Russias reluctant and delayed military intervention in Ukraine is fundamentally a war of power projection, a shot across the bow to perfidious former allies, the East European states, whove been joining the EU and NATO in droves since the break-up of Soviet Union in 1991, that the collective security of Eurasian nations is a shared responsibility, and NATOs eastward expansion along Russias western flank not only imperils the security of resurgent Russia but also compromises the balance of power in the multipolar world. security contractors who had previously been sentenced over the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisur Square massacre . Erik Prince, chair of the Prince Group LLC and Blackwater USA, holds up a picture showing the effect of a car bomb while testifying during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Oct. 2, 2007 in Washington, D.C. Mohammed was going to visit his sister and her children. 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. He was ensured a fair trial and convicted for his crimes. Ali was slumped over against the glass. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. 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. It was an honor to represent these victims and their families. https://www.ournewearthnews.com/2022/03/04/massacre-in-ukraine-caught-on-camera-and-probably-still-unfolding-viewer-discretion-advised-please-pray/. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. October 22 2014, 9:58 a.m. A federal jury in Washington, D.C., returned guilty verdicts against four . No wonder Russia formally issued an ultimatum on Tuesday, March 1, that it would target the hub of covert warfare. The ones who were killed on the street were shot running for their lives. How is Eric Prince still breathing? The Nisour Square massacre was the FBI's most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. [41], Richard J. Griffin, the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, who made key decisions regarding the department's oversight of private security contractor Blackwater USA, resigned in November 2007, after a critical review by the House Oversight Committee found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors during the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. [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. [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. Again be warned it is ugly. 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 . The killing of innocent civilians, including two young boys, sparked international outrage and public scrutiny into the use of private military companies . 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. [26][29], An Iraqi government account of the incident stated that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her adult son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer's whistle to clear a path for the convoy. Then one of his sisters children said that Ali was hurt. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each. 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. The four were convicted at then VP Joe Biden's insistence, and were serving jail terms. Iraqi authorities say 17 people were killed; the Department of Justice has said the total was 14. He was driving on flat tires and with a shattered windshield. During the litigation, an appeal was ongoing in the 4h Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. [28] TST 22 arrived at Nisour Square after Raven 23 had left; when TST 22 tried to withdraw, its route was blocked by Iraqi Army and Police vehicles. Donald Trump has pardoned the four contractors jailed over the killing of 14 civilians. Their cover: "return of Ukrainians from the French Foreign Legion.". While the #RussianOligarchs are vile post-Soviet capitalists, the hypocrisy of the US media is revealing. [38] Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. Mahde Shamke was 25 years old and driving a taxi to support his parents and siblings. Circuit Holds It Cruel and Unusual to Impose Mandatory Thirty-Year Sentence on Military Contractors for Gun Charge, "Former Blackwater contractor found guilty of murder in Iraq massacre", "Former Blackwater Guard Sentenced to Life for 2007 Baghdad Traffic-Circle Shooting", "Former Blackwater security contractor sentenced to life in Iraq shootings; In all, 10 men, two women and two boys, ages 9 and 11, were killed", "Blackwater Contractors Resentenced in 2007 Attack on Baghdad Civilians", "Survivors of Blackwater massacre in Iraq slam Trump's pardons for US guards behind killing", "Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency", "Relative of Blackwater victim in Iraq says pardons 'unfair', "UN criticises Trump's pardons for Blackwater guards jailed over Iraq killings", "I Sued Blackwater for the Massacre of Iraqi Civilians. Not a one! [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. What Is Blackwater? But Trump reached a peace agreement with the Taliban and then lost the re-election bid before he could consider the bizarre proposal. 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. Its worth recalling that before the Biden-Putin summit at Geneva last June, Russia had a similar troop build-up along Ukraines borders. Now they'll go free. Again, I knew my clients would be pleased to know that justice had been served and their rights had been protected. It was his business partner who lay in the pool of blood and was repeatedly shot. ", Trump Grants Slew Of Pardons, Including To George Papadopoulos And Duncan Hunter, Blackwater Guards Found Guilty In 2007 Shootings In Iraq, Lawyer For Victims' Families On Trump Pardoning 4 Former Blackwater Contractors. [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. "Today we were surprised that the American president issued a decision to pardon these criminals, murderers and thugs," Salman said, speaking from Baghdad. FBI investigators who visited the scene in the following days described it as the My Lai massacre of Iraq a reference to the infamous slaughter of civilian villagers by US troops during the Vietnam war in which only one soldier was convicted. 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. Prosecutors said the Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. Dec. 24, 2020 Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Kinani with a photo of his 9-year-old son, Ali, who was killed by Blackwater. I was thinking the same thing about the Chechens a few days ago. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. [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". "Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? 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. 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. They beat citizens and scorn them. He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad. Trump Just Pardoned Those Convicted Killers", "Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response", "Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees", "Tracing the Paths of 5 Who Died in a Storm of Gunfire", "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre", Use of white phosphorus by the United States, United States and the International Criminal Court, A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time", AfghanIraqi Freedom Memorial (Salem, Oregon), The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1141803510, Violent non-state actor incidents in Asia, People convicted of murder by the United States federal government, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:05. The Blackwater incident cost the American military in the Middle East a lot more, experts interviewed by RT believe. "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 . Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Trumps education secretary. "The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. The only way these men could be brought to justice was in the United States. The U.N. Human Rights Office says it's "deeply concerned" by the pardons. When Mohammed looked to his right, the driver of the car next to him shouted that the soldiers had just shot into another car in front of them. 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. My clients assuredly feel ignored, mistreated, and used. "[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. After capturing Kherson yesterday, Russian forces even apprehended several suspicious and armed foreign nationals who are currently being interrogated by Russias military intelligence GRU. Extending the hand of friendship, Russia significantly drawdown its forces along the western border before the summit last year. Why Is Assange in Jail and Not Seymour Hersh? Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of manslaughter and weapons charges. Video of the aftermath includes an image of a human brain on the road in Nisour Square. Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. [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. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. courts. I know that each of them placed great faith in the U.S. legal system. 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. On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company. [2] Reactions [ edit] The man that just spoken to him was dead. Six of my Blackwater brethren contractors are on the helicopter going to Tikrit. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ", Human Rights Watch says the pardons "show contempt for the rule of law.". Defence lawyers argued their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. Three Ex-Blackwater Guards Are Resentenced in Iraq War Massacre The men will serve about half of their original 30-year sentences for their roles in a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq . Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. Four Blackwater security guards convicted in 2014 of carrying out a massacre of Iraqi civilians, sparking an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war . 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. He told NPR on Wednesday that he was shocked by Trump's pardons he himself had made trips to the U.S. to give testimony in the proceedings against the four. [19] According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. This includes the right to see perpetrators serve punishments proportionate to the seriousness of their conduct. [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. This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another Kastigar violation. The fire has since been extinguished after the plant was captured by Russian troops and no radiation leakage has been detected. [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. 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. An ambulance was called, and Ali and Mohammad were rushed to the other side of town. [63], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. Luckily, before his SUV was attacked, Mohammed, his sister, and their children had time to duck into the car. The shooting ended as suddenly as it started. [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. 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. Suddenly, bullets began to riddle Mohammeds car. More than 3,000 troops remain in Iraq, according to defense officials, with a drawdown scheduled for January. When #Blackwater mercenaries were murdering civilians in the #IraqWar, did these voices demand seizure of yachts owned by CEO Erik Prince? (L-r) Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten. The aide also said that the Iraqi government was pushing for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". What takes place doesnt mention Russian soldiers but others preventing citizens from escaping. Mohammed turned his bullet-riddled SUV around and drove back to the closest hospital only a few blocks behind him. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. hide caption. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. Despite losing the empire in the nineties, as far as military power is concerned, Russia with its enormous arsenal of conventional as well as nuclear weapons still more or less equals the military power of the United States, as is obvious from the unfolding Ukraine war where all the NATO could do is watch it from distance, and not even attempting to enforce a no-fly zone lest the conflict spirals into a mutually destructive nuclear war. These men will now be free, despite their crimes, and they will not serve the time in prison they deserved. [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] [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. The Beginning Blackwater USA began in 1997 by Al Clark and Erik Prince. In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American contractors in Baghdad.Read the article here: http://nyti.ms/1u1cNzySubscrib. [64], US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before Congress that the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors, but that commanders lack sufficient "means and resources" to exercise adequate oversight. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car, possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing the car towards the Blackwater TST. 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. [37][38] The incident caused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater USA,[39] and for the Iraqi government to push for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". 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. 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. [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. [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. [89][90][91] The panel also recommended that Slatten undergo a re-trial on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. He saw the man next to him run. 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. [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. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? The expense was to show the people of Iraq that the U.S. government would hold people accountable for their crimes, no matter when or where they were committed. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. That may be the overriding damage caused by these pardons. [48] According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. The four armored vehicles drove away. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. When the first indictments were dismissed on New Years Eve in 2009, they were told that the prosecutions would continue. Associated Press WASHINGTON Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards were convicted and immediately jailed Wednesday for their roles in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisour Square. 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. The U.S. remains one of the notable holdouts of the 2001 UN treaty known in full as the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries and it is unlikely we will ever join. 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. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. He could not understand what was happening or why. Bullets were everywhere. [1] Russian forces seize huge Ukrainian nuclear plant, fire extinguisher: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/top-wrap-1-europes-largest-nuclear-power-plant-fire-after-russian-attack-mayor-2022-03-04/. Why did it happen? American troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Mohammed was thrilled when the U.S. entered Baghdad years earlier in 2003. "They prefer animals over humans, and then they talk about human rights, justice and humanity," said an Iraqi man whose brother was among those killed in 2007. "The ministry believes that this decision did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed and was inconsistent with the U.S. administration's declared commitment to the values of human rights, justice, and the rule of law, and regrettably ignores the dignity of the victims," it said. We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police. [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. Slatten, whom prosecutors said started the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison. Mohammed was a businessman dealing in auto salvage. When Slattens conviction was overturned, I was concerned that the case would be ignored. That wasnt unusual. The majority of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq after the . [56], On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. 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. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened. Ali was the youngest of Blackwaters victims that day. By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Before. [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. 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.