|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
January 7th,
2010 - 2 Ex-Blackwater Guards Charged in Afghan Killings News article from the Associated
Press News article from Agence France
Presse News article from the
Washington Post |
|
2 Ex-Blackwater
Guards Charged in Afghan Killings By Mike Baker & Devlin Barrett Associated Press January 7, 2010 Raleigh, N.C. - Two former
Blackwater contractors were arrested Thursday on murder charges in the
shootings of two Afghans after a traffic accident last year, according to a
federal indictment. The indictment unsealed
hours after the arrests charges Justin Cannon, 27, and Chris Drotleff, 29,
with second-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. FBI agents
arrested both of them without incident, said Peter Carr, a spokesman with the
U.S. attorney's office in Virginia's eastern district. Both men have told The
Associated Press that they were justified in opening fire on a car that
caused an accident in front of their vehicle, then turned and sped toward
them. The indictment says the shooting at a Kabul intersection killed two
people. At least one other person was injured. "I feel comfortable
firing my weapon any time I feel my life is in danger," Drotleff said in
a recent interview. "That night, my life was 100 percent in
danger." Drotleff made a first court
appearance Thursday afternoon and requested an attorney to be appointed. He
was ordered held until a detention hearing next week. Officials said Cannon
made an initial appearance in Texas. The arrests came a day after
Xe, the North Carolina-based company formerly known as Blackwater, settled a
series of federal lawsuits alleging that illegal activity by the company led
to the deaths of dozens of Iraqis. Those killings and other problems in Iraq
have strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and led to the U.S.
government's push to increase oversight of contractors in war zones. U.S. officials have
struggled to demonstrate that they have both the legal grounds and political
fortitude to hold contractors accountable. Several Blackwater contractors had
been charged with 14 counts of manslaughter for their role in a 2007 shooting
in Baghdad's Nisoor Square, but a judge dropped those charges last week. In another case, federal
prosecutors have told a Seattle attorney they intend to charge another
Blackwater contractor in the killing of an Iraqi guard in 2006. The killings were among the
violence cited by the lawsuits, which accused the company of cultivating a
reckless culture that allowed innocent civilians to be killed. Plaintiffs'
lawyers filed a motion late Wednesday requesting the seven lawsuits be
dismissed after the settlement was reached. The company said it was
pleased with the settlement and ready to move on, declining to release its
full terms. Xe declined to comment on Thursday's indictment other than to say
that the men were fired and that the company "immediately and fully
cooperated with the government's investigation." Cannon, of Corpus Christi,
Texas., and Drotleff, of Virginia Beach, Va., were among four contractors
fired after the shooting for failing to comply with the terms of their
contract with Paravant, a Xe subsidiary. Steve McClain, another
former contractor who was with Cannon and Drotleff during the shootings, told
the AP he spent about 90 minutes before a Virginia grand jury this week
detailing his recollections of what happened. Cannon, Drotleff and McClain
said in separate interviews with the AP over the past month that they were
driving along a Kabul road on the night of May 5 when a speeding car slammed
into the first vehicle of their convoy, causing it to flip. Cannon and Drotleff were
traveling in another vehicle and got out to help. They both said the car that
caused the accident turned and started speeding toward them. Fearing for
their lives, both opened fire, with Drotleff emptying a 16-round clip. Cannon
was unsure how many shots were fired. "My conscience is clear
about it, but that doesn't really matter," Cannon said. "If
someone's got an agenda, then there's nothing I can do about it." The former workers
complained that Blackwater tried to make them scapegoats. They said the
company armed some of its workers in Afghanistan despite U.S. military
documents that prohibited them from carrying guns. The contractors were in
Kabul to help train the Afghan National Army. McClain's termination letter
from Blackwater cited violation of alcohol policy, and he said that topic was
one focus of grand jury questioning. "I wasn't drinking and
I didn't witness (any of the other contractors) drinking that day," said
McClain, 25, of California. A fourth contractor at the
scene, Amando Hamid, did not return messages seeking comment. Barrett reported from
Washington. © 2010 The Associated Press. External link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AFGHAN_CONTRACTOR_SHOOTING Two
ex-Blackwater staff charged with Afghan murders From Agence France Presse January 7, 2010 Washington - Two former
Blackwater employees have been charged with the murder of two Afghans in
Kabul last year and could face the death penalty, the Justice Department said
Thursday. Justin Cannon, 27, of Corpus
Christi, Texas, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, of Virginia Beach, Virginia,
have been charged with second-degree murder following the shooting deaths of
the two Afghan nationals. They were also charged with
attempted murder, after a third person was wounded in the Kabul incident on
May 5, when Cannon and Drotleff were working as contractors for the Department
of Defense in Afghanistan. Both men, who had provided
training to the Afghan army in using and maintaining weapons systems, were
arrested Thursday after the 13-count grand jury indictment, the statement
added. They face a total of eight
charges each, including knowingly discharging a firearm to commit a crime. Blackwater, a private
security firm which has changed its name to Xe following a series of
highly-publicized controversies in Iraq, is headquartered in North Carolina.
The two men were employed by Paravant LLC which is a subsidiary of Xe. The Department of Justice
said the incident that led to the charges occurred at the intersection of two
roads in the Afghan capital. The two men who were shot
dead were identified as Rahib Mirza Mohammad (also known as Rahib Helaludin)
and Romal Mohammad Naiem. But there were few other details of what had
happened. Blackwater was once among
the largest security firms operating in Iraq after the US-led invasion of
2003. One week ago, a federal
judge dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards
accused of fatally shooting 14 people in Baghdad in September 2007. Judge Ricardo Urbina said
prosecutors violated the defendants' rights by using incriminating statements
they had made under immunity during a State Department probe to build their
case. Blackwater first came under
scrutiny on March 31, 2004, when four of its employees were killed by an
angry mob in Fallujah, then a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold. On September 16, 2007,
Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons while escorting an
American diplomatic convoy through Baghdad's Nisur Square. Blackwater said
their guards had come under attack. US media further reported
this week that two Xe contractors had been among eight people killed in a
suicide bombing at Khost base, in eastern Afghanistan, last week. The reports pointed to a
continued close relationship between the CIA and Blackwater. The firm is believed to have
participated in programs to kill top Al-Qaeda terrorists in 2004, and CIA
"snatch and grab" missions to capture or kill insurgents in Iraq
and Afghanistan. But the Central Intelligence
Agency had appeared to distance itself from the firm in recent years. Copyright © 2010 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gntFhrO9W2QS8cd-OUJinP29VAVA Two defense
contractors indicted in shooting of Afghan citizens By Jerry Markon Washington Post January 7, 2010 Two defense contractors
working for a subsidiary of the former Blackwater Worldwide were charged
today with shooting and killing two Afghan citizens in Kabul and wounding a
third, the latest legal blow for the embattled company, prosecutors said
Thursday. Justin Cannon, 27, and
Christopher Drotleff, 29, were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in
Norfolk on charges including second-degree murder, attempted murder and
firearms offenses. The indictment was unsealed Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors said Cannon, of
Corpus Christi, Tex., and Drotleff, of Virginia Beach, shot the three Afghan
nationals near Jalalabad and Mosque roads in Kabul on May 3. At the time, the
two men were Defense Department contractors working for Paravant LLC, a
subsidiary of Xe Services LLC, as the former Blackwater is now known. Further
details of the shootings were not immediately available. Court documents said the two
men were training the Afghan National Army in the use and maintenance of
weapons and weapons systems. Paravant was a subcontractor to the main
Pentagon contractor, Raytheon Technical Services Co. LLC. The charges are another
legal black eye for the former Blackwater, which has been under fire for a
string of incidents in which its heavily armed guards have been accused of
using excessive force overseas. They followed a rare piece of good news: A
federal judge in the District dismissed criminal charges last week against
five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi citizens in a
shooting in a busy Baghdad square three years ago. The judge also sharply
criticized the tactics of Justice Department prosecutors handling the case. The controversy over
Blackwater's tactics has focused on the company's actions during the Iraq
war, where the North Carolina firm has provided security under a lucrative
State Department contract. Thursday marked the first time employees of a
Blackwater-affiliated company have been charged for their actions during the
war in Afghanistan. Mark Corallo, an Xe
spokesman, said the company "immediately and fully cooperated with the
government's investigation of this tragic incident and terminated the
individuals involved for violating company policy." He said the company
would not comment further. The charges were unveiled
Thursday, soon after a federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against
the former Blackwater over the deaths of Iraqi civilians. U.S. District Judge T.S.
Ellis III in Alexandria acted after attorneys for about 70 Iraqis who sued Xe
affirmed that every plaintiff had signed onto a financial settlement the
plaintiffs originally reached with the company in November. The settlement
almost collapsed when plaintiffs' attorneys tried to withdraw it, saying
several Iraqi plaintiffs had not approved the agreement. They blamed a
translation error. "We are pleased that
the original settlement has been affirmed by the plaintiffs,'' the company
and plaintiffs' attorneys said Thursday in a joint statement. "This
enables Xe's new management to move the company forward free of the costs and
distraction of ongoing litigation, and provides some compensation to Iraqi
families." The September 2007 shooting,
in which criminal charges were dismissed last week, also was a centerpiece of
the civil lawsuit, which cited the incident and other shootings to accuse the
company of "lawless behavior.'' Plaintiffs' attorneys singled out Erik
Prince - the company's founder and a former Navy SEAL - for blame, saying he
deliberately caused the deaths of more than 20 Iraqis between 2005 and 2007. Attorneys for the former
Blackwater denied the allegations against Prince, and Ellis had voiced deep
skepticism about them at a hearing in August. In November, the judge ordered
a hearing into the collapse of the settlement, saying he hoped the deal would
survive. © 2010 The Washington Post
Company
|