"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. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. 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. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. Monday's sentencing was. The black-ops of NATOs mercenaries in Ukraine were being directed from Ukraines Security Service (SSU) headquarter and the main center for information and psychological operations in Kyiv. [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. They beat citizens and scorn them. He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. [25][31], The account by the Blackwater firm differed from the Iraqi government's account; Blackwater's account stated the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. Before Nord Stream Sabotage, VT RADIO: Exposing East Palestine Train Derailment Disaster with VTs Jack Heart, Dr. Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didnt Have A Chance Of Controlling The Pandemic, More Home Care Services Needed for Military Veterans, VA is Lying Facebook Group is Social Media Done Right, Pregnant Dog Found Starving to Death in Cage Needs Help to be Reunited With Marine Who Rescued Her, Healthy Eating Options More Accessible to Military Community through the Exchange, Israels Illegal Violent Occupation: When De-Escalate Means Ramp Up, Citizen Kane Rupert Murdoch Openly Admits Fox News is Complete Bullshit. He was driving on flat tires and with a shattered windshield. Suddenly, bullets began to riddle Mohammeds car. The committee was co-chaired by Abd al Qadir, the Iraqi Minister of Defense, and Patricia A. Butenis, the Charg d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . Iraqi authorities say 17 people were killed; the Department of Justice has said the total was 14. Mohammed and his sister screamed for their children to get down. Adela Sulimanis a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. Video of the aftermath includes an image of a human brain on the road in Nisour Square. [62] After a group of Iraqi ministers backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry's decision to shut down Blackwater USA's operations in Iraq,[29] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater[39] and called on Blackwater to pay the families $8million in compensation. Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. Machine gunfire would cause his lifeless body to shake in his pool of blood. My law firm received a call from an immigration attorney the next year seeking representation for the Blackwaters victims, and I was eventually retained to represent the Kinani family in a civil lawsuit against Blackwater, Prince, and various other Blackwater companies and, of course, the men who were charged and eventually convicted of murder, manslaughter, and weapons charges for their conduct. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? The White House further stated that the Court of Appeals "ruled that additional evidence should have been presented at Mr Slatten's trial", and recently that prosecutors said "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". He was shot through the back with a massive exit wound in his chest. Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. Volodymyr Zelenskyreassured his compatriots[2] yesterday: Ukraine is already welcoming foreign volunteers who are coming to our country. Scores of Iraqis injured in anti-government protests in Baghdad, Who will protect us?: Baghdad residents wait out fighting as city grinds to halt, Iraqi cleric tells loyalists to return to their homes after fighting in Baghdad, Deadly violence in Baghdad after leading cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says he is quitting politics, Shia factions mass in Baghdad raising fears of more unrest, Protesters storm Iraq parliament again amid unrest over Iran-backed groups, Iran may eventually get its way in protracted power struggle in Iraq, Hundreds of protesters storm Iraq parliament in support of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Briton jailed in Iraq for smuggling antiquities to be freed, says lawyer. "The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. They are coming to defend freedom, defend life. 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. They claimed they were fired on, but. [42] A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened on September 16, 2007. It was his business partner who lay in the pool of blood and was repeatedly shot. [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. The civil lawsuit was filed as a wrongful death and personal injury suit against the men and companies responsible for my clients losses. But supporters of the military contractors, who argued the investigation was tainted and the punishments too severe, cheered the news. [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 Blackwater guards included Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other . 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. The Blackwater mess has roiled Capitol Hill and shined light on the many questions surrounding the legal status, management, oversight and accountability of the private military force in Iraq,. [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. Six of my Blackwater brethren contractors are on the helicopter going to Tikrit. Since the harrowing Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007, the Blackwater private military contractor, renamed as Academi in 2011 and becoming a subsidiary of Constellis Group following a merger with Triple Canopy in 2014, has built quite a business empire for itself. [6][86] Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. Their cover: "return of Ukrainians from the French Foreign Legion.". [26][27] A U.S. Army convoy arrived at 12:39p.m., backed by air cover, to escort TST 22 back to the Green Zone. The American judiciary is fair and equitable. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. [49], An Interior Ministry spokesman said Iraqi authorities had completed their investigation into the shooting and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. She turned the location into an exotic bookstore and caf, offering erotica readings, among other licentious pastimes. Mohammed had not been shot. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. Before VT Nuclear Education: The Beirut Nuclear Coverup, The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafia. He was left with shrapnel in his body from the rocket launched grenade that was fired into his vehicle as he escaped. 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. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. It was as if someone had targeted the area in his SUV where a persons head would have been. [54] He served one tour in Iraq before being hired as a Personal Security Specialist in Iraq. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened. 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 massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war. 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". Dec. 24, 2020 Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani with a photo of his 9-year-old son, Ali, who was killed by Blackwater. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. The men, all military veterans working in Iraq for the private security contractor Blackwater, were convicted of massacring 14 civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified rampage of gunfire and. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. Bullets were everywhere. Everything was eerily quiet. Slatten, whom prosecutors said started the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison. Their belief in our legal system was misplaced. [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". Nicholas Slatten, 35, was a former security guard at the private US military firm Blackwater and was based in Baghdad. He was shot while seated in a public bus. Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of manslaughter and weapons charges. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. Blackwater is an American private military company . [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. He is a regular contributor of diligently researched investigative reports to alternative news media. By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. The traffic circle, Nisour Square, was only a block away from one of the main entrance gates to Baghdads Green Zone. This is not for the faint of heart but allegedly a video from the Ukraine conflict at a check-point at Mariupol which is surrounded by Russian troops. The four armored vehicles drove away. The Blackwater incident cost the American military in the Middle East a lot more, experts interviewed by RT believe. October 22 2014, 9:58 a.m. A federal jury in Washington, D.C., returned guilty verdicts against four . It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. The pardons have reduced American talk of human rights to mere "slogans," he said, adding, "They prefer animals over humans, and then they talk about human rights, justice and humanity. [40] The US House passed a bill, titled the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I felt I had done that, and I knew the prosecutors were doing that. "[21] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. What Is Blackwater? 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. They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. [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. I was thinking the same thing about the Chechens a few days ago. The ones who were killed on the street were shot running for their lives. I know that each of them placed great faith in the U.S. legal system.