blackwater mercenaries massacre

The Machiavellian plan of NATOs military strategists is to establish refugee settlements with the humanitarian assistance in the border regions of Ukraines neighboring countries Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, and then provide guerrilla warfare training and lethal arms to all able-bodied men of military age in order to bleed Russias security forces in the protracted irregular warfare. Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. She turned the location into an exotic bookstore and caf, offering erotica readings, among other licentious pastimes. In addition to the Kinani family, I represented five other families and victims. Blackwater has been renamed and falls under the Constellis group of companies, a risk management business formed in 2010. What takes place doesnt mention Russian soldiers but others preventing citizens from escaping. [43], The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, in a document last updated on July 3, 2007, listed Blackwater as not having a license to operate in Iraq despite their attempts to apply for one. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. When he arrived at the hospital, it was a war zone. Former Blackwater guards sentenced for massacre of unarmed Iraqi The committee was co-chaired by Abd al Qadir, the Iraqi Minister of Defense, and Patricia A. Butenis, the Charg d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. Family members of Iraqis killed by Blackwater contractors condemn In the sheer desperation to inflict maximum material damage to Russias security forces, however, NATO appears to have breached its own long-standing convention of curbing the proliferation of anti-aircraft munitions. The U.S. legal system, a pillar of fairness in the world, had worked. A. They claimed they were fired on, but. Blackwater Worldwide - The New York Times [32] In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men, who communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. "Today we were surprised that the American president issued a decision to pardon these criminals, murderers and thugs," Salman said, speaking from Baghdad. Survivors and victims' relatives of a 2007 shooting in Iraq by Blackwater contractors meet with United States prosecutors in Baghdad in 2008. Of the $10 billion humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine announced by the Biden administration, the top brass of the Pentagon is reportedly making preparations for allocating a significant portion of the funds for providing military training and arms to almost a million refugees who have fled Ukraine following the war. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . The pardons have reduced American talk of human rights to mere "slogans," he said, adding, "They prefer animals over humans, and then they talk about human rights, justice and humanity. Mohammed knew his sons injuries were fatal, but he had to try. Blackwater mercenaries sentenced for 2007 Iraq massacre "I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.". Blackwater Mercenaries Filmed on a Rampage in Iraq & Shooting Civilians Again, the result was the civil legal system exhausting every defense afforded to Blackwater and the men. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.. [23]:32 Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more. Trump's pardon of mercenaries guilty of massacre in Iraq leads to [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. The U.S. remains one of the notable holdouts of the 2001 UN treaty known in full as the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries and it is unlikely we will ever join. Why Is Assange in Jail and Not Seymour Hersh? This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another Kastigar violation. [12] The U.S. State Department has said that "innocent life was lost",[13] and according to The Washington Post, a military report appeared to corroborate "the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault". I commented when the convictions were first brought that I was certain my clients who were still residents of Iraq were pleased to know that justice had been served. [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? [14], On October 13, 2007, the FBI reported that it had concluded that at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis who died in the square had been killed without cause. Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? The news shows the helicopter falling to the ground as it burns. They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors said the Blackwater guards opened fire first. Then-Vice President Joe Biden held a press conference to tell the citizens of Iraq that they would not be abandoned. When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. 15 years after US Blackwater mercenaries massacred civilians in Baghdad A former private military guard has been convicted of first degree murder by a court in Washington after taking part in a mass killing of unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007. AP Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. Video of the aftermath includes an image of a human brain on the road in Nisour Square. In his testimony, Prince noted that, "It seems the ballistics analysis was done to prove the guilt of the Americans, not to just try to identify what happened there." [101][102] The Iraqi Foreign Ministry urged the United States to reconsider, declaring the pardons "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed".[103]. They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. The fire has since been extinguished after the plant was captured by Russian troops and no radiation leakage has been detected. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad. Our civil case resulted in a resolution that was acceptable to the parties. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times - YouTube The Kia continued to roll forward after the driver was killed, according to an eyewitness, and Raven 23 continued to fire on it, killing the passenger (the driver's mother); eventually, the Kia was struck by a grenade and was incinerated. Mohammed would look to see what was happening. "The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. He was shot while seated in a public bus. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. Each step of the way, the U.S. legal system ensured that these men were given fair and just prosecutions. The US government said in a memorandum filed after the sentencing: None of the victims was an insurgent, or posed any threat to the Raven 23 convoy. The memorandum also contained quotations from relatives of the dead, including Mohammad Kinani, whose nine-year-old son Ali was killed. Despite having immense firepower at its disposal that could readily turn the tide in conflicts as protracted as Syrias proxy war, the Russian advance in Ukraine has been slower than expected according to most estimates because Russia is only targeting military infrastructure and doing all it can to minimize collateral damage, particularly needless civilian losses in the former Soviet republic whose majority population is sympathetic to Russia. Lead FBI investigator in Blackwater case likens Iraq massacre to My Lai [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. He saw the man next to him run. Everything was eerily quiet. U.S. troops were coming under fire in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities from the resistance forces. Russian Forces strike Ukrainian Armys Electronic Intelligence Center in Kiev Region. A 20,000-strong mercenary army is being assembled in Poland. The My Lai massacre took place on 16 March 1968. [37][38] The incident caused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater USA,[39] and for the Iraqi government to push for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". The result of the long legal battle is that each man was ensured a fair trial, free of partiality and without unjust favor. His sister was safe. Machine gunfire tore through his body. ", Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics, Jasem Mohammed Hashem, who was working as a police officer when he was shot in the head in the attack, was also disappointed by Trump's decision to free the men who, he said, "opened fire randomly at the citizens.". [37], Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held hearings on the use of Private Security Contractors in February 2007, said his committee would hold hearings "to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests". "This incident motivated the Iraqi authorities to seek the withdrawal of American troops from the country. Blackwater is an American private military company . Three Ex-Blackwater Guards Are Resentenced in Iraq War Massacre The men will serve about half of their original 30-year sentences for their roles in a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq . Not a one! The hospital was too busy. Now justice has been undone by the stroke of a pen," Sarah Holewinski, the organization's Washington director, said in a statement. I was thinking the same thing about the Chechens a few days ago. [89][90][91] The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's fractured per curiam decision first found that Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act authorized the prosecutions, over the partial dissent of Judge Janice Rogers Brown. Abraham Al Mafrage was a 70-year-old farmer and father of seven who was also shot in the head and died that day. Despite losing the empire in the nineties, as far as military power is concerned, Russia with its enormous arsenal of conventional as well as nuclear weapons still more or less equals the military power of the United States, as is obvious from the unfolding Ukraine war where all the NATO could do is watch it from distance, and not even attempting to enforce a no-fly zone lest the conflict spirals into a mutually destructive nuclear war. That wasnt unusual. Five were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, New Hampshire; Nicholas Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tennessee, and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas. Trumps pardon of the Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 14 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square shows the world what justice means in the United States. The headrest next to him where his sister sat had a bullet hole through it. Before. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. He lay in the hallway for an hour before he died. First ones from 16,000. Following Russias intervention in Ukraine, Germany alone hasproudly bragged[4] of dispatching caches of 500 US-made surface-to-air Stinger missiles and 2,700 Soviet-era, shoulder-fired Strelamissiles to Ukraines conscript military. Blackwater and the Corporate Mercenaries who've - NationofChange After the convictions, Blackwater which changed its name to Xe and then Academi after being sold said it was relieved that the justice system has completed its investigation into a tragedy that occurred at Nisour Square in 2007 and that any wrongdoing that was carried out has been addressed by our courts. No wonder Russia formally issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, March 1, that it would target the hub of covert warfare. Extending the hand of friendship, Russia significantly drawdown its forces along the western border before the summit last year. In his meetings with the high-ups in the US national security agencies, Erik Prince reportedly obtained a gentlemans promise, though without any documentary assurances due to the secretive nature of the Faustian pact, that he and his associates would not be held legally liable for the dirty work they do in the Ukraine proxy war. Blackwater mercenary Nicholas Slatten sentenced to life in prison for Mahde Shamke was 25 years old and driving a taxi to support his parents and siblings. LONDON and BAGHDAD -- When news broke that Mohammed Kinani's son's killers, Blackwater private military contractors hired by the U.S. government in Baghdad, were pardoned Wednesday by President Trump, Kinani said it was like losing his 9-year-old boy all over again. And afterward, Iraqi citizens wanted to ensure that those who had done this were held responsible. Baghdad massacre: US court finds ex-Blackwater mercenary guilty of 15 years after US Blackwater mercenaries massacred civilians in Baghdad But he knew he was surviving as he kept yelling for the children in the back of his SUV to stay down. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each. Adela Sulimanis a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. Further, besides advising and assisting the UAEs petro-monarchy in strengthening the police state, Erik Prince alsoreportedly provided[3] weapons and modified aircraft to eastern Libyas warlord and former CIA asset Khalifa Haftar, backed by Egypt and UAE, in his thwarted military campaign against the Tripoli government lasting from April 2019 to June 2020. Trump's pardon of Blackwater contractors convicted of massacre greeted The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. Nicholas Slatten, 35, was a former security guard at the private US military firm Blackwater and was based in Baghdad. Mohammed forced a doctor to look at Ali. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police". Because any state, particularly those pursuing socialist policies, that dares to challenge the Western monopoly over global trade and economic policies is internationally isolated and its national economy goes bankrupt over a period of time. The Blackwater guards included Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other . [100] UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said that forgiveness "contributes to impunity and has the effect of encouraging others to commit such crimes in the future". It wasnt unusual for regular U.S. Army convoys to stop traffic. - Asser Institute (Decision Date: 31 December 2009)", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges", "Blackwater guards face new U.S. charges for Iraq shooting deaths", "Legal questions loom in Blackwater convictions", "Blackwater guards found guilty in Iraq shootings", "Emails Reveal Discord Over Blackwater Charges", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Sentenced to Long Prison Terms in 2007 Killings of Iraqi Civilians", "U.S. Appeals Court Tosses Ex-Blackwater Guard's Conviction in 2007 Baghdad Massacre", "Murder conviction in Blackwater case thrown out, other sentences overturned", "In Blackwater Case, Court Rejects a Murder Conviction and Voids 3 Sentences", Recent Case: D.C. It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. Volodymyr Zelenskyreassured his compatriots[2] yesterday: Ukraine is already welcoming foreign volunteers who are coming to our country. [59] (The Protocol makes no distinction between defensive and offensive actions, but the U.S. does make such a distinction, in that it does not regard defensive actions by security guards to be combat. [40], On October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against Blackwater USA under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of an injured Iraqi and the families of three of the seventeen Iraqis who were killed by Blackwater employees during the September 16, 2007, shooting incident. That notion has now been shown to be false, Dickinson says. His domains of expertise include neocolonialism, military-industrial complex, and petro-imperialism. When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. [37], Blackwater, which had been operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license, applied for one after the incident, but the application was rejected by Iraqi officials in January 2009. [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop. Mohammed quickly got out of the car and saw blood inside the rear window. Iraqi authorities say 17 people were killed; the Department of Justice has said the total was 14. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. He suffered from his wounds for over a year until he died from a brain injury. Depicting a doomsday scenario in order to malign Russias calculated offensive in Ukraine to minimize collateral damage, mainstream reporting focused today on thefire that broke out [1] at Zaporizhzhia plant, one of Europes largest nuclear power plants situated 550 km southeast of Kyiv. In 2013, Academi subsidiary International Development Solutions received an approximately $92million contract for State Department security guards. He was left with shrapnel in his body from the rocket launched grenade that was fired into his vehicle as he escaped. President Donald Trump pardoned four former Blackwater mercenaries on Tuesday who had been convicted for their role in the Nisour Square massacre that left 14 people dead in Baghdad in 2007. Its worth recalling that before the Biden-Putin summit at Geneva last June, Russia had a similar troop build-up along Ukraines borders. Each time the criminal charges were seemed lost, the U.S. Department of Justice told them they were not forgotten that we would continue to pursue the convictions of those who committed the crimes against them. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". They beat citizens and scorn them. The American judiciary is fair and equitable. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? An initial prosecution was thrown out by a federal judge sparking outrage in Iraq but the then vice-president, Joe Biden, promised to pursue a fresh prosecution, which succeeded in 2015. He was in the car next to Mohammed. When Mohammed saw the convoy enter the traffic circle, he initially thought they were regular U.S. Army members. Trump Pardons Blackwater Contractors Who Killed Iraqis His mother also suffered a stroke, he added. Associated Press WASHINGTON Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards were convicted and immediately jailed Wednesday for their roles in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisour Square. Justice Blackwater mercenary sentenced to life in prison On Wednesday, Slatten was sentenced to life in federal prison for initiating a massacre that left 14 Iraqi civilians dead. Four Blackwater security guards convicted in 2014 of carrying out a massacre of Iraqi civilians, sparking an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war . On Tuesday, President Trump pardoned 15 people, including Dustin Heard (from left), Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough, the four former government contractors convicted for a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more than a dozen Iraqi civilians dead. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the most prominent events of the US-Iraq conflict, raising doubts about America's true intentions in the region. Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. Dickinson says the great expense that the FBI put into the prosecution of the case has now come to nothing. That may be the overriding damage caused by these pardons. Trump's pardon of Blackwater 'Four' highlights deep divisions over Iraq

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