And it will be a success, Im sure. But unsurprisingly, he did not describe who those thousands of daredevil volunteers willing to sacrifice lives and limbs in a foreign war were. Mohammed kept seeing the man on the ground next to him being fired upon as he lay dead. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.. "I think what that does is it sends the wrong message to the people of Iraq, who we told we were going to come in and protect, and to the rest of the world, that the pillars of justice upon which the United States is based on has a crack in it," he says. Its worth recalling that before the Biden-Putin summit at Geneva last June, Russia had a similar troop build-up along Ukraines borders. Nisour Square massacre - Wikipedia It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. 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. 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. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. 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. [56], On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? US pardons Blackwater guards: An 'affront to justice' - UN experts [54] He served one tour in Iraq before being hired as a Personal Security Specialist in Iraq. My law firm received a call from an immigration attorney the next year seeking representation for the Blackwaters victims, and I was eventually retained to represent the Kinani family in a civil lawsuit against Blackwater, Prince, and various other Blackwater companies and, of course, the men who were charged and eventually convicted of murder, manslaughter, and weapons charges for their conduct. 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. Trump Pardons Blackwater Contractors Who Killed Iraqis These convictions happened under the Obama Administration. Blackwater Mercenaries Sentenced for 2007 Iraq Massacre security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. 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. [19] A Blackwater spokeswoman responded to the findings by saying Blackwater "supports the stringent accountability of the industry. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? Their bodies were beaten and burned, with their charred corpses then dragged through the city streets before being hanged over a bridge crossing the Euphrates River. The incident happened at the height of the "military surge" ordered by the then President George W. Bush to bring the armed resistance against the occupation in Iraq under control. The majority of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq after the . The American judiciary is fair and equitable. He received poor treatment because his injuries were less life threatening, but he was left with a disfigured and useless arm. "I don't know what I did to Blackwater," Kinani told ABC News. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? 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. Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said Trump's pardons were an insult to justice, "but it's also an insult to the victims. [78] The opinion elaborated "the government failed to establish that the Iraqi witnesses it presented to the second grand jury were not in any way influenced by their previous exposure to the defendants' compelled statements. 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. "On what basis did Trump depend on to release them? [92] However, the court then found that the mandatory minimum sentences as applied to the defendants were unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishments, over the partial dissent of Judge Judith W. An Iraqi looks at a burned car in Nisour Square in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmukh, on Sept. 24, 2007, eight days after Blackwater guards who were escorting U.S. Embassy officials opened fire there. Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident. Dickinson says that the victims' families are likely to feel let down and abandoned by the U.S. government. The risk is now that the U.S., who has a presence worldwide, has exposure for how they might be treated or what people of other countries might think could happen or would happen if war crimes are committed by U.S. citizens abroad. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. [3][84] Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him". The 14 victims killed by the Blackwater guards on trial were listed as Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubiay, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, Osama Fadhil Abbas, Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq, Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Qasim Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Saadi Ali Abbas Alkarkh, Mushtaq Karim Abd Al-Razzaq, Ghaniyah Hassan Ali, Ibrahim Abid Ayash, Hamoud Saeed Abttan, Uday Ismail Ibrahiem, Mahdi Sahib Nasir and Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein. [4] Germany to ship anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-ship-anti-aircraft-missiles-to-ukraine-reports/a-60995325. [2] 16,000 volunteers coming to Ukraine, Zelensky: https://www.rt.com/russia/551149-zelensky-ukraine-foreign-fighters/. . If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? Blackwater Mercenaries Filmed on a Rampage in Iraq & Shooting Civilians from WarPosting After being leaked by a former employee of the notorious PMC, the footage dated April 2006 was featured in a piece called "The Warrior Class" by Charles Glass. The traffic circle, Nisour Square, was only a block away from one of the main entrance gates to Baghdads Green Zone. [48] According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. [37] A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. Before VT Nuclear Education: The Beirut Nuclear Coverup, The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafia. Blackwater mercenaries on trial in US court for 2007 Iraq massacre But Trump reached a peace agreement with the Taliban and then lost the re-election bid before he could consider the bizarre proposal. The only way these men could be brought to justice was in the United States. Former Blackwater guards sentenced for massacre of unarmed Iraqi Again be warned it is ugly. This includes the right to see perpetrators serve punishments proportionate to the seriousness of their conduct. What Is Blackwater? Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) March 1, 2022. https://www.ournewearthnews.com/2022/03/04/massacre-in-ukraine-caught-on-camera-and-probably-still-unfolding-viewer-discretion-advised-please-pray/. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. Ukraine War Anniversary: UN and China Work for Peace, Devilish Zelensky, Kiev Hid Its Dead Soldiers in the Ravines. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. 3", is named Paul Slough. [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. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the most publicized US crimes of the 8-year Iraq war. 15 years after US Blackwater mercenaries massacred civilians in Baghdad The Blackwater guards were firing indiscriminately. 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. ", 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.". Opinion | Trump's Most Disgusting Pardons - The New York Times Blackwater Mercenaries: NATO's Secret Weapon in Ukraine War When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. No wonder Russia formally issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, March 1, that it would target the hub of covert warfare. As he was leaving, his youngest son, who was affectionately given the nickname Alawi, asked to go with his father. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq increasingly relied on private contractors, Blackwater being only the most infamous. 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. [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. Trump pardons ex-campaign aide and disgraced Republican lawmakers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Who would be responsible for the myopic and vindictive policy of providing anti-aircraft munitions to Ukraines irregular militias once Kyiv falls and those MANPADS are found in black markets posing a grave risk to civilian airlines across the globe? Let us assume that I travel to America and kill 17 American citizens. [58] Nor is the US a signatory of the 1977 additional protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions in which Article 47 specifies that mercenaries are civilians who "take a direct part in the hostilities" and are "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain". Likewise, the civil case ran through North Carolina state court, was removed to federal court, and then sent back to state court. Paul Dickinson[emailprotected]farrin.com. 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. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. Liberty is one of four former Blackwater mercenaries pardoned by President Donald Trump in one of . Trump pardons Blackwater killers for Nisour Square massacre "These are four innocent guys, and it is completely justified," Bill Coffield, a lawyer for Evan Liberty, told the AP. An ambulance was called, and Ali and Mohammad were rushed to the other side of town. They would turn Blackwater into roadkill. Dickinson says the great expense that the FBI put into the prosecution of the case has now come to nothing. After selling Blackwater to a group of investors in 2010, Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seals officer and the swashbuckling founder of Blackwater, has founded another security company Frontier Services Group, registered at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, that advises and provides aviation and logistical solutions to Chinese oligarchs for the security of their lucrative business projects in Africa. 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.