Free shipping for many products! "This incident motivated the Iraqi authorities to seek the withdrawal of American troops from the country. Then one of his sisters children said that Ali was hurt. About the author:Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based geopolitical and national security analyst focused on geostrategic affairs and hybrid warfare in the Af-Pak and the Middle East regions. [18][30] Iraqi investigators also alleged that Blackwater helicopters fired into the cars from the air, as at least one car had bullet holes in its roof; Blackwater has denied any of its aerial units discharged weapons. Spring flowers are planted in Nisour Square, the site of a deadly shootout by Blackwater private security contractors in 2007, in Baghdad on April 15, 2015. Not a one! [38] Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors. The black-op of setting a building in the sprawling nuclear complex alight and then posting doctored video clips of Russian tanks shelling straight at the nuclear plant on social media, promptly verified as authentic by corporate media, was clearly the dirty work of covert saboteurs whove been advising and assisting Ukraines inept security forces and also taking an active part in combat operations in some of the hardest fought battles against Russias security forces north of Kyiv and at Kharkiv and Donbas. Joining is simple and doesnt need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. The White House further stated that the Court of Appeals "ruled that additional evidence should have been presented at Mr Slatten's trial", and recently that prosecutors said "that the lead Iraqi investigator, who prosecutors relied heavily on to verify that there were no insurgent victims and to collect evidence, may have had ties to insurgent groups himself". Ali was slumped over against the glass. The result of the long legal battle is that each man was ensured a fair trial, free of partiality and without unjust favor. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. [72] A sixth Blackwater guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, struck a deal with prosecutors on December 4, 2008 and pleaded guilty to one count each of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and aiding and abetting,[72][3] and agreed to testify against the other five men. He received poor treatment because his injuries were less life threatening, but he was left with a disfigured and useless arm. [1] Russian forces seize huge Ukrainian nuclear plant, fire extinguisher: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/top-wrap-1-europes-largest-nuclear-power-plant-fire-after-russian-attack-mayor-2022-03-04/. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. "Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families," said Jelena Aparac, Chair . Nicky Woolf in New York. Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) March 1, 2022. He was shot through the back with a massive exit wound in his chest. [8][98] A White House statement said the men had a "long history of service to the nation" as veterans of the US Armed Forces, and that there was strong support for the pardons from the public and elected officials. He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad. "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. However, after "Raven 23" entered Nisour Square, Watson was ordered to "lock down the traffic circle to expedite the travel of [the other Blackwater team]". ", 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.". [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. Dec. 24, 2020 Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani with a photo of his 9-year-old son, Ali, who was killed by Blackwater. They started out as a private security firm providing training support to law enforcement, the justice department, and military organizations and received their first contract from the United States government in 2000 after the bombing of the USS Cole. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. FBI scientists couldn't match bullets from the square to guns carried by the Blackwater guards and FBI investigators found foreign cartridge cases of a kind not used by U.S. or Blackwater personnel. Boslego also said the attack had a negative effect on our mission, [an] adverse effect It made our relationship with the Iraqis in general more strained.. The Blackwater mess has roiled Capitol Hill and shined light on the many questions surrounding the legal status, management, oversight and accountability of the private military force in Iraq,. [17], Just before noon on September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where US and Iraqi officials were meeting,[20]:547 and a 19-man Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST) consisting of a convoy of four trucks, answering to the call sign "Raven 23", took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the US officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them. I felt I had done that, and I knew the prosecutors were doing that. Nasser, who attended the 2014 trial in the United States, said his brother's death had broken his father's heart. 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. Majid Al Kareem was 51 years old when he was shot. [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. [6][85][86] Jurors sided with prosecutors' contention that the shooting was a criminal act, not a battlefield encounter gone wrong. Four Blackwater operatives were found guilty one of murder in a 2007 Baghdad massacre. Everything was eerily quiet. Among his clients were the parents of a 9-year-old boy who was killed as he sat in the back of his father's car. 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. They would turn Blackwater into roadkill. [29] Several sources have stated that the explosion was caused by a mortar round, though this is not reflected in the State Department's incident report. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. In 2014, four former government contractors who worked for Blackwater Worldwide, a security firm founded by Erik Prince an ally of Trump and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were convicted in federal court in Washington in connection with the killings. The Blackwater guards were firing indiscriminately. After capturing Kherson yesterday, Russian forces even apprehended several suspicious and armed foreign nationals who are currently being interrogated by Russias military intelligence GRU. "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. Why did it happen? [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. I sued Blackwater, its founder Erik Prince, and the four men who were convicted of murder, manslaughter, or weapons charges in a civil lawsuit filed in North Carolina, the home of Blackwaters headquarters and training facility in Moyock. . 3", is named Paul Slough. We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. Before embarking on the clandestine Kyiv visit, Erik Prince consulted with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director National Intelligence Avril Haines, with whom his relationship goes a long way the back to the early nineties after she purchased a bar in Fells Point, Baltimore, which had been seized in a drug raid. [28] Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter charges, and of using a machine gun to commit a violent crime. [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". But its the much more subtle and insidious tactic of economic warfare for which Russia has no antidote, as the global neocolonial order is being led by the United States and its Western European clients since the signing of the Bretton Woods Accord in 1945 following the Second World War. Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough and Devin Heard were convicted on charges of first-degree murder and manslaughter by a federal jury in October 2014. Luckily, before his SUV was attacked, Mohammed, his sister, and their children had time to duck into the car. Mohammed forced a doctor to look at Ali. He was driving on flat tires and with a shattered windshield. First ones from 16,000. [28] TST 22 arrived at Nisour Square after Raven 23 had left; when TST 22 tried to withdraw, its route was blocked by Iraqi Army and Police vehicles. When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . What Is Blackwater? [40] The US House passed a bill, titled the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". The Iraqi government and Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul stated that the killings were unprovoked. Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. [54] He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. It was chaotic. Victims were everywhere. The Iraqi government condemned the pardons, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying in a statement late on Wednesday that it would follow up with the U.S. through diplomatic channels to urge a reconsideration. It wasnt unusual for regular U.S. Army convoys to stop traffic. 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. 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. When Mohammed opened the door, his son fell toward him as his skull opened and a large part of Alis brain fell onto the pavement between his fathers feet. [64], US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before Congress that the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors, but that commanders lack sufficient "means and resources" to exercise adequate oversight. [89][90][91] The panel also recommended that Slatten undergo a re-trial on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. Why Is Assange in Jail and Not Seymour Hersh? [19] A Blackwater spokeswoman responded to the findings by saying Blackwater "supports the stringent accountability of the industry. He was shot in the abdomen. Donald Trump has pardoned the four contractors jailed over the killing of 14 civilians. Prince strongly criticized the way in which federal authorities had handled the investigation and disputed the claims that U.S. or Blackwater personnel were to blame for the shootings. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. The traffic circle, Nisour Square, was only a block away from one of the main entrance gates to Baghdads Green Zone. Mohammed was a businessman dealing in auto salvage. [19] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. As many as 504 children, women and older men were killed by a US infantry company, members of which also raped numerous women and girls.
Most Valuable 1991 Topps Baseball Cards, Rooftop Proposal New Orleans, Unturned Best Vehicle For Storage, Articles B