Khalaf, who was there before the shooting began, said he never saw anyone fire on or approach the convoy. It was funded with millions that Prince inherited from the . In an instant, Ahmed was shot through the head. (L-r) Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten. Interviews with victims and witnesses to the Sept. 16 shooting in Nissour Square bring to light more information about the problems caused by private contractors, which have effectively operated with impunity as they've brought violence and widespread ill will to US operations in Iraq. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. Fifteen minutes later, the four-car convoy continued around the square and drove away. Blackwater has been one of the biggest recipients. Blackwater Security Consulting, also known as Blackwater Worldwide, was founded in 1997 by Al Clark and Erik Prince as a private security firm. According to Reuters, in 2009, the State Department finally decided not to renew their contract with Blackwater in Iraq. [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. However, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged the United States to end their contract with Blackwater. (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. With the contract to provide security for L. Paul Bremer, Blackwater essentially "cement[ed] its presence at the center of conflict in Iraq," per PBS. With Georgia Chris, Amy Simon, McCayne Blomberg, Jenny Robinson. I don't know how to manage my life or care for my other two children without her. And it's estimated that at least one other person died from the second shooting incident. Join our movement today. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. And despite subsequent trials, it's unclear if the victims of the massacre and their families got the justice they deserve. 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. This contract ended up being extended into 2006 and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $300 million. However, after "Raven 23" entered Nisour Square, Watson was ordered to "lock down the traffic circle to expedite the travel of [the other Blackwater team]". 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. In 2008, the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Donald Ball, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten (pictured, center), and Paul Slough, all of whom were Blackwater guards during the Nisour Square massacre. He learned that all of the bodies there were identified -- except for two that were completely burned with body parts missing. This decision was appealed by the Department of Justice and in 2011, the ruling was reversed. Rogers. [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. At stake is the future of other innocent lives, as well as America's reputation throughout the Middle East and across the world. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. Action Drama Thriller A deep-cover operative awakens to find himself imprisoned in a CIA black site on a submarine. "I thought I was dying.". One of the men I met in Istanbul wrote me after I returned home. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators, World reports. These are not isolated events. In 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Slough, Heard, and Liberty were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. 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. [43], The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, in a document last updated on July 3, 2007, listed Blackwater as not having a license to operate in Iraq despite their attempts to apply for one. [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. 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. Some of the counts resulted in a mistrial, but none of the defendants got an acquittal on any count. 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. The car rolled forward a short way, hit a wall and stopped, said Hooby. and thus prosecution by U.S. Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, recently said his company is spending $2 million a month in legal . [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. 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 Fareed Walid Hassan remembers that "the shooting started like rain." 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." [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. With tears in his eyes, Haythem described his beloved wife and son. "[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. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. 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 order did not say when the suspension would expire. He described how he crouched by the car, his right arm reaching inside, his head out and left arm up in the air, signaling to the convoy, his gun secure in its holster. Sequence of events triggering the Nisour Square massacre, Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, Private Security Company Association of Iraq, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Inspector General of the U.S. State Department, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, "U.S. Assadi is now the sole breadwinner for the entire family. [6][86] Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. "[32] According to Blackwater vice-president Marty Strong, the convoy was hit with "a large explosive device" and "repeated small arms fire" which disabled a vehicle. [1] The ambush [ edit] He waited and waited, and eventually went home without them. 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. They beat citizens and scorn them. All rights reserved. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times The New York Times 4.26M subscribers 1.1M views 8 years ago In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American. ", 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. Assadi, 31, a stoic, unsmiling man, became the head of the family after his older brother Usama was killed in the shootings. At first, this seemed completely normal for the totally abnormal world of Baghdad in September 2007. 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. Fifteen minutes later, 17 Iraqi civilians were dead, dozens more wounded, and a white sedan that had been engulfed in flames contained two bodies charred beyond recognition. "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. [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. However, according to "Blackwater" by Jeremy Scahill, the report was written by Darren Hanner, a Blackwater contractor. [50], On October 4, 2007, U.S. military reports indicated Blackwater's guards had opened fire without provocation and used excessive force. There was also an incident on December 24, 2006, when Andrew Moonen, a Blackwater guard, murdered Raheem Khalaf Saadoon, a security guard for Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Iraqi vice president. [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. "Please, we want to live in peace, surrounded by friends not killers. From Iraq to New Orleans, it's continued to pull in multimillion-dollar government contracts, mostly without accountability and in near secrecy.. 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. Amid the wreckage, colorful clouds billowed into the air from the convoy's parting gift -- multicolored smoke bombs. While they weren't the only private contractor to provide military security, the name Blackwater would soon be so notorious that the company would change their name. Despite the reports and investigations that determined that the use of force was unjustified, the Blackwater guards maintain that they'd "never take an innocent life. [95][96] Heard, Liberty, and Slough were resentenced on September 5, 2019 to terms approximately half the original 30-year periods. However, there's never been any evidence that the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire. The US government said in a memorandum filed after the sentencing: None of the victims was an insurgent, or posed any threat to the Raven 23 convoy. The memorandum also contained quotations from relatives of the dead, including Mohammad Kinani, whose nine-year-old son Ali was killed. In August 2017, the D.C. 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. 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. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Trumps education secretary. stunt double: Jasmine Waltz Kelly Bellini . [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. But such legislation is only as good as the oversight and enforcement that accompany it. [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. The shooting then turned heavier, Khalaf said, his eyes red-brimmed and serious. The UN has sharply criticised President Donald Trump's decision to pardon four former Blackwater . The case was consolidated with four other cases against Blackwater and on January 1, 2010, the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement and to withdraw their complaint. Employees of Blackwater (now called Academi), which was contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at unarmed Iraqi civilians while escorting a US embassy convoy, killing 17 and leaving 20 injured. The numerals and letters matched the family's plate. And Blackwater is not the only problem. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. ", Meanwhile, on October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed charges against Blackwater U.S.A. on behalf of an injured survivor and the families of three men who were killed during the Nisour Square massacre. [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. The team is suing Blackwater on behalf of the victims of the Sept. 16 shooting. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings", "F.B.I. FRANKLIN, Tenn., Aug. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- After thirteen years of political persecution and wrongful imprisonment, four U.S. veterans reunited last Christmas with their loyal families upon. [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. The order confines most Americans to a 3.5 square miles (9.1km2) area in the center of the city so that they are unable to visit other areas without traveling in a helicopter. [47], The U.S. State Department said it planned to investigate what it called a "terrible incident". 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.. 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. He thought the helicopters would start spraying those who were hiding behind the hill for safety from the street-level threat. Blackwater has made more than $1.5 billion in "security" contracts in Iraq alone since 2003. Recent episodes in U.S. 1:08 'Look at That Thing': Footage Shows. [99], Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. 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. [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". Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. Ahmed Haythem and his mother, Mohasin, were both killed in the Blackwater shootings in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. 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", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1151889827, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 21:36. He ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood. The deceased included nine and 11-year-old boys. [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. His forehead and brains were missing and his skin completely burned. The Blackwater guards also shot at cars, taxis, and buses. Although Blackwater denies using helicopters, "at least one [of] the car roofs had bullets through them.". At least four other Iraqis have been reported killed in that incident on Sept. 9. Sadly, this lawsuit may be the only way that the victims and their families receive remotely adequate compensation for their losses. Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. Inspired by the true story of a crocodile attack in Australia's Northern Territory in December 2003, a . With experience learned from a similar lawsuit filed two years ago against US contractors implicated in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Burke O'Neil is perhaps the only law firm in the nation that could so quickly gather eyewitness and victim accounts, make the right legal arguments and begin the process of holding Blackwater to account. 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. [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. "I raised my left arm high in the air to try to signal to the convoy to stop the shooting," he said, thinking that it would respond to such a gesture by a police officer. On YouTube.The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes This wasn't the first time that Blackwater was involved in an unnecessary shooting. 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. [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. Please try again. 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. [19] According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. But this was likely due to the fact that the U.S.Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which took effect in 2009, ended contractor immunity. I interviewed Khalaf on Nov. 30, in a small conference room inside a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. And he contended that the helicopters never fired on those below. [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. 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! The film documents the use of chemical weapons, particularly the use of incendiary bombs, and alleges indiscriminate use of violence against civilians and children by military forces of the United States of America in the city of Fallujah in Iraq during the Fallujah Offensive of November 2004 . An Iraqi man who survived an infamous massacre of unarmed civilians by American security guards in Baghdad has condemned President Donald Trump's decision to pardon the men as "unjust . Blackwater was even hired by the Department of Homeland Security during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and according to PBS, collected "more than $70 million in hurricane-related contracts. When Slatten was tried for a third time, the jury deliberated for five days before finding him guilty of first-degree murder in December 2018. 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. An order issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority in its departing days and still in force gives foreign private contractors immunity under Iraqi law. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under international law; however, the United States is not a signatory of the 1989 UN Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. That day destroyed me completely, Kinani said. Adrienne Ballenger . In 2002, Blackwater received its first contract from the United States government. The scene as the Blackwater convoy exited the square was also described to the group of lawyers by Hooby, a 32-year-old bank employee who was there on lunch break, returning from a failed attempt to buy a gift for a friend's newborn. Like Khalaf, Hooby said he never saw anyone on his side of the square make even a threatening gesture toward the Blackwater convoy. Raven 23's commander Jimmy Watson reportedly made the "tactical decision" to go to Nisour Square and block traffic for an evacuation route. Donald Trump has pardoned the four contractors jailed over the killing of 14 civilians. [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". Of the 17 that lost their lives, two were children under the age of 12, with the youngest aged 9 years old. Then the mother was shot dead before his eyes. 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 officials disputing Blackwater's claim that its guards had been fired upon or under any sort of attack. One of the Blackwater guards reportedly screamed "No! The BBC reports that during Slatten's second trial in 2018, a mistrial was declared after the jury deliberated for 16 days. "If you perceive marriage as half of your life, Mohasin was my best half," he said. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. In less high-profile cases involving US contractors, no one has offered anything. 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. His brother left behind a wife and four children. His brother's wife had delivered their first child, a daughter, just 20 days earlier. [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. However, according to Reuters, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, claiming that "the U.S. government had recklessly violated the defendants' constitutional rights." In Nisour Square, the Blackwater team later claimed that they were "engaged with small arms fire" by an "estimated 8-10 persons." U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident. The Iraq government's own investigation found no evidence that the guards had been provoked or attacked, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson called the shootings "deliberate murder.". Black Water is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich. [21]:116[22] The Blackwater commander, Jimmy Watson, had received an order to stand by and not leave the Green Zone upon reaching a checkpoint, but he made a "tactical decision" to advance to Nisour Square after waiting for a few minutes; upon informing the Blackwater Tactical Operations Center of this, he was ordered to return to the Green Zone. Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished. The New York Times reports that when Richter confronted Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's Iraq project manager, about this on August 21, 2007, Carroll became incredibly aggressive and told Richter "that he [Carroll] could kill me [Richter] at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq. 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. 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." 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. He hid behind the police traffic booth, but shots came directly at him, hitting the adjacent traffic light and booth's door, and he fled back across Yarmouk road to safety behind a hill.
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