The order did not say when the suspension would expire. That may be the overriding damage caused by these pardons. 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. [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. When Mohammed saw the convoy enter the traffic circle, he initially thought they were regular U.S. Army members. [82][20] On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed. Blackwater mercenaries committed a massacre. Defense lawyers for the four veterans, who were working as contractors for the State Department at the time of the killings, argued that they had returned fire only after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. Only. 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. They claimed they were fired on, but. Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. [28] TST 22 arrived at Nisour Square after Raven 23 had left; when TST 22 tried to withdraw, its route was blocked by Iraqi Army and Police vehicles. He thought they had been given a miracle after he saw so many others killed. [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. [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". The deaths provoked international outrage and raised questions about the use of private security firms in war zones. How is Eric Prince still breathing? A. When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. Now justice has been undone by the stroke of a pen," Sarah Holewinski, the organization's Washington director, said in a statement. 3", is named Paul Slough. Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. [40], On October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against Blackwater USA under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of an injured Iraqi and the families of three of the seventeen Iraqis who were killed by Blackwater employees during the September 16, 2007, shooting incident. Almost everyone who was killed or injured was shot in cars, taxis, or buses. The news shows the helicopter falling to the ground as it burns. The hallways were full. 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. I had never imagined that Trump or any other politician would affect American justice.". 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! If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. Their belief in our legal system was misplaced. [42] A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. [37] A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. Thats what lawyers do in the United States: We fight for those who cant fight for themselves. The Blackwater incident cost the American military in the Middle East a lot more, experts interviewed by RT believe. When he arrived at the hospital, it was a war zone. He despised Saddam Hussein and his oppressive and vindictive ways. [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]. Trump Just Pardoned Those Convicted Killers", "Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response", "Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees", "Tracing the Paths of 5 Who Died in a Storm of Gunfire", "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre", Use of white phosphorus by the United States, United States and the International Criminal Court, A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time", AfghanIraqi Freedom Memorial (Salem, Oregon), The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1141803510, Violent non-state actor incidents in Asia, People convicted of murder by the United States federal government, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:05. "Victims of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law also have the right to a remedy. [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. U.S. troops were coming under fire in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities from the resistance forces. I represented the Kinani family and five other victims of the Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing at least 14 innocent Iraqi citizens that day and injured dozens more. Blackwater has been renamed and falls under the Constellis group of companies, a risk management business formed in 2010. Blackwater Mercenaries: NATOs Secret Weapon in Ukraine War, VT RADIO: Alternative Foreign Policy Talk, Khazarian Mafia at War: The Jewish Oligarch Who Planned the Terror, Russias Future Predicted by Well-Known Christian Saints, Most Front-Line Ukrainian Soldiers Killed Within 4 Hours, How Russia managed to survive Western sanctions, How War Began The Genesis of NATOs Coup in Ukraine , From Global Warming Denial to Holocaust Denial, On this day in 1940, Woody Guthrie writes This Land Is, Former U.S. President Carter to Hospice, Will Pariah Trump Attend State, Dr. Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didnt Have A Chance Of Controlling. That changed yesterday with President Donald Trumps pardons. 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. "[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. Bulk comes from private military companies of the Blackwater/Academi kind. 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]". [3][84] Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him". 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. Rather than mitigating the suffering of Ukraines disenfranchised masses held hostage by the Zelensky regime, the self-styled champions of human rights are doing all they can to lure Russia into their bear trap project, a term borrowed from the Soviet-Afghan War of the eighties when Western regimes used Pakistans security forces and generous funding from the oil-rich Gulf States for providing guerrilla warfare training and lethal weaponry to Afghan jihadists to bleed the security forces of former the Soviet Union in the protracted war. The civil lawsuit was filed as a wrongful death and personal injury suit against the men and companies responsible for my clients losses. Blackwater mercenaries in helicopters also fired into traffic from overhead. He suffered from his wounds for over a year until he died from a brain injury. Russias reluctant and delayed military intervention in Ukraine is fundamentally a war of power projection, a shot across the bow to perfidious former allies, the East European states, whove been joining the EU and NATO in droves since the break-up of Soviet Union in 1991, that the collective security of Eurasian nations is a shared responsibility, and NATOs eastward expansion along Russias western flank not only imperils the security of resurgent Russia but also compromises the balance of power in the multipolar world. Among his clients were the parents of a 9-year-old boy who was killed as he sat in the back of his father's car. Being so close to the Green Zone, he thought someone important might be entering or leaving the area. The Nisour Square massacre was the FBIs most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, and Mike Teague, were killed and dragged from their vehicles. Iraqi traffic police initially tried to wave down the Blackwater men that there was no threat, but they too had to run for cover. Mohammed forced a doctor to look at Ali. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - On Tuesday, Trump the Mad pardoned 4 Blackwater mercenaries who killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, with indiscriminate fire at Nisour Square in downtown Baghdad on September 14, 2007. It wasnt. He is a regular contributor of diligently researched investigative reports to alternative news media. 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. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings", "F.B.I. 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. https://t.co/O88HKyb3wd, Kevin Reed | wsws.org (@KevinReedWSWS) March 4, 2022. "We showed the world that we were going to hold people accountable," he says. Prosecutors said the Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "I consider what the security company personnel have done is a terrorist act, as many civilians were martyred and wounded," said Hashem, 41, a father of five who was partially disabled and forced to retire after the incident. [48] According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded. IE 11 is not supported. [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. The U.N. Human Rights Office says it's "deeply concerned" by the pardons. Further, besides advising and assisting the UAEs petro-monarchy in strengthening the police state, Erik Prince alsoreportedly provided[3] weapons and modified aircraft to eastern Libyas warlord and former CIA asset Khalifa Haftar, backed by Egypt and UAE, in his thwarted military campaign against the Tripoli government lasting from April 2019 to June 2020. There are numerous reported incidents of mass murder conducted by US soldiers, special forces. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. [71], In December 2008, the United States Department of Justice announced it was filing criminal charges against five of the Blackwater employees, and ordered them to surrender to the FBI. [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. WaPo says, 'Investigators for the military and the FBI later described . In the sheer desperation to inflict maximum material damage to Russias security forces, however, NATO appears to have breached its own long-standing convention of curbing the proliferation of anti-aircraft munitions. [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. Abraham Al Mafrage was a 70-year-old farmer and father of seven who was also shot in the head and died that day. 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. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. And none of the I.P. He lay in the hallway for an hour before he died. He was driving on flat tires and with a shattered windshield. 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. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? Shots were fired everywhere. [63], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. Liberty is one of four former Blackwater mercenaries pardoned by President Donald Trump in one of . 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. Paul Dickinson[emailprotected]farrin.com. [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. He died in the hospital hallway surrounded by family as he was asking for water. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. He could not understand what was happening or why. By Andrew Emett - August 16, 2019 1269 SOURCE NationofChange [26][29], An Iraqi government account of the incident stated that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her adult son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer's whistle to clear a path for the convoy. The U.S. legal system, a pillar of fairness in the world, had worked. 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. Defence lawyers argued their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. In 2013, Academi subsidiary International Development Solutions received an approximately $92million contract for State Department security guards. 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. A burnt car at the site where Blackwater guards opened fire on a crowd in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007. Mohammed could see other cars being shot. Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. These men will now be free, despite their crimes, and they will not serve the time in prison they deserved. Nicholas Slatten, 35, was a former security guard at the private US military firm Blackwater and was based in Baghdad. [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. Again be warned it is ugly. Let us assume that I travel to America and kill 17 American citizens. 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. That notion has now been shown to be false, Dickinson says. That day destroyed me completely, Kinani said. Those Warnings Were Ignored, How Russia Will Counterpunch U.S./EU Declaration of War, Khazarian Mafia at War: The Jewish Oligarch Who Planned the Terror Attack on Bryansk, Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? Each time the criminal charges were seemed lost, the U.S. Department of Justice told them they were not forgotten that we would continue to pursue the convictions of those who committed the crimes against them. 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. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. "This was Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," Dickinson told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on Wednesday. https://www.ournewearthnews.com/2022/03/04/massacre-in-ukraine-caught-on-camera-and-probably-still-unfolding-viewer-discretion-advised-please-pray/. [23]:32 Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more. He had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. [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. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. But he knew he was surviving as he kept yelling for the children in the back of his SUV to stay down. hide caption. [18][30] Iraqi investigators also alleged that Blackwater helicopters fired into the cars from the air, as at least one car had bullet holes in its roof; Blackwater has denied any of its aerial units discharged weapons. He was left with shrapnel in his body from the rocket launched grenade that was fired into his vehicle as he escaped. Victims were everywhere. The Iraqi government and Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul stated that the killings were unprovoked. "Paul Slough and his colleagues didn't deserve to spend one minute in prison," Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for Slough, told The Associated Press. ", "By investigating these crimes and completing legal proceedings, the US complied with its obligations under international law," she added. [2] 16,000 volunteers coming to Ukraine, Zelensky: https://www.rt.com/russia/551149-zelensky-ukraine-foreign-fighters/. Mohammed was thrilled when the U.S. entered Baghdad years earlier in 2003. On Tuesday, President Trump pardoned four former Blackwater contractors convicted in the killings. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. [19] A Blackwater spokeswoman responded to the findings by saying Blackwater "supports the stringent accountability of the industry. For us, for everyone. [2] Reactions [ edit] [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] The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. 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. Erik Prince said that he didn't believe the FBI had fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisour Square, arguing that it would have been helpful if the defense had been in possession of a complete ballistics report. The man that just spoken to him was dead. More were arriving in the backs of trucks. October 22 2014, 9:58 a.m. A federal jury in Washington, D.C., returned guilty verdicts against four . [59] (The Protocol makes no distinction between defensive and offensive actions, but the U.S. does make such a distinction, in that it does not regard defensive actions by security guards to be combat. 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. In the middle of the attack, Mohammed could not understand why this man lying dead was a target. "On what basis did Trump depend on to release them? When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. Nasser's younger brother, Mahdi Saheb Nasser, was 22 and working as a taxi driver when he was killed in September 2007 alongside other unarmed civilians in Baghdad's Nisur Square. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". But when the shooting started, his life and the lives of his entire family changed forever. (L-r) Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten. [1][2][3] The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. 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. . [89][90][91] The panel also recommended that Slatten undergo a re-trial on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. Our civil case resulted in a resolution that was acceptable to the parties. The traffic circle, Nisour Square, was only a block away from one of the main entrance gates to Baghdads Green Zone. [3] Erik Prince provided weapons and aircraft to eastern Libyas warlord Khalifa Haftar: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/world/middleeast/libya-mercenaries-arms-embargo.html. The headrest next to him where his sister sat had a bullet hole through it. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. Russian Forces strike Ukrainian Armys Electronic Intelligence Center in Kiev Region. [14] The Iraqi government vowed to punish Blackwater. Machine gunfire tore through his body. In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American contractors in Baghdad.Read the article here: http://nyti.ms/1u1cNzySubscrib. [84], The other four went on trial starting on June 17, 2014;[5] ten weeks of testimony and 28 days of jury deliberations resulted in convictions for all four men on October 22, 2014. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. "These are four innocent guys, and it is completely justified," Bill Coffield, a lawyer for Evan Liberty, told the AP. 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 September 16, 2007 shootings by Blackwater mercenaries left 14 Iraqis dead and wounded 18 others in Baghdad's Nisour Square. He told NPR on Wednesday that he was shocked by Trump's pardons he himself had made trips to the U.S. to give testimony in the proceedings against the four. Blackwater and its employees had been given immunity from any criminal or civil exposure in Iraq that was part of Princes contract with the State Department. 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. Blackwater is an American private military company . Mohammed met members of the U.S. Army on the streets and handed out candy and juice when he saw them. It was funded with millions that. 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. Bullets were everywhere. Adela Sulimanis a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. Sequence of events triggering the Nisour Square massacre, Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, Private Security Company Association of Iraq, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Inspector General of the U.S. State Department, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, "U.S. My clients assuredly feel ignored, mistreated, and used. Mohammed knew his sons injuries were fatal, but he had to try. [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the most publicized US crimes of the 8-year Iraq war. 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. While the #RussianOligarchs are vile post-Soviet capitalists, the hypocrisy of the US media is revealing. "I don't know what I did to Blackwater," Kinani told ABC News. The massacre resulted in the deaths of 17 unarmed Iraqis and wounded at least 20 others. [26][27], On September 27, 2007, The New York Times reported that during the chaotic incident at Nisour Square, one member of the Blackwater security team continued to fire on civilians despite urgent cease-fire calls from colleagues. [95][96] Heard, Liberty, and Slough were resentenced on September 5, 2019 to terms approximately half the original 30-year periods.