Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges

Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges

www.nytimes.com

A federal appeals court on Friday reopened the criminal case against four former American military contractors accused of manslaughter in connection with a shooting that killed at least 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This was a watershed event in the Iraq war leading the Iraqi government to demand greater sovereignty. the US government was forced to curb certain activities of their contracted personnel as Baghdad won the right to subject foreign contractors to Iraqi law.

The shootings, in the middle of traffic in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, left at least 17 Iraqi civilians dead and set off an anti-American political firestorm in Iraq and an international debate over the role of private security contractors in modern war zones. The Blackwater guards were accused of firing wildly and indiscriminately from their convoy into other cars and at Iraqi civilians. The guards defended their actions, saying they were responding to fire from insurgents.

Criminal charges were dismissed in December of 2009 by a federal judge in Washington. That ruling has now been overturned by a three-judge appeals panel.

This is the event that put a halt to the US's free-wheeling activities in Iraq and placed them accountable for such actions. The incident was assumed to have been swept under the carpet but now that hairball has re-emerged.

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I am so happy to hear this. I was livid with the first judge. I hope this time around it wont be a farce again

So, the Military Industrial Complex finally decided who was going to be their sacrificial lamb? The indictment and charges should have been levied on the company that engendered a culture which allowed this criminal behavior to go unpunished. This is but one instance.

reply to post by Maxmars


Interesting point you make - it's not the company on trial but 4 former employees. The Abu Gharaib scandal was handled the same way in the superiors who gave orders were never in the line of fire but the lower ranking soldiers who followed those orders. This is only half-right IMO.

I wasn't aware of the following either:

After the shooting, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services, and then late last year the company’s founder, Erik Prince, sold the business. He has left the United States and moved his family to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Prince must have found a cushy imperial appointment for doing security work over there where I'm sure the law is far easier to skirt.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


There is a very interesting Housing community there called the World. It's actually a collection of man made private and semi-private islands shaped and arranged to look like the continents and globe. Uber exclusive it seems set up as the ultimate elite haven.

I have a funny feeling that the United Arab Emirates has more or less been set up as the Bug Out sight for the Israeli and Arab elite when and if total war comes to the region.

Halliburton has also relocated to the region moving it's main head quarters there.

There is something about the United Arab Emirates that the Elite are banking on, just what that is, I can't say, but there is definately a pattern there.

www.theworld.ae...

Civilian and non civilian closed protection units or contractors work under an umbrella of sorts in the middle east that gives them a diplomatic immunity, so where do these charges hold to?

EDIT:

ALSO, If you want to call contract work mercenary work, its still the oldest profession on Earth (although, the same with being a harlot), and will outlive every single other profession.

As the TF2 Sniper says best; As long as there's two people left on the planet, someone's gonna want someone dead.

reply to post by Maxmars


It was leveled at the company as well as the people involved.. Contrary to the flair for thew dramatic the OP has, what it did was force security contractors outside the status of forces agreement that covered US Military personel.

I wouldnt hold your breath over the review. I dont think its going to go anywhere and has the smell of politics surrounding it.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Thank you for the information. I agree, this has "distraction" written all over it as well.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


there is something very fishy about this..
the UAE is the most blatant place there is about showing wealth..
I am also wondering what the interest in Paraguay the Bushs have..

reply to post by pccat


I know you weren't directing the query to me... but I was wondering if you were referring to the transaction that the Bushes took in Paraguay....

While President, the young daughter of our second Bush president became a high-profile personality of the United Nations program "UNICEF." While visiting the South American continent she allegedly took a detour to Paraguay to close a land purchase in that country for the Bush family.... which is how the Bush's became owners of the second largest fresh-water aquifer in the world.... right next door to the property of another major land holder in Paraguay, the Reverend Sung Young Moon.

Sound familiar?