Tibetan Quartz Metaphysical Properties, Macule Vs Papule Picture, Illinois Hemp License Lookup, Articles B

Again be warned it is ugly. They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors said the Blackwater guards opened fire first. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.. courts. Of the $10 billion humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine announced by the Biden administration, the top brass of the Pentagon is reportedly making preparations for allocating a significant portion of the funds for providing military training and arms to almost a million refugees who have fled Ukraine following the war. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause", "Blackwater guards lose bid to appeal charges in Iraqi civilian shooting case", "U.S. troops in Iraq will need immunity: U.S. chief", "Jurors' Note Hints at Conviction in Blackwater Case", "Former Blackwater Guards Convicted in Iraq Shooting", "Shock And Dismay After Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Who Killed 14 Iraqi Civilians", "Trump Pardons Two Russia Inquiry Figures and Blackwater Guards", "Trump pardon of Blackwater Iraq contractors violates international law - UN", "Iraqi Inquiry Says Shooting Was Unprovoked", "Blackwater guards fired unprovoked: Iraq police evidence", "Pentagon Dispatches Investigators to Iraq to Probe Private Security Contractors", "Joint Iraqi-U.S. review begins in wake of Blackwater firefight", "Blackwater faulted by U.S. military: report", "Iraq determined to rein in private security guards", "The Iraqi Account of the Killings [infographic]", "Former Blackwater Employee Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Murder in 2007 Shooting at Nisur Square in Iraq", "US Lawyers for Blackwater Guards: 2007 Baghdad Shooting was Self-Defense", "From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths", "Four Former Blackwater Employees Found Guilty of Charges in Fatal Nisur Square Shooting in Iraq", "Iraqi ministers back Blackwater shutdown - CNN.com", "Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First", "State Dept. [47], The U.S. State Department said it planned to investigate what it called a "terrible incident". "I'm really shocked. Hussein Saheb Nasser, 35, told NBC News by telephone from his home in Baghdad on Wednesday. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened on September 16, 2007. He despised Saddam Hussein and his oppressive and vindictive ways. Paul Dickinson is a lawyer who represented six Iraqi families in a civil lawsuit against Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince (who is the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos). The pardons could damage the United States' reputation abroad, as they undo the significance of the convictions, which had demonstrated that U.S. military contractors could be held accountable if they conducted criminal actions. After capturing Kherson yesterday, Russian forces even apprehended several suspicious and armed foreign nationals who are currently being interrogated by Russias military intelligence GRU. Donald Trump has pardoned the four contractors jailed over the killing of 14 civilians. Joining is simple and doesnt need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. The result of the long legal battle is that each man was ensured a fair trial, free of partiality and without unjust favor. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times - YouTube President Donald Trump's decision to pardon four Blackwater private security contractors convicted of a massacre in Baghdad has been met with fury by the victims' families in Iraq. Also quoted in the memorandum was David Boslego, a retired US army colonel, who said the massacre was a grossly excessive use of force and grossly inappropriate for an entity whose only job was to provide personal protection to somebody in an armoured vehicle. [2] Reactions [ edit] [19] A Blackwater spokeswoman responded to the findings by saying Blackwater "supports the stringent accountability of the industry. He was shot through the back with a massive exit wound in his chest. "I don't know what I did to Blackwater," Kinani told ABC News. [14], On October 2, 2007, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report stating that Blackwater USA guards had used deadly force weekly in Iraq and had inflicted "significant casualties and property damage". Blackwater mercenaries in helicopters also fired into traffic from overhead. Free shipping for many products! ", "After years of waiting, the victims finally saw justice served when these men were convicted," she said in an email. Blackwater Worldwide - The New York Times The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. Machine gunfire would cause his lifeless body to shake in his pool of blood. Why Is Assange in Jail and Not Seymour Hersh? Its worth recalling that before the Biden-Putin summit at Geneva last June, Russia had a similar troop build-up along Ukraines borders. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. The security industry has evolved drastically since those events, and under the direction of new ownership and leadership, Academi has invested heavily in compliance and ethics programmes, training for our employees, and preventative measures to strictly comply with all US and local government laws.. In 2013, Academi subsidiary International Development Solutions received an approximately $92million contract for State Department security guards. But Trump reached a peace agreement with the Taliban and then lost the re-election bid before he could consider the bizarre proposal. When Mohammed looked to his right, the driver of the car next to him shouted that the soldiers had just shot into another car in front of them. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. [21]:116[22] The Blackwater commander, Jimmy Watson, had received an order to stand by and not leave the Green Zone upon reaching a checkpoint, but he made a "tactical decision" to advance to Nisour Square after waiting for a few minutes; upon informing the Blackwater Tactical Operations Center of this, he was ordered to return to the Green Zone. Trump issued pardons for all four men on Tuesday. . The aide also said that the Iraqi government was pushing for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. "Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians", 23 December 2020. A caption at the bottom of the screen states . A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! The Blackwater guards were firing indiscriminately. Notorious mercenaries convicted of massacre in Iraq pardoned by Trump In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? The Beginning Blackwater USA began in 1997 by Al Clark and Erik Prince. Before VT Nuclear Education: The Beirut Nuclear Coverup, The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafia. [19] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. "[29], On October 4, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it would be taking the lead in the investigation of the shooting incident. U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident. The Machiavellian plan of NATOs military strategists is to establish refugee settlements with the humanitarian assistance in the border regions of Ukraines neighboring countries Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, and then provide guerrilla warfare training and lethal arms to all able-bodied men of military age in order to bleed Russias security forces in the protracted irregular warfare. Although the Pentagons military contractors have been known to be training and advising several brigades of neo-Nazis backed by Ukraines security forces in the Donbas region since 2014, Erik Prince along with his associates from several other private security firms providing military contractors to the US Department of Defense personally visited Kyiv early last month following the Russian troop build-up and met with security officials of the Zelensky regime, according to informed sources. "[51][52][53], On January 19, 2008, The New York Times reported that the contractor responsible for many of the deaths in the engagement, previously known only as "turret gunner no. Nasser, who attended the 2014 trial in the United States, said his brother's death had broken his father's heart. He lay in the hallway for an hour before he died. Ukrainian POW Unveils, Russian forces eliminating Ukrainian saboteurs that violated border, Greetings from Oujda, Morocco, the City of Mosques, VT RADIO: Exposing East Palestine Train Derailment Disaster with VTs, VT RADIO: Foreign Policy Gone Mad with VTs Senior Editor, VT RADIO: UFOs, Aliens, & Chinese Balloons with VTs Jack, Many Predicted NATO Expansion Would Lead to War. In his testimony, Prince noted that, "It seems the ballistics analysis was done to prove the guilt of the Americans, not to just try to identify what happened there." The Nisour Square massacre was the FBI's most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. After the convictions, Blackwater which changed its name to Xe and then Academi after being sold said it was relieved that the justice system has completed its investigation into a tragedy that occurred at Nisour Square in 2007 and that any wrongdoing that was carried out has been addressed by our courts. American troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Erik Prince, chair of the Prince Group LLC and Blackwater USA, holds up a picture showing the effect of a car bomb while testifying during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Oct. 2, 2007 in Washington, D.C. Mohammed was going to visit his sister and her children. The U.S. remains one of the notable holdouts of the 2001 UN treaty known in full as the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries and it is unlikely we will ever join. Then-Vice President Joe Biden held a press conference to tell the citizens of Iraq that they would not be abandoned. Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq In the middle of the attack, Mohammed could not understand why this man lying dead was a target. A former security guard working for US mercenary firm Blackwater has been found guilty of murder for his role in a notorious massacre of unarmed civilians in downtown Baghdad in 2007. Trump pardons ex-campaign aide and disgraced Republican lawmakers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. That day changed my life forever. It was as if someone had targeted the area in his SUV where a persons head would have been. As many as 504 children, women and older men were killed by a US infantry company, members of which also raped numerous women and girls. An Iraqi looks at a burned car in Nisour Square in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmukh, on Sept. 24, 2007, eight days after Blackwater guards who were escorting U.S. Embassy officials opened fire there. Although NATO powers did provide Stingers to their jihadist proxies that helped turn the tide in the Soviet-Afghan war in the eighties, since then, despite providing anti-tank munitions and rest of weapons to militant groups during the proxy wars in Libya and Syria, Western powers have consistently avoided providing MANPADS to proxy forces, because such deadly anti-aircraft munitions could become a long-term threat not only to military aircraft but also to civilian airlines. Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the, at the best online prices at eBay! The American judiciary is fair and equitable. The Associated Press contributed to this report. October 22 2014, 9:58 a.m. A federal jury in Washington, D.C., returned guilty verdicts against four . Mohammed would look to see what was happening. The black-op of setting a building in the sprawling nuclear complex alight and then posting doctored video clips of Russian tanks shelling straight at the nuclear plant on social media, promptly verified as authentic by corporate media, was clearly the dirty work of covert saboteurs whove been advising and assisting Ukraines inept security forces and also taking an active part in combat operations in some of the hardest fought battles against Russias security forces north of Kyiv and at Kharkiv and Donbas. No wonder Russia formally issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, March 1, that it would target the hub of covert warfare. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. Justice Blackwater mercenary sentenced to life in prison On Wednesday, Slatten was sentenced to life in federal prison for initiating a massacre that left 14 Iraqi civilians dead. By Andrew Emett - August 16, 2019 1269 SOURCE NationofChange Now justice has been undone by the stroke of a pen," Sarah Holewinski, the organization's Washington director, said in a statement. Although Mohammed was going to return quickly with his sister and Alis cousins for a visit, Mohammed told his son that he could go with him. Suddenly, bullets began to riddle Mohammeds car. "I think what that does is it sends the wrong message to the people of Iraq, who we told we were going to come in and protect, and to the rest of the world, that the pillars of justice upon which the United States is based on has a crack in it," he says. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. His sister was safe. [37], Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held hearings on the use of Private Security Contractors in February 2007, said his committee would hold hearings "to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests". The four armored vehicles drove away. Blackwater Mercenaries: NATO's Secret Weapon in Ukraine War USA: Four Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, according to the report. Shots were fired everywhere. However, after "Raven 23" entered Nisour Square, Watson was ordered to "lock down the traffic circle to expedite the travel of [the other Blackwater team]". Mohammed knew his sons injuries were fatal, but he had to try. [38] Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors. The efforts of the investigators, the prosecutors, and the men and women who supported them was immeasurable. On Tuesday, President Trump pardoned 15 people, including Dustin Heard (from left), Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough, the four former government contractors convicted for a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more than a dozen Iraqi civilians dead. More than 3,000 troops remain in Iraq, according to defense officials, with a drawdown scheduled for January. [64], US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before Congress that the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors, but that commanders lack sufficient "means and resources" to exercise adequate oversight. Despite losing the empire in the nineties, as far as military power is concerned, Russia with its enormous arsenal of conventional as well as nuclear weapons still more or less equals the military power of the United States, as is obvious from the unfolding Ukraine war where all the NATO could do is watch it from distance, and not even attempting to enforce a no-fly zone lest the conflict spirals into a mutually destructive nuclear war. Dec. 24, 2020 Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani with a photo of his 9-year-old son, Ali, who was killed by Blackwater. [12] The U.S. State Department has said that "innocent life was lost",[13] and according to The Washington Post, a military report appeared to corroborate "the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault". "With those sentences reversed by the stroke of a pen, who will trust the American justice system again?". When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. The expense was to show the people of Iraq that the U.S. government would hold people accountable for their crimes, no matter when or where they were committed. [37] A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. But its the much more subtle and insidious tactic of economic warfare for which Russia has no antidote, as the global neocolonial order is being led by the United States and its Western European clients since the signing of the Bretton Woods Accord in 1945 following the Second World War. The Nisour Square massacreoccurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military companycontracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. Blackwater has been renamed and falls under the Constellis group of companies, a risk management business formed in 2010. https://t.co/O88HKyb3wd, Kevin Reed | wsws.org (@KevinReedWSWS) March 4, 2022. His mother also suffered a stroke, he added. [87], On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. The headrest next to him where his sister sat had a bullet hole through it. Witnesses described how the American men ambushed the civilians unprovoked, firing on Baghdad's Nisour Square with heavy gunfire and grenade launchers. Blackwater mercenaries sentenced for 2007 Iraq massacre On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company. The U.S. legal system, a pillar of fairness in the world, had worked. Four Blackwater security guards convicted in 2014 of carrying out a massacre of Iraqi civilians, sparking an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war . Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration. Erik Prince, chairman of the Prince Group, LLC and Blackwater USA, tesifies during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in 2007. pardon four Blackwater private security contractors, US announces troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. [54] He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. Blackwater Mercenaries Filmed on a Rampage in Iraq & Shooting Civilians from WarPosting After being leaked by a former employee of the notorious PMC, the footage dated April 2006 was featured in a piece called "The Warrior Class" by Charles Glass. When the Blackwater contractors were finally convicted seven years later in 2014, that was a sign of relief, but you needed political will for that. [88], On August 4, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned Slatten's murder conviction and ordered the other defendants to be re-sentenced to time already served. 3", is named Paul Slough. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the most prominent events of the US-Iraq conflict, raising doubts about America's true intentions in the region. Trump pardons Blackwater killers for Nisour Square massacre The Nisour Square massacre was the FBIs most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. Only. Rogers. The other three guards faced decades in prison; the weapons charges carried a minimum 30-year sentence under a law enacted during the 1990s cocaine epidemic. Trump's pardon of Blackwater 'Four' highlights deep divisions over Iraq Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. For those of you who are not aware, Erik Prince (Blackwater/Academi) personally sold to the CIA the concept of a mercenary army to conduct hybrid war ops and/or crypto-guerrilla war against Russia. ", Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics, Jasem Mohammed Hashem, who was working as a police officer when he was shot in the head in the attack, was also disappointed by Trump's decision to free the men who, he said, "opened fire randomly at the citizens.". Blackwater mercenary sentenced to life in prison - NationofChange Donald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad in 2007, a. Associated Press WASHINGTON Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards were convicted and immediately jailed Wednesday for their roles in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisour Square. The Dark Truth about Blackwater - Brookings Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? LONDON and BAGHDAD -- When news broke that Mohammed Kinani's son's killers, Blackwater private military contractors hired by the U.S. government in Baghdad, were pardoned Wednesday by President Trump, Kinani said it was like losing his 9-year-old boy all over again. Likewise, the civil case ran through North Carolina state court, was removed to federal court, and then sent back to state court. Mohammed turned his bullet-riddled SUV around and drove back to the closest hospital only a few blocks behind him. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings", "F.B.I. [66] Howard Krongard, who was appointed Inspector General of the U.S. State Department in 2005,[67] resigned in December 2007 after he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. [42] A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. Prosecutors said the Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq increasingly relied on private contractors, Blackwater being only the most infamous. Trump Pardons Blackwater Mercenaries, Ex- - Democracy Now! An initial prosecution was thrown out by a federal judge sparking outrage in Iraq but the then vice-president, Joe Biden, promised to pursue a fresh prosecution, which succeeded in 2015. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. These men will now be free, despite their crimes, and they will not serve the time in prison they deserved. This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another Kastigar violation. The civil lawsuit was filed as a wrongful death and personal injury suit against the men and companies responsible for my clients losses. A former private military guard has been convicted of first degree murder by a court in Washington after taking part in a mass killing of unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007. It was chaotic. The order confines most Americans to a 3.5 square miles (9.1km2) area in the center of the city so that they are unable to visit other areas without traveling in a helicopter. They beat citizens and scorn them. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". RT has asked experts to share their thoughts on what the incident meant for Washington's Middle East policy and the likelihood of another tragedy like this. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car, possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing the car towards the Blackwater TST. "How are these criminals released after they killed 17 innocent people?" Nassar Hamza was 67 years old when he was shot and wounded in the arm. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. "Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future. "On what basis did Trump depend on to release them? "The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. [100] UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said that forgiveness "contributes to impunity and has the effect of encouraging others to commit such crimes in the future". [2] 16,000 volunteers coming to Ukraine, Zelensky: https://www.rt.com/russia/551149-zelensky-ukraine-foreign-fighters/. Iraqi traffic police initially tried to wave down the Blackwater men that there was no threat, but they too had to run for cover. Trump Pardons Blackwater Contractors Who Killed Iraqis He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. To understand the carnage that happened on the streets that day, you need to hear it in Mohammeds words as he explained it to me. Are they going to release me?". The fire has since been extinguished after the plant was captured by Russian troops and no radiation leakage has been detected. On Tuesday, President Trump pardoned 15 people, including Dustin Heard (from left), Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough, the four former government contractors convicted for a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more than a dozen Iraqi civilians dead. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under international law; however, the United States is not a signatory of the 1989 UN Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. [81] A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found "systemic" errors in the district court's 2009 decision to dismiss charges against the five former Blackwater guards and added "We find that the district court's findings depend on an erroneous view of the law". "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. Defence lawyers argued their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. Despite the public display of uncharacteristic valor by sporting military fatigues and flaunting images and video clips of soldiers proudly standing beside caches of MANPADS and Javelins on social media, Ukraines conscript army was so frightened following Russias military intervention that it wanted to surrender territory and opted instead for mounting guerrilla warfare by adopting hit-and-run tactics from the safety of border regions of Poland and Romania. [79] Three weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden, who was overseeing U.S. policy in Iraq, promised Iraqi leaders the U.S. would appeal the dismissal of these charges. He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad.