blackwater massacre documentary blackwater massacre documentary
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. [10][11] The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news.. The team is suing Blackwater on behalf of the victims of the Sept. 16 shooting. [25], 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,[26] starting at 12:08p.m.[27] 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. [37], 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. Even in this case, the FBI did not visit the crime scene for more than two weeks after the incident, during which time State Department investigators interviewing Blackwater employees offered them limited immunity, complicating the prosecution. This contract ended up being extended into 2006 and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $300 million. Haythem identified his son from what was left of his shoes. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. [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. 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 . They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors . Even General David Petraeus and former ambassador Ryan Crocker, top officials in charge of Iraq policy at the time of the massacre, issued a joint statement called the pardons "hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.". With tears in his eyes, Haythem described his beloved wife and son. Inspired by the true story of a crocodile attack in Australia's Northern Territory in December 2003, a . A few token prosecutions of a handful of Blackwater employees will not be enough. [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. Blackwater has been one of the biggest recipients. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. [71], 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. Stuck in heavy traffic on the opposite side of the square from Yarmouk road, he heard the shooting start. [68][69], On September 24, 2007, the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior announced it would file criminal charges against the Blackwater staff involved in the shooting, although it is unclear how some of them will be brought to trial. 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. The Blackwater company itself wasn't charged. [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. In the end, after seven weeks of deliberations, Slough, Heard, and Liberty were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and Slatten was found guilty of murder, since he was responsible for the first death in Nisour Square, Reuters reports. 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. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Unfortunately, Blackwater continued to operate in Iraq and the United States didn't cancel their contract. 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. 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. [63], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. Rogers. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each. 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." [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". He learned that all of the bodies there were identified -- except for two that were completely burned with body parts missing. ", 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. [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. Multiple civilian deaths linked to 2016-17 British airstrikes against IS in Mosul, Lives torn apart by British airstrikes in Mosul give lie to UKs perfect precision war, Onthe frontlines of the Iraq war 2003-08 in pictures, Theaccidental journalist who covered the war in Iraq, Annalena Baerbocks feminist foreign policy focuses minds in Iraq, Long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms over international order, Iraqi customs officials ordered to impose import ban on alcohol, Scores of Iraqis injured in anti-government protests in Baghdad, Who will protect us?: Baghdad residents wait out fighting as city grinds to halt. In addition, the vehicles that were meant to protect diplomats were "poorly maintained," and during one party, four drunk Blackwater guards had crashed a $180,000 armored vehicle into a concrete barrier. [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. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. In the last month of his term, U.S. President Donald Trump issued pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. "I tried to help the young man, but his mother was holding him so tight," said Khalaf. Blackwater has made more than $1.5 billion in "security" contracts in Iraq alone since 2003. That day changed my life forever. 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. This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another Kastigar violation. He watched, he said, as the Blackwater convoy made the U-turn toward the street where he stood directing traffic. Convoy Attacked in Baghdad, Sparking a Shootout", "3 Blackwater Guards Called Baghdad Shootings Unjustified", "Blackwater Denies Any Wrongdoing in Shooting Incident (Update1)", "Iraqi leader urges U.S. to cancel Blackwater contract", "Iraqi Investigators say Videotape Shows Blackwater Guards Fired Without Aggravation", "House Passes Bill That Would Hike Penalties for U.S. Security Contractors in Iraq", "Private Security Company Association Iraq", "Iraqi Government Disputes Blackwater USA's Version of Shooting", "Iraq battle was self-defense, security firm says", "FBI takes lead in probe over Blackwater crisis", "Blackwater most often shoots first, congressional report says", "Report: Blackwater Killings Unjustified", "From Texas to Iraq, and Center of Blackwater Case", No forensic match for ammo in Blackwater shooting, "The Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Blackwater founder questions FBI work", "Overcoming post-colonial myopia: A call to recognize and regulate private military companie"s, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army, "Wounded Iraqis: 'No one did anything' to provoke Blackwater", "Blackwater incident witness: 'It was hell', Family Members of Slain Iraqis Sue Blackwater USA for Deadly Baghdad Shooting, "Blackwater Verdict a U.S. 'Snub' of Iraqi Leader Nouri al-Maliki: Kayhan, Islamic Republic of Iran", "White House: Contractor bill would have 'intolerable' effects", "Blackwater settles Nisoor Square lawsuit", "5 Blackwater guards face manslaughter charges", "Blackwater Guard in Secret Deal to Testify in Massacre Case", "US judge sets trial in 2010 for Blackwater guards", "Appeals court revives Blackwater shooting case", "US judge dismisses charges in Blackwater Iraq killings", "Reopening of Blackwater Case Confuses Iraqi Victims", "Biden Says U.S. Will Appeal Blackwater Case Dismissal (Published 2010)", "ICD - Slough et al. "All of a sudden, I felt pain in my right arm and left leg, opened the car door, and rolled out," said Hooby. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. [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. "If you perceive marriage as half of your life, Mohasin was my best half," he said. However, according to the Joint Audit of Blackwater Contract, the State Department offered little-to-no oversight of Blackwater's performance or cost, and often monthly invoices were "paid without adequate review of support documentation." Instead, it appears as though the massacre was started by a single bullet fired by Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater guard. Ahmed would count upwards of 40 bullet holes in their car alone. In less high-profile cases involving US contractors, no one has offered anything. [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. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. He identified his wife of 20 years by a dental bridge. 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. ", The State Department contacted Haythem and asked how much he wanted for compensation. And after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Blackwater won a $25 million contract to provide security for L. Paul Bremer, an American diplomat who led the transitional government following the invasion. Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. Khalaf recounted the events of that day to a hushed room of lawyers with laptops. "I tried to be patient," he said. Finally, around 5 p.m., he phoned his brother who worked at the hospital closest to Nissour Square. 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. Ali Khalaf Salman, a traffic cop who was there, recounted seeing an American shoot Ahmed. [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. [9], Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. The large metal rod implanted by the surgeon to help his broken bone heal properly is expected to be removed at the end of December. [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. 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. The White House further stated that the Court of Appeals "ruled that additional evidence should have been presented at Mr Slatten's trial", and recently that prosecutors said "that the lead Iraqi investigator, who prosecutors relied heavily on to verify that there were no insurgent victims and to collect evidence, may have had ties to insurgent groups himself". But the State Department representative kept insisting on a number. Other times, Blackwater guards left a trail of civilian casualties. [4] In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried[5] and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges;[6] all four convicted were controversially pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2020. stunt double: Courtney B. Turk Niko Dalman . In an instant, Ahmed was shot through the head. An Iraqi looks 24 September 2007, at a burnt car on the site where Blackwater guards who were escorting US embassy officials opened fire in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Yarmukh, a shootout . According to the civil lawsuit filed against Blackwater by Saadoon's family, Moonen was drunk when he shot and killed Saadoon "for no reason." There needs to be a wholesale reform of the way security contractors and those that oversee their work do business. Graphs are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues. and thus prosecution by U.S. The incident led to at least five investigations and although the Blackwater guards repeatedly claimed that their actions were justified, several of them came to the opposite conclusion. Their first contract, awarded in June 2004, was for $100 million for one year. According to Vox, investigators Jean C. Richter and Donald Thomas Jr. discovered, among other issues, that migrant workers were being used as guards for the Blackwater compound and Blackwater guards had neglected to even give them beds to sleep on in their living quarters. All rights reserved. Circuit ordered for a new trial to be held, stating that Slatten should've had a separate trial. [6][85][86] Jurors sided with prosecutors' contention that the shooting was a criminal act, not a battlefield encounter gone wrong. And Blackwater is not the only problem. According to The Seattle Times, the lawsuit was reportedly settled in January 2010, and the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to seek an indictment against Moonen. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". "We were always together. I interviewed Khalaf on Nov. 30, in a small conference room inside a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Then the mother was shot dead before his eyes. Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. stunt double: Jasmine Waltz Kelly Bellini . According to Tidings Media, one guard continued to shoot at unarmed civilians until another guard drew his own gun on him and threatened to shoot. [70] A second civil lawsuit filed jointly by the families of six victims against Blackwater was settled on January 6, 2012 for an undisclosed sum. In the wake of the massacre in 2007, the Iraqi government banned Blackwater from working in the country and cancelled their license. By 2007, the State Department started reviewing Blackwater's $1 billion contract and they discovered a slew of misconduct. From Iraq to New Orleans, it's continued to pull in multimillion-dollar government contracts, mostly without accountability and in near secrecy.. Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. The car rolled forward a short way, hit a wall and stopped, said Hooby. Another young man, 27-year-old Abu Hassam, suddenly became the head of his family just a week earlier, when on Sept. 9 his older brother was shot in front of the family's carpet shop -- in an incident also attributed to Blackwater. [26][27], On September 27, 2007, The New York Times reported that during the chaotic incident at Nisour Square, one member of the Blackwater security team continued to fire on civilians despite urgent cease-fire calls from colleagues. However, as The New York Times reports, "not one witness heard or saw any gunfire coming from Iraqis around the square." utility stunts He also maintained that he wanted to limit and reduce the authority of all security contractors, not just Blackwater, Timereports. Share this via LinkedIn And it's estimated that at least one other person died from the second shooting incident. Human Rights Watch reports that some helicopters above ever started shooting at the street below. The story follows Prince, a Navy SEAL turned billionaire, as he is dogged by a grand-jury. The pardons are one of several the US president has granted to American service personnel and contractors accused or convicted of crimes against non-combatants and civilians in war zones. [1] The ambush [ edit] [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. And despite subsequent trials, it's unclear if the victims of the massacre and their families got the justice they deserve. "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. 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. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Trumps education secretary. [99], Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. 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. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. That lethal incident was a watershed moment that brought intense scrutiny to 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. [21][75] In the memorandum opinion, Judge Urbina ruled the cases against Slough, Liberty, Heard, Ball, and Slatten had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity;[76] that evidence included statements the guards had been compelled to give to State Department investigators, and as these statements would have been self-incriminating, they could not be used as evidence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As he slumped forward, his weight on the accelerator meant the car kept moving. 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." [8][98] A White House statement said the men had a "long history of service to the nation" as veterans of the US Armed Forces, and that there was strong support for the pardons from the public and elected officials. 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. But according to ICD, some of the plaintiffs claimed that they were "forced to accept the settlement.". [7][8] U.N. experts said this "violated U.S. obligations under international law". At the end of the day, none of the Blackwater guards deny what they did, they just deny that there was any wrongdoing. [101][102] The Iraqi Foreign Ministry urged the United States to reconsider, declaring the pardons "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed".[103]. In other cases, investigations don't even get off the ground, because of lack of political will, limits in the extraterritorial reach of US criminal laws, and the absence of investigative units on the ground. "It was a horror movie," said Khalaf, describing the aftermath of the now notorious Blackwater shootings. He waited and waited, and eventually went home without them. The UN has sharply criticised President Donald Trump's decision to pardon four former Blackwater . One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. With Georgia Chris, Amy Simon, McCayne Blomberg, Jenny Robinson. He ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood. And he contended that the helicopters never fired on those below. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. 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. The security industry has evolved drastically since those events, and under the direction of new ownership and leadership, Academi has invested heavily in compliance and ethics programmes, training for our employees, and preventative measures to strictly comply with all US and local government laws.. [32] In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men, who communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. Assadi, 31, a stoic, unsmiling man, became the head of the family after his older brother Usama was killed in the shootings. The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, according to the report. "Everyone loved him. 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. [14], On October 2, 2007, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report stating that Blackwater USA guards had used deadly force weekly in Iraq and had inflicted "significant casualties and property damage". Action Drama Thriller A deep-cover operative awakens to find himself imprisoned in a CIA black site on a submarine. [3][84] Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him". 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. [18][30] Iraqi investigators also alleged that Blackwater helicopters fired into the cars from the air, as at least one car had bullet holes in its roof; Blackwater has denied any of its aerial units discharged weapons. (An unrelated bombing in a nearby market cut the shopping trip short.) [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. [87], On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. Five were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, New Hampshire; Nicholas Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tennessee, and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas. "Convoys are common," explained Khalaf. Fifteen minutes later, the four-car convoy continued around the square and drove away. [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. Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, recently said his company is spending $2 million a month in legal .
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