A 20,000-strong mercenary army is being assembled in Poland. [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. Hussein Saheb Nasser, 35, told NBC News by telephone from his home in Baghdad on Wednesday. My clients assuredly feel ignored, mistreated, and used. Blackwater Founder Remains Free and Rich While His Former Employees Go Or should I say Why is he still breathing? Luckily, before his SUV was attacked, Mohammed, his sister, and their children had time to duck into the car. As Mohammed held his sons hand, he convulsed and died in the back of the ambulance. He never received treatment. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? ", "After years of waiting, the victims finally saw justice served when these men were convicted," she said in an email. FBI scientists couldn't match bullets from the square to guns carried by the Blackwater guards and FBI investigators found foreign cartridge cases of a kind not used by U.S. or Blackwater personnel. Three former employees of the US private military contractor once known as Blackwater were sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday and a fourth received a life sentence . 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 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. The Kia continued to roll forward after the driver was killed, according to an eyewitness, and Raven 23 continued to fire on it, killing the passenger (the driver's mother); eventually, the Kia was struck by a grenade and was incinerated. The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". Among the pardons made by President Trump this week, the pardon of four former guards for Blackwater has been regarded by some as particularly galling. 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. [99], Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . The Iraqi government condemned the pardons, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying in a statement late on Wednesday that it would follow up with the U.S. through diplomatic channels to urge a reconsideration. 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 . Blackwater mercenaries on trial in US court for 2007 Iraq massacre 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. It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. . The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted 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. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. [28] Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter charges, and of using a machine gun to commit a violent crime. The Blackwater guards were firing indiscriminately. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. Mohammed had not been shot. https://www.ournewearthnews.com/2022/03/04/massacre-in-ukraine-caught-on-camera-and-probably-still-unfolding-viewer-discretion-advised-please-pray/. When Mohammed opened the door, his son fell toward him as his skull opened and a large part of Alis brain fell onto the pavement between his fathers feet. There are numerous reported incidents of mass murder conducted by US soldiers, special forces. 3", is named Paul Slough. [2] 16,000 volunteers coming to Ukraine, Zelensky: https://www.rt.com/russia/551149-zelensky-ukraine-foreign-fighters/. They started out as a private security firm providing training support to law enforcement, the justice department, and military organizations and received their first contract from the United States government in 2000 after the bombing of the USS Cole. Bulk comes from private military companies of the Blackwater/Academi kind. Video of the aftermath includes an image of a human brain on the road in Nisour Square. "I don't know what I did to Blackwater," Kinani told ABC News. In fact, private military contractors in close coordination and consultation with covert operators from CIA and Western intelligence agencies are not only training Ukraines conscript forces in the use of caches of Stingers and Javelins provided by Germany and the rest of the European nations as military assistance to Ukraine but are also directing the whole defense strategy of Ukraine by taking an active part in combat operations in some of the most hard-fought battles against Russias security forces north of Kyiv and at Kharkiv and Donbas. Following Russias intervention in Ukraine, Germany alone hasproudly bragged[4] of dispatching caches of 500 US-made surface-to-air Stinger missiles and 2,700 Soviet-era, shoulder-fired Strelamissiles to Ukraines conscript military. [80], On April 22, 2011, after closed-door testimony, a federal appeals-court panel revived the Justice Department's prosecution of the former Blackwater Worldwide guards by reinstating the manslaughter charges against the five men. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. Blackwater mercenary sentenced to life in prison - NationofChange It was funded with millions that. Nisour Square massacre - Wikipedia The result is not just that we see an injustice in the United States, but that the world must surely see cracks in the pillars of justice upon which our system is based. An ambulance was called, and Ali and Mohammad were rushed to the other side of town. In his meetings with the high-ups in the US national security agencies, Erik Prince reportedly obtained a gentlemans promise, though without any documentary assurances due to the secretive nature of the Faustian pact, that he and his associates would not be held legally liable for the dirty work they do in the Ukraine proxy war. AP Mohammed turned his bullet-riddled SUV around and drove back to the closest hospital only a few blocks behind him. Before. He was left with shrapnel in his body from the rocket launched grenade that was fired into his vehicle as he escaped. Four Blackwater operatives were found guilty one of murder in a 2007 Baghdad massacre. 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. Former Blackwater guards sentenced for massacre of unarmed Iraqi What Is Blackwater? Who would be responsible for the myopic and vindictive policy of providing anti-aircraft munitions to Ukraines irregular militias once Kyiv falls and those MANPADS are found in black markets posing a grave risk to civilian airlines across the globe? [3][84] Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him". I felt I had done that, and I knew the prosecutors were doing that. Mohammed forced a doctor to look at Ali. Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said Trump's pardons were an insult to justice, "but it's also an insult to the victims. 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. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted six years ago in the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians and the wounding of 17 others. 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. Liberty is one of four former Blackwater mercenaries pardoned by President Donald Trump in one of . The Associated Press contributed to this report. Trumps pardon of the Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 14 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square shows the world what justice means in the United States. Ukraine War Anniversary: UN and China Work for Peace, Devilish Zelensky, Kiev Hid Its Dead Soldiers in the Ravines. In November last year, he pardoned a former US army commando who was set to stand trial over the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker, and a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire at three Afghans. "This incident motivated the Iraqi authorities to seek the withdrawal of American troops from the country. Private Military Companies: Blackwater - Silent Professionals (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. Ali was the youngest of Blackwaters victims that day. Machine gunfire would cause his lifeless body to shake in his pool of blood. 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. Notorious mercenaries convicted of massacre in Iraq pardoned by Trump Trump pardons ex-campaign aide and disgraced Republican lawmakers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 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. Their bodies were beaten and burned, with their charred corpses then dragged through the city streets before being hanged over a bridge crossing the Euphrates River. [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. [29] The banning was described by P. W. Singer, an expert on the private military industry, as "inevitable", given the US government's reliance on and lack of oversight of the private military industry in Iraq. U.S. troops were coming under fire in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities from the resistance forces. "Today we were surprised that the American president issued a decision to pardon these criminals, murderers and thugs," Salman said, speaking from Baghdad. They beat citizens and scorn them. "The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. They would turn Blackwater into roadkill. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. Dickinson says the great expense that the FBI put into the prosecution of the case has now come to nothing. Blackwater mercenaries committed a massacre. U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident. 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. Iraqi authorities say 17 people were killed; the Department of Justice has said the total was 14. 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. [50], On October 4, 2007, U.S. military reports indicated Blackwater's guards had opened fire without provocation and used excessive force. Because any state, particularly those pursuing socialist policies, that dares to challenge the Western monopoly over global trade and economic policies is internationally isolated and its national economy goes bankrupt over a period of time. Paul Dickinson[emailprotected]farrin.com. [101][102] The Iraqi Foreign Ministry urged the United States to reconsider, declaring the pardons "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed".[103]. Prince strongly criticized the way in which federal authorities had handled the investigation and disputed the claims that U.S. or Blackwater personnel were to blame for the shootings. 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. Opinion | Trump's Most Disgusting Pardons - The New York Times First ones from 16,000. This includes the right to see perpetrators serve punishments proportionate to the seriousness of their conduct. Lead FBI investigator in Blackwater case likens Iraq massacre to My Lai Extending the hand of friendship, Russia significantly drawdown its forces along the western border before the summit last year. 'I hope she's scarred for life' Recalling my time as a Blackwater He suffered from his wounds for over a year until he died from a brain injury. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. 15 years after US Blackwater mercenaries massacred civilians in Baghdad [12] On October 4, 2007, the U.S. House passed a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act[65] They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Adela Sulimanis a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. "How are. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. These men will now be free, despite their crimes, and they will not serve the time in prison they deserved. [48] According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. 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. [21][75] In the memorandum opinion, Judge Urbina ruled the cases against Slough, Liberty, Heard, Ball, and Slatten had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity;[76] that evidence included statements the guards had been compelled to give to State Department investigators, and as these statements would have been self-incriminating, they could not be used as evidence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After selling Blackwater to a group of investors in 2010, Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seals officer and the swashbuckling founder of Blackwater, has founded another security company Frontier Services Group, registered at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, that advises and provides aviation and logistical solutions to Chinese oligarchs for the security of their lucrative business projects in Africa. 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. 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. When Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten was tried and convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, the U.S. legal system determined that he needed a new trial. Mohammed and his sister screamed for their children to get down. His mother also suffered a stroke, he added. The ones who were killed on the street were shot running for their lives. [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. The news shows the helicopter falling to the ground as it burns. I sued Blackwater, its founder Erik Prince, and the four men who were convicted of murder, manslaughter, or weapons charges in a civil lawsuit filed in North Carolina, the home of Blackwaters headquarters and training facility in Moyock. [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. Defence lawyers argued their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. Again, the result was the civil legal system exhausting every defense afforded to Blackwater and the men. They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. [43], The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, in a document last updated on July 3, 2007, listed Blackwater as not having a license to operate in Iraq despite their attempts to apply for one. Blackwater Mercenaries: NATO's Secret Weapon in Ukraine 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". He despised Saddam Hussein and his oppressive and vindictive ways. Trump's Blackwater Guard Pardons Cause Shock And Dismay : NPR Trump's pardon of Blackwater 'Four' highlights deep divisions over Iraq Their route home was through Nisour Square. Only. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened on September 16, 2007. Iraqi traffic police initially tried to wave down the Blackwater men that there was no threat, but they too had to run for cover. "These are four innocent guys, and it is completely justified," Bill Coffield, a lawyer for Evan Liberty, told the AP. Majid Al Kareem was 51 years old when he was shot. Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. Its worth recalling that before the Biden-Putin summit at Geneva last June, Russia had a similar troop build-up along Ukraines borders. [1] Russian forces seize huge Ukrainian nuclear plant, fire extinguisher: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/top-wrap-1-europes-largest-nuclear-power-plant-fire-after-russian-attack-mayor-2022-03-04/. In 2014, four former government contractors who worked for Blackwater Worldwide, a security firm founded by Erik Prince an ally of Trump and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were convicted in federal court in Washington in connection with the killings. [89][90][91] The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's fractured per curiam decision first found that Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act authorized the prosecutions, over the partial dissent of Judge Janice Rogers Brown. The hospital was too busy. Blackwater Trial: What You Need to Know - NBC News No wonder Russia formally issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, March 1, that it would target the hub of covert warfare. 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. "These four individuals were given sentences ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment, including on charges of first-degree murder," spokesperson Marta Hurtado said in a statement. He had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. ", "By investigating these crimes and completing legal proceedings, the US complied with its obligations under international law," she added. 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! https://t.co/O88HKyb3wd, Kevin Reed | wsws.org (@KevinReedWSWS) March 4, 2022. The incident happened at the height of the "military surge" ordered by the then President George W. Bush to bring the armed resistance against the occupation in Iraq under control. And it will be a success, Im sure. But unsurprisingly, he did not describe who those thousands of daredevil volunteers willing to sacrifice lives and limbs in a foreign war were. 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.
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