incident, placing video cameras in their vehicles and ordering that State Department Diplomatic Security Service agents accompany all contractor security convoys. State and the Defense Department negotiated a memorandum of understanding requiring civilian contractors to coordinate their activities with the military and firming up regulations on the use of force.
Blackwater is one of three private U.S. security companies under contract with the State Department in Iraq. The other two are Triple Canopy and DynCorp. The five-year contract for the three firms, signed in 2006, is rolled over on an annual basis and was renewed for a third year early this month. Officials said at the time that there had been no significant problems with the contractors since the September shootings, and that there was no reason not to renew the contract in the absence of any charges in the case.
<font size="5"><center>
Blackwater indicted
for violating federal firearms laws</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Joseph Neff
and Warren P. Strobel
April 16, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — Five former employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater violated a series of federal firearms laws to give the company a leg up in the military contracting and training business, a federal indictment charged Friday.
Blackwater officials falsified federal paperwork to conceal a gift of firearms to Jordan's King Abdullah II, whom Blackwater was courting as a client, the indictment charges.
Former company president Gary Jackson used the tiny Camden County, N.C., sheriff's office as a front to buy AK-47 automatic rifles that Blackwater wanted for its training facility in Moyock, N.C., and the company illegally possessed short-barreled rifles that Blackwater officials thought were useful for winning security contracts.
The indictment also charges former Blackwater vice-president William W. Mathews Jr.; former general counsel Andrew Howell; former vice-president Ana Bundy; and Ronald Slezak, who handled federal paperwork for firearms.
Mark Corallo, a company spokesman, said the company wouldn't comment on the indictment beyond saying that it cooperated fully with federal investigators.
Patrick Woodward, a lawyer for Slezak, said his client would be vindicated. "Ron is a Patriot — Army Vet and Navy ship builder for 30 years in Norfolk, Va.," he said.
The other defendants and their attorneys couldn't be reached Friday afternoon.
Friday's indictment is the latest bad news for Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe in 2009. The company burst into the spotlight in 2004 when four of its contractors were massacred in Fallujah, Iraq, which triggered two attacks on Fallujah by U.S. Marines.
The indictment highlights how Blackwater marketed its personal protection and military training services to countries worldwide, and investigators examined numerous allegations — not all of which are covered in the indictment — that the company exported firearms and other weapons without a license.
King Abdullah visited Blackwater's headquarters in March 2005 along with his two sons, according to government investigators. To curry favor with the king, Blackwater made a gift of five weapons etched with the Blackwater logo — three Glock pistols, an M4 Bushmaster rifle and a Remington shotgun.
Afterward, Blackwater employees realized that they couldn't account for the weapons, and falsely completed federal forms stating that Jackson and a second person had purchased the weapons, the indictment said.
Jordan is a key U.S. ally, strategically situated between Iraq, Israel and Syria.
Senior Blackwater executives enjoyed a close relationship with King Abdullah and other Jordanian officials, according to U.S. officials who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the issue publicly.
The king once stayed at the Middleburg, Va., farm of Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince, and senior Blackwater executives spent time with the king in Jordan, they said.
In February 2006, the company sought a State Department license to export more than $30,000 worth of weapons, including Bushmaster rifles, to Abdullah's private security detail. The State Department approved that export, but denied the company's bid to sell silencers for the weapons.
The indictment also charges that Blackwater employees made a straw gun purchase that was first reported by The (Raleigh) News & Observer in June 2008.
In 2005, Blackwater bought 17 Romanian-made AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters and gave ownership to the Camden County Sheriff, whose 19-member staff has few crimes to deal with in a county of fewer than 10,000 people. The sheriff's office never used the weapons.
In a June 2008 interview, Jackson was asked the reason for the deal: "Because they needed guns, I imagine," he said.
According to the indictment, Blackwater thought the weapons would increase its ability to win government contracts and used them at its Moyock training facility.
Under federal law, it's illegal for a person to receive or possess an automatic weapon that isn't registered to that person in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Friday's charges stem from a wide-ranging federal investigation of Blackwater's weapons dealings that began in February 2006, according to officials and documents. The investigation involved agents from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Department of Homeland Security's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement bureau; the Commerce Department; the State Department inspector general's office; and other agencies. At times, the team had up to 20 federal agents.
Neff reported from Raleigh and Strobel reported from Washington. McClatchy correspondent Jonathan S. Landay in Washington contributed to this report.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/16/92376/blackwater-indicted-for-violating.html
Blackwater indicted
for violating federal firearms laws</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Joseph Neff
and Warren P. Strobel
April 16, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — Five former employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater violated a series of federal firearms laws to give the company a leg up in the military contracting and training business, a federal indictment charged Friday.
Blackwater officials falsified federal paperwork to conceal a gift of firearms to Jordan's King Abdullah II, whom Blackwater was courting as a client, the indictment charges.
Former company president Gary Jackson used the tiny Camden County, N.C., sheriff's office as a front to buy AK-47 automatic rifles that Blackwater wanted for its training facility in Moyock, N.C., and the company illegally possessed short-barreled rifles that Blackwater officials thought were useful for winning security contracts.
The indictment also charges former Blackwater vice-president William W. Mathews Jr.; former general counsel Andrew Howell; former vice-president Ana Bundy; and Ronald Slezak, who handled federal paperwork for firearms.
Mark Corallo, a company spokesman, said the company wouldn't comment on the indictment beyond saying that it cooperated fully with federal investigators.
Patrick Woodward, a lawyer for Slezak, said his client would be vindicated. "Ron is a Patriot — Army Vet and Navy ship builder for 30 years in Norfolk, Va.," he said.
The other defendants and their attorneys couldn't be reached Friday afternoon.
Friday's indictment is the latest bad news for Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe in 2009. The company burst into the spotlight in 2004 when four of its contractors were massacred in Fallujah, Iraq, which triggered two attacks on Fallujah by U.S. Marines.
The indictment highlights how Blackwater marketed its personal protection and military training services to countries worldwide, and investigators examined numerous allegations — not all of which are covered in the indictment — that the company exported firearms and other weapons without a license.
King Abdullah visited Blackwater's headquarters in March 2005 along with his two sons, according to government investigators. To curry favor with the king, Blackwater made a gift of five weapons etched with the Blackwater logo — three Glock pistols, an M4 Bushmaster rifle and a Remington shotgun.
Afterward, Blackwater employees realized that they couldn't account for the weapons, and falsely completed federal forms stating that Jackson and a second person had purchased the weapons, the indictment said.
Jordan is a key U.S. ally, strategically situated between Iraq, Israel and Syria.
Senior Blackwater executives enjoyed a close relationship with King Abdullah and other Jordanian officials, according to U.S. officials who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the issue publicly.
The king once stayed at the Middleburg, Va., farm of Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince, and senior Blackwater executives spent time with the king in Jordan, they said.
In February 2006, the company sought a State Department license to export more than $30,000 worth of weapons, including Bushmaster rifles, to Abdullah's private security detail. The State Department approved that export, but denied the company's bid to sell silencers for the weapons.
The indictment also charges that Blackwater employees made a straw gun purchase that was first reported by The (Raleigh) News & Observer in June 2008.
In 2005, Blackwater bought 17 Romanian-made AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters and gave ownership to the Camden County Sheriff, whose 19-member staff has few crimes to deal with in a county of fewer than 10,000 people. The sheriff's office never used the weapons.
In a June 2008 interview, Jackson was asked the reason for the deal: "Because they needed guns, I imagine," he said.
According to the indictment, Blackwater thought the weapons would increase its ability to win government contracts and used them at its Moyock training facility.
Under federal law, it's illegal for a person to receive or possess an automatic weapon that isn't registered to that person in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Friday's charges stem from a wide-ranging federal investigation of Blackwater's weapons dealings that began in February 2006, according to officials and documents. The investigation involved agents from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Department of Homeland Security's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement bureau; the Commerce Department; the State Department inspector general's office; and other agencies. At times, the team had up to 20 federal agents.
Neff reported from Raleigh and Strobel reported from Washington. McClatchy correspondent Jonathan S. Landay in Washington contributed to this report.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/16/92376/blackwater-indicted-for-violating.html
Blackwater Wins Contracts to Fight War on Drugs!
To those who claim they don't approve of corporatism, BlackWater still recieves no-bid contracts!
[U]http://occupycorporatism.com/?p=3987[/U]
Since the drug war has become so unpopular with the electorate, instead of politicians actually changing the drug laws, the Department of Defense seeks to reduce and conceal the real costs by transferring the “dirty work” to private contractors to do what “U.S. military forces are not allowed or not encouraged to do.”
The BBC (in Spanish) is reporting that the U.S. Department of Defense is delegating the war on drugs to private mercenary companies. Of those companies, the increasingly infamous organization previously known as Blackwater is said to have received several multimillion-dollar government contracts for “providing advice, training and conducting operations in drug producing countries and those with links to so-called “narco-terrorism” including Latin America.”
The “no bid”contracts, issued under the Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office’s $15 billion dollar budget, are described as “non-specific” and are said to be “juicy” for the private contractors. The Pentagon says “the details of each cost in very general contracts do not go through bidding processes.”
An unnamed analyst says “the responsibility of the public and national security changing from a state’s duty to be a private business…has become the trend of the future.”
Although parts of the drug war have been privatized for years, the BBC reports this “transfer” of responsibilities is an attempt to placate those looking for Pentagon budget cuts in an election year.
According to Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), “the drug war is unpopular and has no political weight except in an election year like this, so the Department of Defense wants to remove that spending from their accounts.”
“They surreptitiously want to reduce anti-drug budget by transferring it to private agencies,” said Birns.
Bruce Bagley, head of International Studies at the University of Miami, agrees with Birns that the main reason for privatizing the drug war is to sidestep “the high political cost.”
But this move is not without risk, as private mercenaries have known to operate outside of national and international laws. ”Here we go into a vague area where the rules of engagement are not clear and there is almost zero accountability to the public or the electorate,” said Bagley.
The Pentagon maintains that it’s perfectly legal, and mercenaries must follow strict parameters. However, Bagley points out that “few members of the Oversight Committees of the Senate and the House are aware, but they are required to keep secret, so all this flies under the radar.”
There are concerns that contractors acting independently will threaten the sovereignty of the “key countries” in which they will operate. The Pentagon says the largest efforts will occur in Latin America including Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, Columbia and other Andean countries.
Professor Bagley says these private armies could “generate a nationalist backlash if the public came to realize the situation” of operations in their countries.
Once again, the war on drugs creates the opportunity to place troops in countries where having American soldiers would be politically disadvantageous, or simply impossible.
Ultimately, the Pentagon claims they will save money because private contractors don’t have the bureaucracy and hierarchy involved in operations and because “if any of its employees dies, they are responsible.”
Apparently, humanity is the last concern for the Pentagon budget, which always seems to have plenty of money for advanced weapons systems (also privatized), but is consistently lacking in benefits for its veterans. By privatizing the drug war, they no longer have to concern themselves with paying for benefits for warriors who pledge allegiance to the United States and take an oath to defend its Constitution.
As the war on drugs is increasingly viewed as a money-draining failure, it’s unlikely that this move to privatize it will succeed in anything but creating demand for more profit, thus fueling its continuance through corporate lobbying to prevent a political end to such lunacy.
To those who claim they don't approve of corporatism, BlackWater still recieves no-bid contracts!
[U]http://occupycorporatism.com/?p=3987[/U]
Since the drug war has become so unpopular with the electorate, instead of politicians actually changing the drug laws, the Department of Defense seeks to reduce and conceal the real costs by transferring the “dirty work” to private contractors to do what “U.S. military forces are not allowed or not encouraged to do.”
The BBC (in Spanish) is reporting that the U.S. Department of Defense is delegating the war on drugs to private mercenary companies. Of those companies, the increasingly infamous organization previously known as Blackwater is said to have received several multimillion-dollar government contracts for “providing advice, training and conducting operations in drug producing countries and those with links to so-called “narco-terrorism” including Latin America.”
The “no bid”contracts, issued under the Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office’s $15 billion dollar budget, are described as “non-specific” and are said to be “juicy” for the private contractors. The Pentagon says “the details of each cost in very general contracts do not go through bidding processes.”
An unnamed analyst says “the responsibility of the public and national security changing from a state’s duty to be a private business…has become the trend of the future.”
Although parts of the drug war have been privatized for years, the BBC reports this “transfer” of responsibilities is an attempt to placate those looking for Pentagon budget cuts in an election year.
According to Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), “the drug war is unpopular and has no political weight except in an election year like this, so the Department of Defense wants to remove that spending from their accounts.”
“They surreptitiously want to reduce anti-drug budget by transferring it to private agencies,” said Birns.
Bruce Bagley, head of International Studies at the University of Miami, agrees with Birns that the main reason for privatizing the drug war is to sidestep “the high political cost.”
But this move is not without risk, as private mercenaries have known to operate outside of national and international laws. ”Here we go into a vague area where the rules of engagement are not clear and there is almost zero accountability to the public or the electorate,” said Bagley.
The Pentagon maintains that it’s perfectly legal, and mercenaries must follow strict parameters. However, Bagley points out that “few members of the Oversight Committees of the Senate and the House are aware, but they are required to keep secret, so all this flies under the radar.”
There are concerns that contractors acting independently will threaten the sovereignty of the “key countries” in which they will operate. The Pentagon says the largest efforts will occur in Latin America including Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, Columbia and other Andean countries.
Professor Bagley says these private armies could “generate a nationalist backlash if the public came to realize the situation” of operations in their countries.
Once again, the war on drugs creates the opportunity to place troops in countries where having American soldiers would be politically disadvantageous, or simply impossible.
Ultimately, the Pentagon claims they will save money because private contractors don’t have the bureaucracy and hierarchy involved in operations and because “if any of its employees dies, they are responsible.”
Apparently, humanity is the last concern for the Pentagon budget, which always seems to have plenty of money for advanced weapons systems (also privatized), but is consistently lacking in benefits for its veterans. By privatizing the drug war, they no longer have to concern themselves with paying for benefits for warriors who pledge allegiance to the United States and take an oath to defend its Constitution.
As the war on drugs is increasingly viewed as a money-draining failure, it’s unlikely that this move to privatize it will succeed in anything but creating demand for more profit, thus fueling its continuance through corporate lobbying to prevent a political end to such lunacy.
AP NewsBreak: New charges in Blackwater shootings
AP NewsBreak: New charges in Blackwater shootings
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER and ERIC TUCKER | Associated Press
1 hr 1 min ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department Thursday brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, resurrecting an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad.
A new grand jury charges the men in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war. The men were hired to guard U.S. diplomats.
The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, including women and children. Prosecutors say the heavily armed Blackwater convoy used machine guns and grenades in an unprovoked attack. Defense lawyers argue their clients are innocent men who were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.
The indictment revives a case that has lingered for years in Washington's federal court.
The guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in 2008, but a federal judge the following year dismissed the case, ruling the Justice Department withheld evidence from a grand jury and violated the guards' constitutional rights. The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed Americans consider themselves above the law. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Baghdad in 2010, expressed his "personal regret" for the shootings.
A federal appeals court reinstated the case in 2011, saying now-retired Judge Ricardo Urbina had wrongly interpreted the law.
Prosecutors again presented evidence before a grand jury, and U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth gave the Justice Department until Monday to decide what to do with the case.
The defendants include Dustin Heard, a retired U.S. Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a retired U.S. Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former U.S. Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn., and Paul Slough, a U.S. Army veteran from Keller, Texas.
Slatten is charged with 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; Liberty and Heard are charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; and Slough is charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 18 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter. All four were also charged with one count of using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
They were charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a statute that allows the government to prosecute certain government employees and contractors for crimes committed overseas. Defense lawyers have argued that statute does not apply in this case since the guards were working as State Department contractors, not for the military.
Prosecutors last month agreed to dismiss their case against a fifth guard, Donald Ball, a retired Marine from West Valley City, Utah. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
The Justice Department had earlier dropped Slatten from the case, but after the appeals court decision reinstated the prosecution, the government said he remained a defendant.
The company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide is under new ownership and is now headquartered in Virginia. It had changed its name to Xe Services, but the company was sold to a group of investors who then changed the name to Academi.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince is no longer affiliated with the company.
In moving forward with the case, the government will seek to overcome some of the legal problems that have dogged the prosecution. The case ran into trouble because the State Department promised the guards that their statements explaining what happened would not be used for criminal prosecution. The five guards told investigators that they fired their weapons, a crucial admission. Because of a limited immunity deal, prosecutors had to build their case without those statements, a high legal hurdle. In dismissing the case, Urbina said prosecutors had read the statements, reviewed them in the investigation and used them to question witnesses and get search warrants.
Court documents also reveal conflicting evidence, with some witnesses saying the Blackwater convoy was under fire and others saying it was not.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-newsbreak-charges-blackwater-shootings-180341643.html
AP NewsBreak: New charges in Blackwater shootings
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER and ERIC TUCKER | Associated Press
1 hr 1 min ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department Thursday brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, resurrecting an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad.
A new grand jury charges the men in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war. The men were hired to guard U.S. diplomats.
The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, including women and children. Prosecutors say the heavily armed Blackwater convoy used machine guns and grenades in an unprovoked attack. Defense lawyers argue their clients are innocent men who were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.
The indictment revives a case that has lingered for years in Washington's federal court.
The guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in 2008, but a federal judge the following year dismissed the case, ruling the Justice Department withheld evidence from a grand jury and violated the guards' constitutional rights. The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed Americans consider themselves above the law. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Baghdad in 2010, expressed his "personal regret" for the shootings.
A federal appeals court reinstated the case in 2011, saying now-retired Judge Ricardo Urbina had wrongly interpreted the law.
Prosecutors again presented evidence before a grand jury, and U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth gave the Justice Department until Monday to decide what to do with the case.
The defendants include Dustin Heard, a retired U.S. Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a retired U.S. Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former U.S. Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn., and Paul Slough, a U.S. Army veteran from Keller, Texas.
Slatten is charged with 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; Liberty and Heard are charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; and Slough is charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 18 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter. All four were also charged with one count of using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
They were charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a statute that allows the government to prosecute certain government employees and contractors for crimes committed overseas. Defense lawyers have argued that statute does not apply in this case since the guards were working as State Department contractors, not for the military.
Prosecutors last month agreed to dismiss their case against a fifth guard, Donald Ball, a retired Marine from West Valley City, Utah. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
The Justice Department had earlier dropped Slatten from the case, but after the appeals court decision reinstated the prosecution, the government said he remained a defendant.
The company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide is under new ownership and is now headquartered in Virginia. It had changed its name to Xe Services, but the company was sold to a group of investors who then changed the name to Academi.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince is no longer affiliated with the company.
In moving forward with the case, the government will seek to overcome some of the legal problems that have dogged the prosecution. The case ran into trouble because the State Department promised the guards that their statements explaining what happened would not be used for criminal prosecution. The five guards told investigators that they fired their weapons, a crucial admission. Because of a limited immunity deal, prosecutors had to build their case without those statements, a high legal hurdle. In dismissing the case, Urbina said prosecutors had read the statements, reviewed them in the investigation and used them to question witnesses and get search warrants.
Court documents also reveal conflicting evidence, with some witnesses saying the Blackwater convoy was under fire and others saying it was not.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-newsbreak-charges-blackwater-shootings-180341643.html
Trump pardons Blackwater security contractors over 2007 Iraq killings
CNN
December 23, 2020
US President Donald Trump has pardoned four former Blackwater security guards convicted over their involvement in the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
- Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard opened fire in Baghdad's Nisoor Square while escorting an American diplomatic convoy.
- The White House said the pardons were supported by the public and lawmakers.
- But the father of a boy who died called them "indescribable" and a rights group said Mr Trump had hit a "new low".
- There was no immediate response from the Iraqi government.
What happened in Nisoor Square?
Slatten, Slough, Liberty and Heard were among 19 Blackwater private security contractors assigned to guard a convoy of four heavily-armoured vehicles carrying US personnel on 16 September 2007.
According to the US justice department, at about noon that day several of the contractors opened fire in and around Nisoor Square, a busy roundabout that was immediately adjacent to the heavily-fortified Green Zone.
When they stopped shooting, at least 14 Iraqi civilians were dead - 10 men, two women and two boys, aged nine and 11. Iraqi authorities put the toll at 17.
US prosecutors said Slatten was the first to fire, without provocation, killing Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubiay, an aspiring doctor who was driving his mother to an appointment.
The contractors said they mistakenly believed that they were under attack.
The incident caused international outrage, strained relations between the US and Iraq, and sparked a debate over the role of contractors in warzones.
What charges did the contractors face?
In 2014, a US federal court found Slatten guilty of murder, while Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and other charges. Slatten was sentenced to life in prison, and the other three were handed 30-year terms.
However, the US Court of Appeals reversed Slatten's conviction and ordered that the three others be resentenced for their roles in the crime.
Slatten was retried in 2018, but a mistrial was declared after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The second retrial began later that year and Slatten was found guilty of committing first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2019.
Slough, Liberty and Heard subsequently had their sentences reduced to 15, 14 and 12 years respectively.
Why did President Trump pardon them?
A White House statement said Slatten, Slough, Liberty and Heard had a "long history of service to the nation" as veterans of the US Army and US Marine Corps, and that their pardons were "broadly supported by the public... and elected officials".
It added that the Court of Appeals "ruled that additional evidence should have been presented at Mr Slatten's trial", and that prosecutors recently disclosed "that the lead Iraqi investigator, who prosecutors relied heavily on to verify that there were no insurgent victims and to collect evidence, may have had ties to insurgent groups himself".
What has been the reaction?
Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, said Mr Trump had "hit a disgraceful new low with the Blackwater pardons".
"These military contractors were convicted for their role in killing 17 Iraqi civilians and their actions caused devastation in Iraq, shame and horror in the United States, and a worldwide scandal. President Trump insults the memory of the Iraqi victims and further degrades his office with this action."
Mohammed Kinani, whose nine-year-old son Ali was killed in Nisoor Square, told Middle East Eye: "No-one is above the law is what we learned in America, but now there's someone above the law."
"I don't know how this is allowed. I don't think that America is built on such principles," he added.
Trump pardons Blackwater security contractors over 2007 Iraq killings - BBC News
Similar threads
