An Iraqi man who survived an infamous massacre of unarmed civilians by American security guards in Baghdad has condemned President Donald Trump's decision to pardon the men as "unjust . [80], On April 22, 2011, after closed-door testimony, a federal appeals-court panel revived the Justice Department's prosecution of the former Blackwater Worldwide guards by reinstating the manslaughter charges against the five men. He documented what was left of his brother's car. Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. It was funded with millions that Prince inherited from the . Share this via Twitter Then the mother was shot dead before his eyes. [70] A second civil lawsuit filed jointly by the families of six victims against Blackwater was settled on January 6, 2012 for an undisclosed sum. The incident led to at least five investigations and although the Blackwater guards repeatedly claimed that their actions were justified, several of them came to the opposite conclusion. UN criticises Trump's pardons for Blackwater guards jailed over Iraq After it was added, defense attorneys contended a 30-year sentence would be too severe, since the law was intended to deter gang members from carrying automatic weapons. Despite the reports and investigations that determined that the use of force was unjustified, the Blackwater guards maintain that they'd "never take an innocent life. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. Donald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war. And Blackwater didn't make the investigation easy. US prosecutors are now reportedly trying to build a case against those involved in the Sept. 16 shootings. The State Department has offered family members $10,000 for those killed in the Sept. 16 shootings -- an amount most consider insultingly low and have refused. [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. In addition, the vehicles that were meant to protect diplomats were "poorly maintained," and during one party, four drunk Blackwater guards had crashed a $180,000 armored vehicle into a concrete barrier. In August 2019, Slatten was once more sentenced to life in prison without parole, Al Jazeera reports. Film Based on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince in the Works The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under international law; however, the United States is not a signatory of the 1989 UN Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries. Share this via Printer. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. At the sentencing, the US attorneys office said in a statement: The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants criminal conduct on 16 September 2007 is staggering., After news of the pardon emerged on Tuesday night, Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for one of the four pardoned Blackwater defendants, said: Paul Slough and his colleagues didnt deserve to spend one minute in prison. The shooting then turned heavier, Khalaf said, his eyes red-brimmed and serious. Haythem, the composed, articulate and powerfully calm father and husband of Ahmed and Mohasin, who died in the white car, expected them to pick him up at the health center where he worked that afternoon. He ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood. A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. He hid behind the police traffic booth, but shots came directly at him, hitting the adjacent traffic light and booth's door, and he fled back across Yarmouk road to safety behind a hill. Five independent UN experts condemned United States President Donald Trump's pardoning of private security contractors, convicted in 2015 for war crimes in Iraq, on Wednesday. "Everyone loved him. Join our movement today. The four guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital. FRANKLIN, Tenn., Aug. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- After thirteen years of political persecution and wrongful imprisonment, four U.S. veterans reunited last Christmas with their loyal families upon. A burnt car at the site where Blackwater guards opened fire on a crowd in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007. If successful, it will be the first time the US government has held private security contractors criminally liable for abusive behavior directed at Iraqis. Around this time, another Blackwater team of 15 guards known as Raven 23 headed out of the International Zone to offer support, despite the fact that, according to United States v. Slough, they were given an order "not to leave the Green Zone [also known as International Zone]." Two days after the meeting with Carroll, Richter and Thomas were told by an embassy official to "leave Iraq immediately.". In fact, they even renewed the contract in 2008. [26][27] A U.S. Army convoy arrived at 12:39p.m., backed by air cover, to escort TST 22 back to the Green Zone. Haythem Ahmed was barely able to identify his son and his wife when he got to the scene, since their car had been completely burned. Black Water is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich. Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times The New York Times 4.26M subscribers 1.1M views 8 years ago In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American. Instead, it appears as though the massacre was started by a single bullet fired by Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater guard. [49], An Interior Ministry spokesman said Iraqi authorities had completed their investigation into the shooting and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. The private military company branched structure consisting of more than a dozen offices reporting the managing organization Xe Services. This time, only four out of the five guards were charged, since the charges against Ball were dropped based on "prosecutorial discretion. [14], On October 2, 2007, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report stating that Blackwater USA guards had used deadly force weekly in Iraq and had inflicted "significant casualties and property damage". They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. [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. [21]:116, During opening arguments for a criminal trial held in 2014, defense lawyers representing former Blackwater members of Raven 23 argued the men felt the approaching Kia was a credible threat as a possible car bomb, and opened fire in self-defense. An estimated 20,000 to 35,000 private security contractors operate in Iraq, without adequate oversight, without adequate training and without adequate legal sanctions to hold abusers accountable. A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! Other times, Blackwater guards left a trail of civilian casualties. We were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract." Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. Director Pasha Patriki Writers Chad Law Tyler W. Konney Richard Switzer Stars Jean-Claude Van Damme Dolph Lundgren Al Sapienza See production, box office & company info Watch on Freevee Watch Free on Freevee More watch options [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]. Around midday on September 16, 2007, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed and his mother Mohassin were driving to the hospital to pick up Ahmed's father, Haythem, who worked as a pathologist. Share this via Telegram Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. And after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Blackwater won a $25 million contract to provide security for L. Paul Bremer, an American diplomat who led the transitional government following the invasion. That lethal incident was a watershed moment that brought intense scrutiny to the problems caused by private contractors, which have effectively operated with impunity as they've brought violence and widespread ill will to US operations in Iraq. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. US pardons Blackwater guards: An 'affront to justice' - UN experts According to Tidings Media, one guard continued to shoot at unarmed civilians until another guard drew his own gun on him and threatened to shoot. ", Once their name was associated with the Nisour Square massacre, Blackwater ended up changing its name to Xe Services. Recent episodes in U.S. 1:08 'Look at That Thing': Footage Shows. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. When he got out of his car to find out what was happening, he saw the convoy and the white car burning, and started yelling at the other cars to turn around. [21][75] In the memorandum opinion, Judge Urbina ruled the cases against Slough, Liberty, Heard, Ball, and Slatten had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity;[76] that evidence included statements the guards had been compelled to give to State Department investigators, and as these statements would have been self-incriminating, they could not be used as evidence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. [54] He served one tour in Iraq before being hired as a Personal Security Specialist in Iraq. [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. Blackwater despite numerous scandals, congressional investigations, FBI probes and documented killings of civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan remained a central part of the Obama. However, according to The New York Times, the Iraqi government technically didn't have the legal authority to do so since the U.S.-led transitional government shielded security contractors from Iraqi laws, per CNN. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police".
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