[15] The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. US pardons Blackwater guards: An 'affront to justice' - UN experts Dec. 24, 2020 Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani with a photo of his 9-year-old son, Ali, who was killed by Blackwater. [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. FBI team leader: How I know the Blackwater defendants didn't - CNN 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. They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. [71], In December 2008, the United States Department of Justice announced it was filing criminal charges against five of the Blackwater employees, and ordered them to surrender to the FBI. Fifteen minutes later, the four-car convoy continued around the square and drove away. [66] Howard Krongard, who was appointed Inspector General of the U.S. State Department in 2005,[67] resigned in December 2007 after he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. He documented what was left of his brother's car. In other cases, investigations don't even get off the ground, because of lack of political will, limits in the extraterritorial reach of US criminal laws, and the absence of investigative units on the ground. The Burke O'Neil lawsuit may be the only way that victims receive compensation for their loss. As of 2021, their name is Academi after being taken over by an "unnamed group of private investors.". Circuit ordered for a new trial to be held, stating that Slatten should've had a separate trial. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". [99], Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. Khalaf's observations are backed up by official accounts, including leaked FBI findings, which concluded that at least 14 of the 17 shooting deaths were unjustified, and statements by military. Nisour Square massacre - Wikipedia 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! [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. [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. Of the 17 that lost their lives, two were children under the age of 12, with the youngest aged 9 years old. And none of the I.P. Sign up for the VE Newsletter https://www.vigilanceelite.com/newsletterErik Prince is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer,and . Legislation now working its way through Congress would resolve some of the gaps in the law, and hold all US private security contractors subject to criminal sanctions for felonies committed abroad. The car rolled forward a short way, hit a wall and stopped, said Hooby. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq [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]. [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. 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. [38] Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors. 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His brother then headed to the square, where he called Haythem to tell him he had found a charred white car with a license plate number written in the sand. The trial against Heard, Liberty, Slatten, and Slough began around June 2014 and lasted over two months. Khalaf turned back toward the Yarmouk road to see what might have spurred the shooting and heard a woman yell, "My son! "Conduct our deepest love to all the Americans who support and work hard to stop killing of innocent people all over the world," he said. Ali Khalaf Salman, a traffic cop who was there, recounted seeing an American shoot Ahmed. In October, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released its analysis of Blackwater's own internal reporting since 2005, which found 195 shooting incidents in the last two years, including 160 in which Blackwater employees fired the first shot. In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre - Wikipedia However, the company was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the U.S.Iraq Status of Forces Agreement took effect. The shooting then turned heavier, Khalaf said, his eyes red-brimmed and serious. "I tried to be patient," he said. 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. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded. [37] A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. [88], On August 4, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned Slatten's murder conviction and ordered the other defendants to be re-sentenced to time already served. "I kept calling, but thought there must be some sort of cellphone interruption.". The Blackwater company itself wasn't charged. 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. In fact, they even renewed the contract in 2008. Film Based on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince in the Works Blackwater guards were also known for driving on the wrong side of the road and crashing into civilian cars. utility stunts Even in this case, the FBI did not visit the crime scene for more than two weeks after the incident, during which time State Department investigators interviewing Blackwater employees offered them limited immunity, complicating the prosecution. 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]." Blackwater Settles Massacre Lawsuit | The Nation And he contended that the helicopters never fired on those below. stunt double: Courtney B. Turk Niko Dalman . NPR reports that sometime after the Al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, where 17 sailors were killed, Blackwater won a $46 million contract from the U.S government for "training sailors in counterterrorism." Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. 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. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. That day destroyed me completely, Kinani said. "[29], On October 4, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it would be taking the lead in the investigation of the shooting incident. Even General David Petraeus and former ambassador Ryan Crocker, top officials in charge of Iraq policy at the time of the massacre, issued a joint statement called the pardons "hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.". As a result, on October 17, 2013, the Department of Justice once more filed charges against the Blackwater security guards, according to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. In Nisour Square, the Blackwater team later claimed that they were "engaged with small arms fire" by an "estimated 8-10 persons." "Everyone loved him. Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. Erik Prince said that he didn't believe the FBI had fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisour Square, arguing that it would have been helpful if the defense had been in possession of a complete ballistics report. 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. [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". 2004 Fallujah ambush - Wikipedia Meanwhile, the Blackwater guards continue to maintain that they "didn't shoot at anybody that wasn't shooting at me," as Liberty stated in an interview with the Associated Press. It's all the news that's fit to watch. [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. Share this via Printer. Share this via WhatsApp [57], In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that stated that private contractors, although hired as "security guards", were performing military duties. He spent the next three days in the hospital and underwent major surgery on his right arm, which was fractured by a bullet. 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. In remarks prepared for delivery before a congressional hearing in October, Blackwater chairman Erik Prince claimed company guards "returned fire at threatening targets," including "men with AK-47s firing on the convoy" and "approaching vehicles that appeared to be suicide car bombers." Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. Share this via Telegram It was funded with millions that Prince inherited from the . Two helicopters circled overhead, each with a man strapped in and a machine gun sticking out. At first, this seemed completely normal for the totally abnormal world of Baghdad in September 2007. 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. 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. I Sued Blackwater for the Massacre of Iraqi Civilians. Trump Just After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. [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. He suffered from his wounds for over a year . This contract ended up being extended into 2006 and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $300 million. The Blackwater Shooting - The New York Times Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army And despite numerous failures to comply with its security contract, including a failure to maintain the required number of security specialists, the State Department never sought out the $55 million in penalties that Blackwater should've been charged. This decision was appealed by the Department of Justice and in 2011, the ruling was reversed. In total, the defendants faced 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. Share this via Reddit [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. Also quoted in the memorandum was David Boslego, a retired US army colonel, who said the massacre was a grossly excessive use of force and grossly inappropriate for an entity whose only job was to provide personal protection to somebody in an armoured vehicle. [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. Ultimately, Blackwater repeatedly insisted that their guards "were fired upon and responded appropriately." Robert Young Pelton, a journalist who spent a month with Blackwater in Iraq, said that the guards "use[d] their machine guns like car horns," per Tidings Media. stunt double: Jasmine Waltz Kelly Bellini . A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. [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. 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 In the span of 20 minutes, 17 Iraqi people were killed and another 24 were left wounded. [1][2][3] The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. [12] On October 4, 2007, the U.S. House passed a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act[65] In 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Slough, Heard, and Liberty were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. Trump pardons ex-campaign aide and disgraced Republican lawmakers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. As he slumped forward, his weight on the accelerator meant the car kept moving. [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. [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. Khalaf, who was there before the shooting began, said he never saw anyone fire on or approach the convoy. "If you perceive marriage as half of your life, Mohasin was my best half," he said. [29] The banning was described by P. W. Singer, an expert on the private military industry, as "inevitable", given the US government's reliance on and lack of oversight of the private military industry in Iraq. (An unrelated bombing in a nearby market cut the shopping trip short.) Please give now to support our work, New testimony from witnesses and victims provides the most in-depth, harrowing account to date of the US security firm's deadly rampage in Iraq, Share this via Facebook Trump's Blackwater Guard Pardons Cause Shock And Dismay : NPR ", Failure to Uncover the Fate of Syrias Missing, Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in close to 100 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice. His forehead and brains were missing and his skin completely burned. On September 16, 2007, a car bomb went off in Baghdad, Iraq, near the Izdihar Compound, where a U.S. diplomat was meeting with Iraqi officials, at approximately 11:53 AM. He ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood. Share this via Twitter In the end, after seven weeks of deliberations, Slough, Heard, and Liberty were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and Slatten was found guilty of murder, since he was responsible for the first death in Nisour Square, Reuters reports. All rights reserved. In a panic, Hooby turned his car around and was leaving the area when the convoy approached from behind, throwing water bottles at the roof of his car. 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. Multiple civilian deaths linked to 2016-17 British airstrikes against IS in Mosul, Lives torn apart by British airstrikes in Mosul give lie to UKs perfect precision war, Onthe frontlines of the Iraq war 2003-08 in pictures, Theaccidental journalist who covered the war in Iraq, Annalena Baerbocks feminist foreign policy focuses minds in Iraq, Long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms over international order, Iraqi customs officials ordered to impose import ban on alcohol, Scores of Iraqis injured in anti-government protests in Baghdad, Who will protect us?: Baghdad residents wait out fighting as city grinds to halt. Meanwhile, it took two weeks before a 10-person FBI team was sent to investigate the massacre for the government. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. [68][69], On September 24, 2007, the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior announced it would file criminal charges against the Blackwater staff involved in the shooting, although it is unclear how some of them will be brought to trial. But this convoy made an unexpected U-turn, drove the wrong way around the one-way square, stopped in the middle of it and started shooting. The 2004 Fallujah Blackwater incident occurred on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy containing four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater USA who were conducting a delivery for food caterers ESS. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. The Iraqi government ordered Blackwater to leave Iraq as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finished drafting new guidelines on private contractors under the Iraqi-U.S. security agreement. John M. Patarini was the FBI agent leading the investigation, and although they went into the investigation thinking that civilians had merely been caught in crossfire, they soon realized that "it was a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam," per The Guardian. Prince's prepared testimony also asserted that one of the vehicles had been disabled by the "enemy fire" and had to be towed. He learned that all of the bodies there were identified -- except for two that were completely burned with body parts missing. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. Along with a few hundred others, he stayed there as the chaos unfolded, watching as the helicopters circling above the street started shooting at those below. The security industry has evolved drastically since those events, and under the direction of new ownership and leadership, Academi has invested heavily in compliance and ethics programmes, training for our employees, and preventative measures to strictly comply with all US and local government laws.. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. Recent episodes in U.S. 1:08 'Look at That Thing': Footage Shows. 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." I took Mr. Carroll's threat seriously. These are not isolated events. [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. The audit also revealed that Blackwater overbilled at least $70,000 in travel costs. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. The FBI also concluded that there was no evidence to support Blackwater's claims that they'd been fired upon by Iraqi civilians. Vigilance Elite: Blackwater 'Massacre' Was A Massacre of Justice Black Water (2018) - IMDb He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. The BBC reports that during Slatten's second trial in 2018, a mistrial was declared after the jury deliberated for 16 days. The line of bullet holes in one side door is overshadowed by the two soccer-ball-size holes in the roof and driver's side door. Finally, around 5 p.m., he phoned his brother who worked at the hospital closest to Nissour Square. Other times, Blackwater guards left a trail of civilian casualties. and thus prosecution by U.S. The man was Ahmed, a 20-year-old medical student at the top of his class, and the woman his mother, Mohasin, a successful dermatologist and mother of three. [19] According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. On YouTube.The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. [6][86] Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. Unfortunately, Blackwater continued to operate in Iraq and the United States didn't cancel their contract. (These remarks were never actually delivered; the Department of Justice launched an investigation the day before the hearing and asked the committee not to discuss the details of the Sept. 16 incident. In November last year, he pardoned a former US army commando who was set to stand trial over the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker, and a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire at three Afghans. However, according to Reuters, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, claiming that "the U.S. government had recklessly violated the defendants' constitutional rights." Meanwhile, although Moonen admitted that he was intoxicated, he maintained that he shot in self-defense. As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. [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. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. Ex-Blackwater contractor sentenced to life in Iraq shootings By ASHRAF KHALIL August 14, 2019 WASHINGTON (AP) A former Blackwater security contractor was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for his role in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq that left 14 people dead. [81] A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found "systemic" errors in the district court's 2009 decision to dismiss charges against the five former Blackwater guards and added "We find that the district court's findings depend on an erroneous view of the law". His brother's wife had delivered their first child, a daughter, just 20 days earlier. As the convoy stopped, Khalaf watched as a large man with a mustache standing atop the third car fired several shots in the air. The Blackwater team also claimed that some of the "aggressors" were dressed like Iraqi Police as well as civilians. "[21] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. However, as The New York Times reports, "not one witness heard or saw any gunfire coming from Iraqis around the square." A few token prosecutions of a handful of Blackwater employees will not be enough. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. The UN has sharply criticised President Donald Trump's decision to pardon four former Blackwater . "It was a horror movie," said Khalaf, describing the aftermath of the now notorious Blackwater shootings. [87], On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005.
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