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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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December 10th,
2008 - Blackwater Guards Should Die: Dead Iraqi’s Family News article from Agence
France Presse News article from Los Angeles Times |
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Blackwater Guards
Should Die: Dead Iraqi’s Family From Agence France Presse December 10, 2008 Baghdad - The family of an
Iraqi man shot dead with 13 other civilians by guards from the private US
security firm Blackwater in 2007 called on Wednesday for the death penalty
against five who have been charged. "We ask for a just
punishment," Fulaih Ali Ahmad, whose brother Saad died as he was trying
to flee the gunfire, told AFP. Saad was hit by a bullet in
the back of the head during the incident in central Baghdad. In Arabic, and in accordance
with Iraqi traditions, a "just punishment" indicates the death
penalty. Ahmad said the Blackwater
guards "killed people who had families. "Who will compensate
them? The Iraqi government should push for it and the American administration
should pay compensation," he said. On Tuesday the Baghdad
government welcomed the charges being laid, but said it could still demand
compensation for the victims. "The Iraqi government
is pleased with what the American jurisdiction is (doing) now,"
spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said when asked about the indictments. "But also, at the end,
the Iraqi government reserves its right to protect the victims and the
families and get the proper compensation for them," he said at a foreign
policy institute in Washington. Five Blackwater guards were
charged on Monday with killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 18
others with gunfire and grenades while travelling in a convoy through a busy
Baghdad intersection in September 2007. Blackwater was employed by
the US State Department, and the deadly incident sparked an outcry in Iraq
and around the world over the deployment of private contractors in war zones. A sixth guard has pleaded
guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit
manslaughter. "When they say they
were fired on it is a lie. I ask the Iraqi government to throw out
(Blackwater) from the country. If an Iraqi killed 17 people ... the
government would execute him on the spot," Saad's brother said. Copyright © 2008 AFP. All
rights reserved. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hguyXbhiFm5wliq0WTFP3Yrg6_zg Iraqis applaud charges
against Blackwater guards The shooting that killed at least 17 in a Baghdad traffic circle last
year resonates strongly among Iraqis, who believe it was unjustified and are
eager for justice. By Tina Susman & Usama Redha Los Angeles Times December 10, 2008 Reporting from Baghdad - The
traffic circle hums on a cool and sunny afternoon, as motorists round the
center median with its fake orange palm tree that sparkles at night, blooming
flower beds and chunky sculpture. On such a calm day in
Baghdad, it is hard to imagine the carnage that erupted here in Nisoor Square
in September 2007, when Blackwater Worldwide security guards killed at least
17 Iraqis in a hail of machine-gun bullets and grenades, but the evidence remains. Bullet holes pock the small
shelter where traffic cops dived for cover. Splotches scar the wall of a
school off the square that prosecutors say was hit by American gunfire.
Memories rankle people familiar with the story, which still resonates
powerfully in Iraq even as the legal repercussions have shifted to
courthouses thousands of miles away in the U.S. Five Blackwater employees,
all of them U.S. military veterans, were charged Monday with manslaughter and
attempted manslaughter in the case, which strained U.S.-Iraqi relations and
galvanized Iraqi opposition to the Western security companies that had
operated with impunity here. Starting Jan. 1, private
security details such as Blackwater will be subject to Iraqi jurisdiction if
accused of crimes committed while off American bases, a change demanded by
Iraq's government after the Blackwater incident and others involving
different companies that resulted in civilian deaths on a smaller scale. The current Blackwater
defendants won't face trial in Iraq, but they could face decades in prison in
the United States if convicted, something that pleases Iraqis such as Ali
Abdul Ali. "This is good,"
said Ali, an unemployed military veteran. "It means no one is above the
law, even if he's an element of foreign forces. It also means the victims
will get justice." Ali, who comes often to an
abandoned bus stop near Nisoor Square to sit in the sunshine and think about
life, has a friend whose mother was among 20 Iraqis shot and wounded in the
incident. Like other Iraqis in the circle that day, the friend said the
shooting was unjustified, he said. "These people were
armed and they were shooting innocent people," Ali said. That's not how the
Blackwater guards tell it. They say their convoy came under attack as they
escorted U.S. State Department officials and that they fired in self-defense. In the square Tuesday, the
sound of gunfire was constant and clear over the cacophony of car engines,
tooting horns and sirens from the intimidating convoys that still tear
through the circle, but it was from an Iraqi police firing range nearby. Police officers stationed in
the circle were happy to discuss the Blackwater case and to show off the
bullet holes from that day. One of them quickly interrupted his lunch of
beans, rice and bread to weigh in. "I heard about [the
charges against the Blackwater employees] yesterday on the news," said
the officer, who like his colleagues was not authorized to speak to reporters
and would not give a name. "Because they killed 17 innocent people, of
course they should be arrested." The policeman, who has
worked this spot for five years, was not in the square the day of the
shooting but came to work the next day to see wrecked cars, blood-stained
streets, bullet casings. He pointed to a section of gnarled concrete in the
busy street a few feet away. "That's where the
doctor and her son died," he said, referring to Mahasin Mohssen Khadum
Khazali and her son, Ahmed Haitham Ahmed Rubaie, who were in a white sedan
that the Blackwater guards said they suspected of being rigged to explode. "Justice should be
served. These victims - their rights should be taken into
consideration," said another policeman, edging in front of the first cop
and quickly taking over the conversation. This officer said that if the
Blackwater guards are convicted, they should die. "This is the law of
God. In the Arab world, anyone who kills someone, he should be killed,"
he said. They scoffed at the idea
that the guards might have felt genuinely threatened because of the situation
in Baghdad at the time. Violence was far worse then, when attacks on U.S.
forces were daily events. That month, 70 foreign troops, including 66 Americans,
were killed across Iraq, according to the independent website
icasualties.org. Last month, the total was 17. "This place is
surrounded. It is secure," the second officer said, noting the national
guard base on one side of the square and another government building on the
other. "It's impossible" that anyone could have felt threatened, he
said. Minutes later, a U.S.
military convoy entered the circle. Civilian traffic ground to a halt to let
the vehicles pass, but they stopped midway through. A group of U.S. soldiers
walked toward the Iraqi police. "Let's have it,"
one of them sternly said to a U.S. journalist who had been filming the
square, referring to the memory chip of his video camera. The soldier uttered an
obscenity about filming the convoy but backed off without taking the memory
chip after another American intervened, satisfied that the journalists were
more interested in the scene at the square, not the convoy that had rolled
into view. Afterward, one policeman
joked that it was good the journalists were of the "same tribe" as
the soldiers. If they'd been Iraqis, he said, they would have been locked up. Susman and Redha are Times
staff writers. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-blackwater10-2008dec10,0,6706678.story Blackwater
case dives into new legal waters By Jason Claffey Foster’s Daily Democrat December 10, 2008 Rochester - The case against
the five Blackwater Worldwide guards charged in connection with a Baghdad
shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead will largely hinge on an amendment to the
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, possibly presenting "special
opportunities for the defense, and headaches for the prosecution,"
according to one legal expert. The five guards, including
Evan Liberty, a 26-year-old former Marine from Rochester, were each charged
with 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter for
allegedly firing machine guns and grenade launchers at fleeing civilians in
Baghdad's Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. The men surrendered
themselves at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, Monday morning in
an attempt to have the trial there and draw a jury "more sympathetic to
the experiences of coming under enemy fire," one of the men's lawyers
told The Associated Press. But a judge ordered the
guards to appear at a Washington, D.C., courthouse for a hearing on Jan. 6,
the AP reported early Tuesday. The defense still has a chance to appeal and
move the case back to Utah. Charles Putnam, co-director
of the Justiceworks program at the University of New Hampshire, said, in
general, it is a "difficult enterprise" for one country to enforce
laws regarding the actions of its citizens in another country. And because the prosecution
is expected to argue that a revised version of the Military Extraterritorial
Jurisdiction Act gives the government power to charge private security contractors
like Blackwater guards - something that has been largely untested in court -
Putnam said the defense may have the opportunity to challenge the law's
validity. "It is fair to say one
of the things the defense attorneys will do is to hold the government's feet
to the fire and make sure the law works the way it was supposed to
work," he said. In 2004, in response to
allegations of torture at Abu Ghraib prison, Congress passed an amendment to
MEJA giving the government wider powers in prosecuting misconduct by military
contractors. As MEJA had previously been written, it applied only to
contractors directly affiliated with the Department of Defense. (Some of the
prison employees involved in the torture incidents were employed by other
government agencies.) The amendment added the law
would now apply to "any other Federal agency, or any provisional
authority, to the extent such employment relates to supporting the mission of
the Department of Defense overseas." The key word, as it relates
to the Blackwater guards, is "supporting," according to Alan
Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, a
national trade organization representing security contractors, including
Blackwater Worldwide. In Iraq, Blackwater was
charged with protecting U.S Department of State officials. On the day of the
shootings, the five men were responding to a car bomb that exploded a mile away
from Nisoor Square, in the vicinity of a separate Blackwater team that was
transporting a state department official, according to court documents. If the prosecution can
successfully argue Blackwater's contract with the State Department supported
the Department of Defense's mission in Iraq, then the five guards would be
subject to MEJA, and thus the manslaughter charges. "The crux of the case
rests on it," Chvotkin said, adding there is "little
precedent" for such a case. Putnam said it may come down
to how strongly Congress worded the amendment. "It's more complex than
your ordinary case," Putnam said. "It's hard to know what's going
to happen." While the five guards face a
seemingly uncertain fate, a sixth, Jeremy Ridgeway, cut a plea deal and will
most likely avoid a lengthy sentence. In a signed proffer to
prosecutors, Ridgeway said the shootings escalated after he shot and killed a
medical student driving a slow-moving Kia sedan. The car, which prosecutors
said posed no threat, was approaching a blockade the guards had set up after they
ignored a direct order to return to the International "Green" Zone,
according to court documents. The incident strained
U.S.-Iraqi relations and prompted a Congressional investigation into
Blackwater. An October 2007 report by
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found Blackwater had been
involved in 200 shootings since 2005, including one in which a drunk
Blackwater employee allegedly shot and killed a guard of Iraqi Vice President
Adil Abd-al-Mahdi. The organization's founder, Erik Prince, testified at the
time that his employees did not act like "cowboys." Chvotkin reinforced Prince's
characterization of Blackwater employees - many of whom, like the five
charged men, are ex-U.S. military. Their training makes them
"well-suited" to war zone environments, Chvotkin said "They understand order
and discipline," he said. "They're not lone rangers. They're not
cowboys ... (being) overly aggressive is opposite the nature of their
training." External link: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081210/GJNEWS_01/712109912/-1/FOSNEWS |