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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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March 23rd,
2009 - Utahn Charged in Iraq Killings Suspended from Constable Job News article from the Salt Lake
Tribune News article from Deseret News 1st feature article
from the Salt Lake Tribune 2nd feature
article from the Salt Lake Tribune |
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Utahn Charged in Iraq Killings
Suspended from Constable Job Assault alleged - Girlfriend accused him of grabbing and pushing her. By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune March 23, 2009 A Utahn accused of
participating in the Blackwater shootings of civilians in Iraq has been
suspended from law enforcement for two years for allegedly assaulting his
girlfriend. Donald W. Ball grabbed his
girlfriend by the neck and pushed her away, according to a report made public
Monday at a meeting of the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training
Council board. The report said Ball
resigned from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Dec. 10, the same day
board investigators questioned him about the episode. He also signed an
agreement consenting to the suspension. The incident occurred July
13, when Ball was still a cadet at Utah's police academy. Donald Ball The report said
Ball and his girlfriend were drinking and had a verbal argument. The pair
stopped at a fast food restaurant. At the drive-up window, Ball received some
ketchup and threw it at his girlfriend, the report said. When they arrived home,
according to the report, Ball's girlfriend began hitting him. That's when
Ball grabbed and pushed her, the report said. The girlfriend reported the
episode to West Valley City police. Officers arrived and determined Ball was
the aggressor in an attempted aggravated assault, but did not arrest him,
according to the report. The city prosecutor reviewed the case but declined
to file charges, "citing possible self-defense," said the report. The board can suspend or
revoke law enforcement certifications without the filing of any criminal
charges. Ball's attorney in
Washington, D.C., Steven McCool, said Ball reported the episode to his
supervisors shortly after it occurred and questioned the timing of the
investigation. "No administrative
action was taken until months later ... interestingly enough, after charges
were filed in the Blackwater case," McCool said Monday. Ball notified his supervisor
at the police academy on Aug. 25, according to the report. Scott Stephenson,
board director, said cadets are required to notify superiors of any off-duty
contact with police immediately. Ball's superiors reported the incident to
investigators after the Blackwater indictments were announced, Stephenson
said. Ball and four other former
Blackwater security guards are charged with 14 counts of manslaughter. The
charges stem from a 2007 incident in Iraq in which the U.S. government claims
the guards opened fire on innocent civilians. The guards have claimed they
were returning fire. Ball, of West Valley City,
was one of about 20 peace officers suspended or permanently banned from law
enforcement by the board on Monday at its quarterly meeting here. Ball was employed as a
private constable. At a federal hearing in Salt Lake City, two days before
Ball resigned, his attorneys asked a federal magistrate to allow Ball to keep
firearms so he could keep his job. External link: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11977307?source=most_viewed Former Blackwater guard gets
badge suspended in Utah By Ben Winslow Deseret News March 23, 2009 St. George - A West Valley
man accused of participating in a massacre of unarmed Iraqi civilians has had
his police-officer status suspended. The Utah Peace Officer
Standards and Training Council voted unanimously Monday to suspend Donald W.
Ball's special-function-officer certification until 2010 for allegations of
assault stemming from a fight with his girlfriend. An investigative summary
released by the POST Council said West Valley police were called to Ball's
home on a report of a fight. The report claimed that Ball had been drinking
with his girlfriend when they got into an argument and decided to drive home.
Ball stopped at a fast-food restaurant, and when his girlfriend requested
ketchup, the report claims, he threw the packets at her face. "After Ball arrived at
his home, his girlfriend started hitting him," POST investigator Paul
Kotter wrote. "Ball grabbed his girlfriend by the neck and pushed her
away. After escaping his grasp, Ball's girlfriend called the police." Ball was never arrested, nor
was he charged by the city prosecutor because of possible self-defense
issues, the report said. Ball was employed by the Salt Lake County
Constable's Office as a bailiff and resigned after being questioned by POST
investigators on Dec. 10, the report states. Ball, 26, is one of five
former guards for the private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide who
are accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqis and wounding 20 others in September
2007. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on
manslaughter charges. Attorneys for the guards have claimed they were under
attack and defending themselves. External link: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705292673,00.html Dueling pictures of ex-Utah
Marine emerge Iraqi deaths - Between an Eagle Scout and accused killer, the
Blackwater guard's conflicting image reflects the case's complexity. By Matthew D. Laplante The Salt Lake Tribune March 23, 2009 Editor’s note: This story
originally ran Dec. 11, 2008. Baghdad was beginning to
come back to life - and on Sept. 16, 2007, the traffic in the intersection at
Nisoor Square was showing it. Converging in vehicles, bicycles and on foot
were parents and children, students on their way to school, professionals and
day laborers. Within moments, at least 14
of them would be dead. More injured. One man was shot in the chest as he
stood with his hands above his head. Several were killed while attempting to
flee a sudden eruption of gunfire and grenade explosions. It was the type of scene
that Iraqis have come to know all too well. This time, however, the attack
came not from terrorists, insurgents or rebel militiamen - but from
Americans. An indictment filed Monday
alleges that a former Marine from Utah, Donald Ball, and five other security
contractors shared criminal responsibility for the massacre at Nisoor Square.
Ball and four of the other accused men surrendered to authorities at the
federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. A sixth pleaded guilty on Friday. Prosecutors are calling the
attack "a shocking violation of human rights." And that is hardly
the most damning of what has been said. As three of the men entered court on
Monday morning, a man from across the street yelled, "baby
killers." But to those who knew him,
Ball was not a mercenary or a monster. Much to the contrary. Now, between
Eagle Scout and accused killer, there remains much to reconcile. With honorable intentions The men charged Monday are
honorably discharged soldiers and Marines. As security contractors they
returned to Iraq to do a job - a job made necessary at a time when the U.S.
military was stretched precariously thin. They are, according to
family members and friends, tough men who made a split-second decision in an
impossible situation. Those who have known him,
both before and after the attack at Nisoor Square, have called Ball a kind,
compassionate and humble human being. He was an Eagle Scout who joined the
Marines shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, accepting what
he saw as honorable work in tribute to his father, who had died of a heart
attack two years prior. "He always wanted to do
something that would make his father proud," said Ball's mother, Karen. After three tours of duty in
Iraq with the Marines, Ball found a job with security contractor Blackwater
Worldwide -- a role that would bring him back to Iraq with a much larger
salary than he'd gotten from the Marines. Using his first paychecks and his
military savings, he purchased a home in West Valley City for his widowed
mother. The money was good, Karen
Ball acknowledged, but that was not the only reason her son went back to work
in Iraq. "He felt as though he had more to contribute," she said. "You cannot have had an
intimate conversation with my brother … and conclude that he would have done
anything, anything at all, other than out of love and defense of those
people," said Ball's older brother, Troy. "I'd have him on my
side at any time," said Angie Oldham, who works with Ball as a security
officer at the Salt Lake City Justice Courts building and is his classmate at
Salt Lake Community College's police academy, from where he is scheduled to
graduate later this month. Under court order, Ball will be permitted to carry
a gun while training and working, but will have to turn in his sidearm at the
end of each shift. David Attridge, Ball's
academy supervisor, said he has had a number of conversations with Ball about
what occurred at Nisoor Square, and "he's been pretty adamant in stating
that they didn't fire until they were fired upon." That is not, however, what
investigators have concluded. When hell broke loose In a meticulous probe that
took the FBI and others more than a year to complete and involved hundreds of
witness interviews, investigators resolved that none of the victims were
armed. They also found fault in the explanation, maintained by Blackwater and
being employed by defense attorneys for the accused men, that the contractors
had come under attack and were fighting for their lives. "While there were
dangers in Baghdad in 2007, there were also ordinary people going about their
lives," said Pat Rowan, assistant attorney general for national
security. In Nisoor Square, Rowan said, the decisions of a small number of
men cost many innocent people their lives. It also brought to international
light the brutal tactics being used by some security contractors that many
Iraqis had been complaining about for years. Mahdi Abdul-Khudor, who lost
an eye in the incident, said he hoped the court would punish the contractors.
"This matter makes me happy, and I hope they will receive a just
penalty," Khudor said. "They took my eye, the better part of me. I
hope the court will give me justice." Khalid Ibrahim said his
father, Ibrahim Abid, a 78-year-old gardener, was killed when he was caught
in the shooting while driving home. Ibrahim said his mother was overwhelmed
by grief and died six months later. "The indictment of the
Blackwater members is good news for us because the killers must pay for their
crime against innocent civilians," he said. The incident that claimed
Ibrahim Abid's life began as a Blackwater convoy of four heavily-armed
vehicles known as "Raven 23" left Baghdad's Green Zone - allegedly
without permission from military officials - in response to a roadside bomb
attack on another Blackwater convoy. Before Raven 23 could get there,
however, it was slowed by traffic in Nisoor Square. As the convoy began to pull
around the traffic, investigators believe, a white Kia sedan pulled close to
one of the contractor's trucks. Prosecutors say there is no way the driver of
the Kia should have been mistaken for a threat, but one of the contractors
nonetheless fired his assault rifle into the sedan, killing its driver and
passenger. And that, prosecutors say,
is when hell broke loose. Death without warning » The
first victim was Ahmed Haitham Ahmed, a 20-year-old medical student who was
shot in the head, apparently with no warning. Next to die was his 46-year-old
mother, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum, whose body was riddled by American bullets,
according to U.S. investigators. Also dead was Ali Khalil
Abdul, a 54-year-old blacksmith who was shot in the chest while driving his
motorcycle. Car dealer Osama Fadhil Abbas was killed as he stepped from his
truck. Taxi driver Mahdi Sahib Nasir died when he was shot in the side. In a Monday press
conference, prosecutors noted that one man had been shot even as he held his
arms above his head in surrender. And a grenade allegedly launched by the
contractors had found its way into a nearby girls' school. Prosecutors allege that
there had been "no attempt to provide reasonable warnings" to those
who came under attack. "Iraqi citizens were
going to lunch, stopping at the market, traveling with their families and
children," said Joseph Persichini Jr., FBI assistant director-in-charge
at the bureau's Washington Field Office, which led the investigation.
"The individuals charged today displayed a blatant disregard for the
core values of the United States Constitution and failed to adhere to the
rule of law and the respect for human life." In the heat of passion »
There is little, yet, with which to reconcile the dueling emerging pictures
of Ball and the other defendants. In court Monday afternoon,
attorneys noted that Ball and two others suffered from post-traumatic stress
as a result of earlier combat tours in Iraq - though no specific motive has
been alleged other than as an explanation for the charge of manslaughter,
rather than murder. "The charge that we've
levied … is voluntary manslaughter," Rowan explained. "This is an
unlawful killing upon sudden quarrel or heat of passion." Inherent in that charge,
Rowan said, was an acknowledgement that "there may be mitigating
circumstances surrounding the offense … that the offense occurred in a
difficult situation." "We take no pleasure in
charging individuals whose job was to protect Americans," added Jeffrey
Taylor, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. But, the prosecutors said,
none of that excuses what happened in Nisoor Square. As such, Persichini said,
the accused men "must be held accountable for their actions, not just
for the integrity of the American people but for the Iraqi men, women and
children whose lives have been destroyed." But for some the answers are
not so simple as finding someone to blame. A deadly balance Slipping into the back of
the courtroom on Monday afternoon was a tall woman with curly blond hair and
a solemn expression on her face. Carol Thomas Young did not know
Ball or any of the other defendants. She does not know what happened in
Nisoor Square. But perhaps more than anyone in the courtroom, Young
understands the life and death decisions that security contractors in Iraq
are forced to make. It has been three and a half
years since Young's son, 27-year-old security contractor Brandon Thomas, was
killed in Baghdad when a suicide car bomber plowed into his truck in a
crowded Baghdad intersection. And not a week goes by in which Young doesn't
question whether her son's life might have been spared if different decisions
had been made on that day. Young said her son sometimes
complained about the posture taken by some of Blackwater's contractors. "They had tactics that
were a little more aggressive than what he thought was best," she said.
"But what can I say about that? He was killed and they came home." Young was saddened by what
is already being said about the accused contractors. She winces at words like
"mercenary" and sighs over those whose verdict, long before a jury
hears the case, is "baby killer." She knows that some would
express similar sentiments about her son, too. "I don't know what
happened in this case," said Thomas Young, a former U.S. marshal who
acknowledged the possibility that the men may indeed have acted criminally.
"But I know the men who do this work. They don't go over there looking
to stir up trouble. Trouble finds them." And sometimes, she said, it
costs them their lives. Julia Lyon, Nate Carlisle,
Jason Bergreen and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report. The
Washington Post and The Associated Press contributed to this story. External link: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11167662 Family,
friends say manslaughter accusations don’t fit with Ball's character By Julia Lyon, Jason Bergreen & Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune March 23, 2009 Editor's note: This story
originally ran Dec. 11, 2008. Manslaughter charges filed
this week against a Utah man who took part in a deadly incident in Baghdad
last year have come as a shock to friends, colleagues and family members. They describe accused
security contractor Donald Ball - a former U.S. Marine with aims to become a
police officer - as a calm, compassionate and honorable man. The 26-year-old's co-workers
at the Salt Lake City Justice Courts, where he works as a security officer,
were dumbfounded by the charges of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter
levied Monday. They say Ball is a man of unquestionable integrity who could
not have intentionally killed an innocent person. "I'd have him on my
side at any time," said Angie Oldham, a security officer at the court
who is also a classmate of Ball's at the police academy at Salt Lake
Community College. Deputy Terry Thomas, who
trained Ball for his duties at the court, called Ball "an upstanding
young man." Thomas observed Ball on the
job and saw him remain calm under stress, never raising his voice. The
charges didn't make sense, Thomas said. "There's no way you
take four or five guys, highly trained - they're not going to open fire
unprovoked on a crowd of civilians," said Thomas, who was one of the law
enforcement responders at the Trolley Square shootings. "It's sad to see
guys like that who sacrificed their time, put their lives on the line every
day to fight for the people of Iraq ..." he said. Oldham finished his
sentence. "They get the shaft," she said. Ball grew up fishing with
his father and was an Eagle Scout. He went to school in Kearns and Holladay,
and helped care for his mother and siblings after his father passed away of a
heart attack in 1999. He graduated in 2001 from
Cottonwood High School, where he lettered in track and cross country. Ryan Murrell ran on the
boy's cross country team with Ball when they were both juniors. Murrell said
his brother sent him a text message on Sunday before church telling him about
Ball's legal tangles. Murrell, who said he hung
out with Ball in high school, remembered him as a kind, funny and outgoing
student who had a good reputation, but was not overly popular. "He was always one to
crack a joke here and there," Murrell said. Ball only ran cross country
for one year. "He wasn't that
quick," Murrell remembers. "He just did it because a couple of
people he hung out with did it. He just didn't have the endurance." What Ball did have, said his
older brother Troy, was an insatiable desire to serve his country. "All of his really good
buddies joined the military at the same time," Troy Ball said. But Troy Ball said that was
not the only reason his brother decided to serve. "We actually have a
long family history of military service," Troy Ball said, noting that
their grandfather was a paratrooper in World War II and their great
grandfather has served in World War I. "This was my brother's way of
honoring my father - by making a difference." Ball helped support his
family with his military paycheck. After he left the Marine Corps, and
shortly after he started with Blackwater, he bought a home for his mother in
West Valley City. Troy Ball said his brother
had a great amount of respect for the people of Iraq. "He always said
that they were people, just like us. They get up in the morning and they go
to work and they worry about their kids," Troy Ball said. "He
really felt as though he was helping to bring them freedom and an opportunity
to enjoy all the blessings that we as Americans have." Reporter Matthew D. LaPlante
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11173025 Brother says Utahn is
innocent in Iraq deaths By Lindsay Whitehurst The Salt Lake Tribune March 23, 2009 Editor’s note: This story
originally ran Dec. 7, 2008. Troy Ball said he knows his
brother Donald Ball is innocent of charges related to a 2007 shooting at a
traffic circle that left 17 Iraqis dead. "I'm very confident the
truth will come out. I believe he will be totally exonerated of all
charges," said Troy Ball, a 38-year-old Kearns resident and middle
school teacher. Donald Ball, 26, of West
Valley City, is one of five Blackwater Worldwide guards accused in the
shooting. Indictments against the five will be unsealed in a 1:30 p.m.
hearing Monday at the Salt Lake City federal courthouse, where all five are
expected to surrender to the FBI A decorated Marine, Donald
Ball had completed three tours of duty in Iraq when he decided to return as a
guard. He originally joined the U.S. Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, Troy Ball said, to honor their father after his 1999 death
of a heart attack. "It was his way of
making a difference in the world," Troy Ball said, calling his brother a
hard worker and Eagle Scout who had a great love for his country. After three tours of duty,
Ball returned to Iraq as a Blackwater guard. "He was doing what he
felt was right," he said. His brother viewed the U.S.
army as a liberating force, and respected the Iraqi people, Troy Ball said. Donald Ball grew up in Utah
with older brother Troy and three sisters. He is not married and has no
children, his brother said. His mother lives in the Salt Lake City area. The family is planning to
attend the guards' hearing Monday, as are several of Donald Ball's friends,
some of them fellow veterans. External link: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11165192 |