Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened. "I'm really shocked. The Nisour Square massacre was the FBI's most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. Thats what lawyers do in the United States: We fight for those who cant fight for themselves. They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. Almost everyone who was killed or injured was shot in cars, taxis, or buses. Nassar Hamza was 67 years old when he was shot and wounded in the arm. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. I represented the Kinani family and five other victims of the Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing at least 14 innocent Iraqi citizens that day and injured dozens more. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. 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. The result of the long legal battle is that each man was ensured a fair trial, free of partiality and without unjust favor. Mohammed and his sister screamed for their children to get down. He had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. An ambulance was called, and Ali and Mohammad were rushed to the other side of town. "I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.". When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. hide caption. I felt I had done that, and I knew the prosecutors were doing that. The Nisour Square massacreoccurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military companycontracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. Again be warned it is ugly. Their belief in our legal system was misplaced. [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. [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. 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? More than 3,000 troops remain in Iraq, according to defense officials, with a drawdown scheduled for January. When he arrived at the hospital, it was a war zone. Rather than mitigating the suffering of Ukraines disenfranchised masses held hostage by the Zelensky regime, the self-styled champions of human rights are doing all they can to lure Russia into their bear trap project, a term borrowed from the Soviet-Afghan War of the eighties when Western regimes used Pakistans security forces and generous funding from the oil-rich Gulf States for providing guerrilla warfare training and lethal weaponry to Afghan jihadists to bleed the security forces of former the Soviet Union in the protracted war. 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. Why did it happen? It was as if someone had targeted the area in his SUV where a persons head would have been. Luckily, before his SUV was attacked, Mohammed, his sister, and their children had time to duck into the car. [3] Erik Prince provided weapons and aircraft to eastern Libyas warlord Khalifa Haftar: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/world/middleeast/libya-mercenaries-arms-embargo.html. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. 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. Dark Truth Exposed: East Palestine Rail Disaster, BOAC 707 Sabotage, Why people should start business in Lithuania, Best Strategy To Play Online Baccarat Games, Effects of Incontinence in Various Areas of Life, Conversations from the porch Episode 19 with Jack Heart &, Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration. Three former employees of the US private military contractor once known as Blackwater were sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday and a fourth received a life sentence . 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. He lay in the hallway for an hour before he died. [25][31], The account by the Blackwater firm differed from the Iraqi government's account; Blackwater's account stated the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. Mohammed forced a doctor to look at Ali. [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) March 1, 2022. While the #RussianOligarchs are vile post-Soviet capitalists, the hypocrisy of the US media is revealing. Before. 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. [73], The trial was set for early 2010,[74] but the charges were dismissed by United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ricardo Urbina on December 31, 2009, who ruled that the Justice Department had mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. He was driving on flat tires and with a shattered windshield. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". 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. The hallways were full. A rocket grenade was fired into the car next to him. ", "After years of waiting, the victims finally saw justice served when these men were convicted," she said in an email. The news shows the helicopter falling to the ground as it burns. Constellis did not immediately respond to requests for comment. [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. 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. He was shot through the back with a massive exit wound in his chest. [15] The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "We showed the world that we were going to hold people accountable," he says. Abraham Al Mafrage was a 70-year-old farmer and father of seven who was also shot in the head and died that day. Mohammed met members of the U.S. Army on the streets and handed out candy and juice when he saw them. It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? When Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten was tried and convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, the U.S. legal system determined that he needed a new trial. 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. In 2002, Blackwater received its first contract from the United States government. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". 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. [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. 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. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. President Donald Trump's decision to pardon four Blackwater private security contractors convicted of a massacre in Baghdad has been met with fury by the victims' families in Iraq. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. 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. That changed yesterday with President Donald Trumps pardons. But supporters of the military contractors, who argued the investigation was tainted and the punishments too severe, cheered the news. By Andrew Emett - August 16, 2019 1269 SOURCE NationofChange Are they going to release me?". The Blackwater mercenaries were among the most flagrant killers in Iraq but hardly unique. The bullets rained through the roofs of cars, taxis and buses, he says. Although the Pentagons military contractors have been known to be training and advising several brigades of neo-Nazis backed by Ukraines security forces in the Donbas region since 2014, Erik Prince along with his associates from several other private security firms providing military contractors to the US Department of Defense personally visited Kyiv early last month following the Russian troop build-up and met with security officials of the Zelensky regime, according to informed sources. "These are four innocent guys, and it is completely justified," Bill Coffield, a lawyer for Evan Liberty, told the AP. [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. [36], On September 19, as a result of the incident, the United States temporarily suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Defense lawyers for the four veterans, who were working as contractors for the State Department at the time of the killings, argued that they had returned fire only after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. 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. He was ensured a fair trial and convicted for his crimes. I know that each of them placed great faith in the U.S. legal system. They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors said the Blackwater guards opened fire first. I was thinking the same thing about the Chechens a few days ago. 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.. [2] 16,000 volunteers coming to Ukraine, Zelensky: https://www.rt.com/russia/551149-zelensky-ukraine-foreign-fighters/. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - On Tuesday, Trump the Mad pardoned 4 Blackwater mercenaries who killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, with indiscriminate fire at Nisour Square in downtown Baghdad on September 14, 2007. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. When the Blackwater contractors were finally convicted seven years later in 2014, that was a sign of relief, but you needed political will for that. Blackwater and its employees had been given immunity from any criminal or civil exposure in Iraq that was part of Princes contract with the State Department. "Victims of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law also have the right to a remedy. Ukraine War Anniversary: UN and China Work for Peace, Devilish Zelensky, Kiev Hid Its Dead Soldiers in the Ravines. "Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future. There are numerous reported incidents of mass murder conducted by US soldiers, special forces. Before VT Nuclear Education: The Beirut Nuclear Coverup, The Hidden History of the Incredibly Evil Khazarian Mafia. But NATOs covert operators embedded with Ukraines security forces reassured them that the war wasnt over and implored them to give their Western mentors a face-saving by mounting at least a semblance of resistance against the fierce onslaught by Russias professional security forces. U.S. troops were coming under fire in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities from the resistance forces. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. 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. For those of you who are not aware, Erik Prince (Blackwater/Academi) personally sold to the CIA the concept of a mercenary army to conduct hybrid war ops and/or crypto-guerrilla war against Russia. That day changed my life forever. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. Volodymyr Zelenskyreassured his compatriots[2] yesterday: Ukraine is already welcoming foreign volunteers who are coming to our country. "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 . The Nisour Square Massacre, in which Blackwater mercenaries fired hundreds of rounds in a crowded Baghdad traffic square, killing fourteen Iraqis, including ten women and two children, and . Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause", "Blackwater guards lose bid to appeal charges in Iraqi civilian shooting case", "U.S. troops in Iraq will need immunity: U.S. chief", "Jurors' Note Hints at Conviction in Blackwater Case", "Former Blackwater Guards Convicted in Iraq Shooting", "Shock And Dismay After Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Who Killed 14 Iraqi Civilians", "Trump Pardons Two Russia Inquiry Figures and Blackwater Guards", "Trump pardon of Blackwater Iraq contractors violates international law - UN", "Iraqi Inquiry Says Shooting Was Unprovoked", "Blackwater guards fired unprovoked: Iraq police evidence", "Pentagon Dispatches Investigators to Iraq to Probe Private Security Contractors", "Joint Iraqi-U.S. review begins in wake of Blackwater firefight", "Blackwater faulted by U.S. military: report", "Iraq determined to rein in private security guards", "The Iraqi Account of the Killings [infographic]", "Former Blackwater Employee Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Murder in 2007 Shooting at Nisur Square in Iraq", "US Lawyers for Blackwater Guards: 2007 Baghdad Shooting was Self-Defense", "From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths", "Four Former Blackwater Employees Found Guilty of Charges in Fatal Nisur Square Shooting in Iraq", "Iraqi ministers back Blackwater shutdown - CNN.com", "Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First", "State Dept. The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona, and Mike Teague, were killed and dragged from their vehicles. and thus prosecution by U.S. Extending the hand of friendship, Russia significantly drawdown its forces along the western border before the summit last year. Mahde Shamke was 25 years old and driving a taxi to support his parents and siblings. 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 . Mohammed could see other cars being shot. 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. Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. It was not an easy path in either the civil or criminal legal system. Mohammed would look to see what was happening. [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. The Nisour Square massacre was the FBIs most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. Six of my Blackwater brethren contractors are on the helicopter going to Tikrit. Suddenly, bullets began to riddle Mohammeds car. "[51][52][53], On January 19, 2008, The New York Times reported that the contractor responsible for many of the deaths in the engagement, previously known only as "turret gunner no. 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. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. The killing of innocent civilians, including two young boys, sparked international outrage and public scrutiny into the use of private military companies . The other three guards faced decades in prison; the weapons charges carried a minimum 30-year sentence under a law enacted during the 1990s cocaine epidemic. [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. He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad. Using the good offices of his sister Betsy Devos, who worked as Trumps secretary of education, Erik Prince even made an offer to Trump for the outsourcing of the Afghanistan war to private military contractors advising and assisting Afghan security forces following the withdrawal of US troops. Again, the result was the civil legal system exhausting every defense afforded to Blackwater and the men. When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. courts. More were arriving in the backs of trucks. 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. The deaths provoked international outrage and raised questions about the use of private security firms in war zones.