|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
December 8th,
2008 - Ex-Blackwater Guards Charged with Manslaughter |
|
Ex-Blackwater
Guards Charged with Manslaughter From Cable Network News (CNN) December 8, 2008 Five former Blackwater
Worldwide security guards indicted on voluntary manslaughter and other
charges in connection with killings in Iraq were released on their own
recognizance Monday after a court hearing. The charges, which the
Justice Department announced Monday, stem from a September 16, 2007, shooting
that killed 17 Iraqis in a Baghdad square. A judge ordered the
ex-guards to appear for another court hearing in Washington on January 6. The 35-count indictment
charges each of the former guards with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts
of attempted manslaughter and one count of using a firearm in the commission
of a violent crime. Prosecutors do not believe
they have enough evidence to bring manslaughter charges on three of the 17
deaths. If convicted, the defendants
would face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each manslaughter
count, seven years in prison for each count of attempted manslaughter and a
30-year mandatory minimum sentence for the firearms charge. The men named in the
indictment are Donald Ball, 26, of West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, 27,
of Maryville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, 26, of Rochester, New Hampshire;
Nicholas Slatten, 24, of Sparta, Tennessee; and Paul Slough, 29, of Keller,
Texas. A sixth former security
guard - Jeremy P. Ridgeway, 35, of California - pleaded guilty last Friday in
Washington to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter. The five men turned
themselves in to federal authorities in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday
morning and then were released on their own recognizance, which means that
they were released without bail on a promise that they will return for the
trial. "We take no pleasure in
charging individuals whose job it was to protect the men and women of our
country," said Jeffrey A. Taylor, U.S. attorney for the District of
Columbia. "But when individuals are alleged to have violated the law
while carrying out those duties, we are duty-bound to hold them accountable,
as no one is above the law, even when our country is engaged in war." The indictment of the five
men represents the first prosecution of non-Defense Department contractors
under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which was amended in
2004 to allow the Justice Department to prosecute such personnel providing
services "in support of the mission of the Department of Defense
overseas." The attorneys for the
defendants say that Blackwater's employees in Iraq are exempt from the
provisions of the act because the company has a contract in Iraq with the
State Department, not the Defense Department. Mark Hulkower, defense
attorney for Slough, blamed the killings on insurgents who used civilians as
"shields" in Iraq. Hulkower said his client and the other
defendants were just trying to do their jobs in a very chaotic situation. "These young men were
fighting for their lives in a crowded area," Hulkower said to reporters
on the steps of the courthouse Monday. "What happened was a tragedy, but
not every tragedy is a crime. We are confident that this case will be
dismissed." The federal magistrate judge
in the case initially ordered all five suspects barred from using firearms as
one of the conditions for their release. Attorneys in the case argued against
this vigorously, saying the suspects were hunters and one of the suspects
needed to use a gun for his job as a court bailiff. The judge allowed the court
bailiff, Ball, to use his gun for work but barred the others from using
firearms. The hearing was packed with
relatives of the suspects, and about a dozen soldiers in uniform could be
seen in the courtroom. Defense attorneys pushed for
the Utah judge to have a probable cause hearing, a preliminary hearing that
determines if the government has enough evidence to go to trial. But the judge ordered that
the probable cause hearing should occur on January 6 in Washington. The six guards were informed
during the summer that they were targets of the investigation into the 2007
shooting. Blackwater says its
employees were returning fire after coming under attack from armed
insurgents, but an Iraqi investigation concluded that the guards randomly
fired at civilians without provocation. The former guards' company,
Blackwater Worldwide, will not face charges. In a statement released
shortly after the indictments were announced, Blackwater reiterated its
position that its former employees had not acted improperly. "Based on the
information available to us, we understand that these individuals acted
within the rules set forth for them by the government and that no criminal
violations occurred," the statement said. Blackwater also complained
about a number of "misguided assumptions and generalizations that
surrounded this unfortunate incident. ... [Blackwater's] work has been
mischaracterized and all of our personnel unfairly maligned." At the same time, the
company noted that if "it is determined that an individual acted
improperly, then Blackwater supports holding that person accountable." None of the former guards
has worked for Blackwater since 2007, company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said. An Iraqi official familiar
with the investigation said that an FBI team and two U.S. prosecutors working
on the case will meet in Baghdad on Saturday with more than 60 Iraqis
involved in the incident. The meeting is intended to brief the Iraqis on the
status of the case. Blackwater said its guards
were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under attack from
armed insurgents. The guards returned fire, Blackwater said. But an Iraqi investigation
called the killings "premeditated murder" and accused the guards of
firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers to arrive on
the scene told military investigators they found no evidence the contractors
were fired upon, a source familiar with a preliminary U.S. military report
told CNN. The indictments are "a
step in the right direction," said Mohammad Abdul Razzaq, whose
9-year-old son, Ali, was killed at Nusoor Square in Baghdad. "It was
heinous crime and a painful incident, [but] we can overcome that if a just
verdict is handed down." Hassan Salman, an Iraqi
lawyer wounded in the shootings, said that the "American judicial
system, known for its integrity, should hand down [to] the perpetrators of
this heinous crime against the Iraqi people nothing less than death
sentences." The complex legal case has
been dogged by difficulties and may present a major challenge to federal
prosecutors. Among the potential problems
is that the law under which the charges are expected to be brought covers
contractors working for the U.S. military, but the Blackwater guards were
contracted by the State Department. Some independent legal experts question
whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction in this case. Also muddying the waters are
alleged assurances of immunity given to the guards by State Department diplomatic
security agents investigating the incident before the FBI got involved. The State Department said
its agents did not offer blanket immunity from criminal prosecution but only
promised that statements the guards made on the scene could not be used
against them in any prosecution. But when the investigation
was turned over to the Justice Department to examine possible criminal
activity, FBI agents discovered some guards believed they were immune from
prosecution and therefore refused to be interviewed again, complicating the
FBI probe. The shooting heightened
tensions between U.S. and Iraqi government officials and contributed to a
protracted debate over the extent of immunity that U.S. military personnel
and civilian contractors have from Iraqi laws. Security contractors had
immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put in place in the early days of
the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. But starting next year, under a U.S.-Iraq
security agreement that Baghdad approved last week, Iraq will have the
"primary right to exercise jurisdiction" over U.S. contractors and
their employees. The State Department, which
employed Blackwater to protect U.S. diplomats and other employees, renewed
Blackwater's contract this year over strong objections from the Iraqi government. CNN's Kevin Bohn, Terry
Frieden, Jomana Karadsheh, Elise Labott, Justine Redman, Alan Silverleib and
Kara Finnstrom contributed to this report. External link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/08/iraq.blackwater.indictment/ |