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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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January 4th,
2010 - Iraq Will File Lawsuits Against Blackwater |
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Iraq Will File
Lawsuits Against Blackwater By Missy Ryan Reuters January 4, 2010 Baghdad - Iraq said on
Monday it would launch lawsuits in U.S. and Iraqi courts against a U.S.
security firm accused in the 2007 killing of civilians in Baghdad, rejecting
a U.S. judge's decision to throw out charges. Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki "confirmed that the Iraqi government will undertake a lawsuit
in Iraq and the United States against American security company
Blackwater," his office said in a statement. The Iraqi government
"rejects the ruling issued by the American court acquitting the company
of the crime of killing a number of citizens," Maliki said. Last week, a U.S. federal
judge threw out charges against five guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi
civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in September 2007, saying the defendants'
constitutional rights had been violated. The Blackwater incident came
to symbolize for Iraqis what they saw as foreigners' disregard for their
lives after private guards protecting U.S. personnel were given immunity from
prosecution in Iraqi courts following the 2003 U.S. invasion. That immunity was lifted in
a bilateral agreement that came into effect from last year. It is not clear
how an Iraqi case against the guards, or Xe itself, would get around the
immunity that was in place in 2007. The Iraqi government called
the U.S. court ruling "unacceptable and unjust" and promised to
support a lawsuit in U.S. courts filed by victims of the shooting or their
relatives. The guards from Blackwater,
now called Xe Services, say they fired in self-defense in the incident, which
occurred during some of the worst sectarian violence in Iraq. But witnesses
and victims say the guards, escorting a heavily armed convoy through Baghdad
traffic, shot indiscriminately. The five guards were charged
in a U.S. federal court with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 of attempting to
commit manslaughter and one weapons violation. A sixth Blackwater guard
pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempting to commit
manslaughter, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The U.S. ruling comes at a
sensitive time for Iraqi politicians, trying to demonstrate their
independence from foreign influence and their security credentials ahead of
national polls in March. The U.S. State Department
has relied heavily on Blackwater since 2003 to protect diplomats and other
officials. But Iraq revoked the firm's license following the 2007 shooting. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6032CS20100104 Judge weighs
misconduct finding in Blackwater case By Matt Apuzzo Associated Press January 4, 2010 Washington - Prosecutors who
mishandled the investigation into a deadly 2007 Blackwater Worldwide shooting
face a possible misconduct citation from a judge who says they withheld
evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Ricardo
Urbina admonished the Justice Department last week for its
"reckless" handling of the investigation into a shooting that left
17 Iraqis dead. He threw out manslaughter and weapons charges against five
security guards and, in a footnote, said he was also considering whether the
repeated government missteps amounted to misconduct. Such a ruling would be an
embarrassing cap to a politically sensitive investigation and a black eye to
a department that is still dealing with the fallout from last year's botched
corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens. In that case, a judge wiped
away the senator's conviction and appointed a lawyer to investigate
prosecutors for withholding evidence from defense attorneys. If Urbina rules the
Blackwater prosecutors committed misconduct, it would touch off an internal
Justice Department investigation and could lead to sanctions against the
government or the individual prosecutors. Blackwater guards were hired
to protect diplomats in Iraq. The shooting unfolded in a crowded
intersection, where Blackwater said its guards were ambushed by Iraqi
insurgents. Prosecutors said the heavily armored Blackwater convoy used
machine guns and grenades to unleash a wild, unprovoked assault on innocent
civilians. The Blackwater case fell
apart because prosecutors built the investigation around State Department
interviews the guards gave immediately after the shooting. Under an agreement
commonly made following police shootings, the interviews were to be used only
for the State Department investigation, not for criminal prosecution. Urbina also cited
prosecutors for withholding evidence from the grand jury. For instance, after
a key witness told prosecutors he never saw Blackwater guard Donald Ball open
fire, prosecutors blacked out that statement before presenting it to the
grand jury. Grand jurors have the final say on whether to charge people. Prosecutors also withheld
the fact that four other Blackwater guards said they were attacked within
seconds of entering the intersection. A prosecutor told the judge he withheld
that evidence because he believed the witnesses were hostile to the government,
according to the court ruling. Ball's attorney, Steven
McCool, asked for the misconduct ruling but would not comment Monday because
the request remains sealed. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd had no
comment. The five guards are Ball, a
former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from
Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick
Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.; and Paul Slough, an Army
veteran from Keller, Texas. © 2010 The Associated Press. External link: http://tinyurl.com/yzsftcj |