The traffic circle, Nisour Square, was only a block away from one of the main entrance gates to Baghdads Green Zone. [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. That wasnt unusual. Trump Pardons Blackwater Mercenaries, Ex- - Democracy Now! IE 11 is not supported. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. The fire has since been extinguished after the plant was captured by Russian troops and no radiation leakage has been detected. She turned the location into an exotic bookstore and caf, offering erotica readings, among other licentious pastimes. He was shot while seated in a public bus. Notorious mercenaries convicted of massacre in Iraq pardoned by Trump To understand the carnage that happened on the streets that day, you need to hear it in Mohammeds words as he explained it to me. [82][20] On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed. In fact, private military contractors in close coordination and consultation with covert operators from CIA and Western intelligence agencies are not only training Ukraines conscript forces in the use of caches of Stingers and Javelins provided by Germany and the rest of the European nations as military assistance to Ukraine but are also directing the whole defense strategy of Ukraine by taking an active part in combat operations in some of the most hard-fought battles against Russias security forces north of Kyiv and at Kharkiv and Donbas. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. 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. "[21] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. . He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. Mohammed knew his sons injuries were fatal, but he had to try. Those Warnings Were Ignored, How Russia Will Counterpunch U.S./EU Declaration of War, Khazarian Mafia at War: The Jewish Oligarch Who Planned the Terror Attack on Bryansk, Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration. Blackwater Guards Found Guilty in 2007 Iraq Killings Trump's Blackwater Pardons Reveal Security Contractor - JURIST [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. [56], On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. "[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. They beat citizens and scorn them. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings", "F.B.I. Thats what lawyers do in the United States: We fight for those who cant fight for themselves. US pardons Blackwater guards: An 'affront to justice' - UN experts His mother also suffered a stroke, he added. 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. Trump's pardon of mercenaries guilty of massacre in Iraq leads to His sister was safe. I Sued Blackwater for the Massacre of Iraqi Civilians. Trump Just Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. [54] He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? [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. Now they'll go free. 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. Nasser's younger brother, Mahdi Saheb Nasser, was 22 and working as a taxi driver when he was killed in September 2007 alongside other unarmed civilians in Baghdad's Nisur Square. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. "This was Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," Dickinson told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on Wednesday. Blackwater Trial: What You Need to Know - NBC News 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. [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. The majority of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq after the . "We showed the world that we were going to hold people accountable," he says. 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. As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. Rogers. Trump Pardons Blackwater 4 for Nisour Square Massacre in Iraq, because The four armored vehicles drove away. In addition to the Kinani family, I represented five other families and victims. They would turn Blackwater into roadkill. Although NATO powers did provide Stingers to their jihadist proxies that helped turn the tide in the Soviet-Afghan war in the eighties, since then, despite providing anti-tank munitions and rest of weapons to militant groups during the proxy wars in Libya and Syria, Western powers have consistently avoided providing MANPADS to proxy forces, because such deadly anti-aircraft munitions could become a long-term threat not only to military aircraft but also to civilian airlines. Russian-American political scientist Malek Dudakov called the shooting a landmark event and a major international scandal. [6][86] Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. Almost everyone who was killed or injured was shot in cars, taxis, or buses. "I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.". Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. Then one of his sisters children said that Ali was hurt. The Machiavellian plan of NATOs military strategists is to establish refugee settlements with the humanitarian assistance in the border regions of Ukraines neighboring countries Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, and then provide guerrilla warfare training and lethal arms to all able-bodied men of military age in order to bleed Russias security forces in the protracted irregular warfare. 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. hide caption. "Before he died, he went crazy as he used to go out into the street and whenever he saw a young man, he imagined that he was Mahdi," he said. Nicky Woolf in New York. 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. This is not for the faint of heart but allegedly a video from the Ukraine conflict at a check-point at Mariupol which is surrounded by Russian troops. When he arrived at the hospital, it was a war zone. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. There are numerous reported incidents of mass murder conducted by US soldiers, special forces. A former private military guard has been convicted of first degree murder by a court in Washington after taking part in a mass killing of unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Before Nord Stream Sabotage, VT RADIO: Exposing East Palestine Train Derailment Disaster with VTs Jack Heart, Dr. Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didnt Have A Chance Of Controlling The Pandemic, More Home Care Services Needed for Military Veterans, VA is Lying Facebook Group is Social Media Done Right, Pregnant Dog Found Starving to Death in Cage Needs Help to be Reunited With Marine Who Rescued Her, Healthy Eating Options More Accessible to Military Community through the Exchange, Israels Illegal Violent Occupation: When De-Escalate Means Ramp Up, Citizen Kane Rupert Murdoch Openly Admits Fox News is Complete Bullshit. "[46] Hasan Jaber Salman, a lawyer who was one of the wounded, said that "no one did anything to provoke Blackwater" and that "as we turned back they opened fire at all cars from behind"[61] An Iraqi police officer who was directing traffic at the scene said Blackwater guards "became the terrorists" when they opened fire on civilians unprovoked, while a businessman said he wasn't seeking compensation but only "the truth" from the guards. Blackwater and the Corporate Mercenaries who've - NationofChange [79] Three weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden, who was overseeing U.S. policy in Iraq, promised Iraqi leaders the U.S. would appeal the dismissal of these charges. A federal district court judge sentenced four former Blackwater Worldwide mercenaries to lengthy prison terms on Monday for their role in the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007. 2004 Fallujah ambush - Wikipedia First ones from 16,000. [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. A. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police". The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. 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. Let us assume that I travel to America and kill 17 American citizens. - Asser Institute (Decision Date: 31 December 2009)", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges", "Blackwater guards face new U.S. charges for Iraq shooting deaths", "Legal questions loom in Blackwater convictions", "Blackwater guards found guilty in Iraq shootings", "Emails Reveal Discord Over Blackwater Charges", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Sentenced to Long Prison Terms in 2007 Killings of Iraqi Civilians", "U.S. Appeals Court Tosses Ex-Blackwater Guard's Conviction in 2007 Baghdad Massacre", "Murder conviction in Blackwater case thrown out, other sentences overturned", "In Blackwater Case, Court Rejects a Murder Conviction and Voids 3 Sentences", Recent Case: D.C. Ukraine War Anniversary: UN and China Work for Peace, Devilish Zelensky, Kiev Hid Its Dead Soldiers in the Ravines. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened on September 16, 2007. Instead of returning the favor, however, the conceited leader of supposedly the worlds sole surviving superpower turned down the hand of friendship and even snubbed Putin. The Blackwater incident cost the American military in the Middle East a lot more, experts interviewed by RT believe. 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. He was shot in the abdomen. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop. Mohammed and his sister screamed for their children to get down. 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. 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 kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. The news shows the helicopter falling to the ground as it burns. 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. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. Donald Trump has pardoned the four contractors jailed over the killing of 14 civilians. They are coming to defend freedom, defend life. 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. Blackwater Mercenaries: NATOs Secret Weapon in Ukraine War, VT RADIO: Alternative Foreign Policy Talk, Khazarian Mafia at War: The Jewish Oligarch Who Planned the Terror, Russias Future Predicted by Well-Known Christian Saints, Most Front-Line Ukrainian Soldiers Killed Within 4 Hours, How Russia managed to survive Western sanctions, How War Began The Genesis of NATOs Coup in Ukraine , From Global Warming Denial to Holocaust Denial, On this day in 1940, Woody Guthrie writes This Land Is, Former U.S. President Carter to Hospice, Will Pariah Trump Attend State, Dr. Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didnt Have A Chance Of Controlling. Of the $10 billion humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine announced by the Biden administration, the top brass of the Pentagon is reportedly making preparations for allocating a significant portion of the funds for providing military training and arms to almost a million refugees who have fled Ukraine following the war. Nicholas Slatten, 35, was a former security guard at the private US military firm Blackwater and was based in Baghdad. But when the shooting started, his life and the lives of his entire family changed forever. The bullets rained through the roofs of cars, taxis and buses, he says. [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] Iraqi authorities say 17 people were killed; the Department of Justice has said the total was 14. [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 had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. Covert Operations In Vietnam: The Incomplete History of US-Norway Collaboration.