It was chaotic. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. It is unfortunate and sad that those efforts have now been wasted. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. The Nisour Square massacre was the FBI’s most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. The killings sparked international outrage. Mohammed was glad Saddam’s reign of terror was finally ending. courts. That may be the overriding damage caused by these pardons. [42] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. He thought they had been given a miracle after he saw so many others killed. 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. In this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo, an Iraqi traffic policeman inspects a car destroyed by a Blackwater security detail in al-Nisoor Square in Baghdad, Iraq. [69], In December 2008, the United States Department of Justice announced it was filing criminal charges against five of the Blackwater employees, and ordered them to surrender to the FBI. But he knew he was surviving as he kept yelling for the children in the back of his SUV to stay down. On September 16, 2007, Blackwater Security Consulting (since renamed Academi) military contractors shot at Iraqi civilians killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad. Being so close to the Green Zone, he thought someone important might be entering or leaving the area. He had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood — killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. [23], A State Department spot report published the same day as the incident stated that eight to ten attackers opened fire on Raven 23 "from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms" after the convoy had entered Nisour Square,[24] starting at 12:08 p.m.[25] The report added that another Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST 22), who had escorted the officials and TST 4 back to the Green Zone, was redirected to support Raven 23. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? There was no immediate response from the Iraqi government. [21]:32 Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more. What happened in Nisoor Square? Ali was slumped over against the glass. [38], 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. and thus prosecution by U.S. ... [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? [14] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. Majid survived because he was on the passenger side of the car and was protected from most of the barrage of bullets. [6][83][84] Jurors sided with prosecutors' contention that the shooting was a criminal act, not a battlefield encounter gone wrong. Mohammed turned his bullet-riddled SUV around and drove back to the closest hospital only a few blocks behind him. [91], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[92] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. Then one of his sister’s children said that Ali was hurt. They beat citizens and scorn them. "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. https://theintercept.com/2020/12/23/blackwater-massacre-iraq-pardons He saw the man next to him run. [26] 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. [17] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. They could not do anything for him. Almost everyone who was killed or injured was shot in cars, taxis, or buses. That changed yesterday with President Donald Trump’s pardons. Again, the result was the civil legal system exhausting every defense afforded to Blackwater and the men. [35], Blackwater, which had been operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license, applied for one after the incident, but the application was rejected by Iraqi officials in January 2009. [13] The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 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. "[101], Election posters at the scene of the Blackwater Baghdad shootings in Nisour Square, Baghdad (2010), : Couldn't parse JSON: Syntax error, Private Security Company Association of Iraq, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, 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. [24][27], 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. [71], The trial was set for early 2010,[72] 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. Blackwater USA began in 1997 by Al Clark and Erik Prince. As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. Iraq also refused to renew Blackwater's license to operate in the country. Then-Vice President Joe Biden held a press conference to tell the citizens of Iraq that they would not be abandoned. It was as if someone had targeted the area in his SUV where a person’s head would have been. The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. It wasn’t. As Mohammed held his son’s hand, he convulsed and died in the back of the ambulance. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. [22] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor, killing the driver. It was not an easy path in either the civil or criminal legal system. [38] The US House passed a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. Machine gunfire tore through his body. [61], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. Video of the aftermath includes an image of a human brain on the road in Nisour Square. 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. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police". 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