blackwater mercenaries massacre

It wasnt. He had tried to run but was lying in a pool of blood killed by machine gunfire from the armored cars. "On what basis did Trump depend on to release them? [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. The convictions made the victims feel that justice had been obtained. Russian Forces strike Ukrainian Armys Electronic Intelligence Center in Kiev Region. The headrest next to him where his sister sat had a bullet hole through it. Since the harrowing Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007, the Blackwater private military contractor, renamed as Academi in 2011 and becoming a subsidiary of Constellis Group following a merger with Triple Canopy in 2014, has built quite a business empire for itself. The Blackwater mercenaries were among the most flagrant killers in Iraq but hardly unique. Mohammed had not been shot. Why did it happen? Mohammed quickly got out of the car and saw blood inside the rear window. The Iraqi government condemned the pardons, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying in a statement late on Wednesday that it would follow up with the U.S. through diplomatic channels to urge a reconsideration. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. 15 years after US Blackwater mercenaries massacred civilians in Baghdad 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. https://www.ournewearthnews.com/2022/03/04/massacre-in-ukraine-caught-on-camera-and-probably-still-unfolding-viewer-discretion-advised-please-pray/. Only. [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. Among the pardons made by President Trump this week, the pardon of four former guards for Blackwater has been regarded by some as particularly galling. U.S. troops were coming under fire in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities from the resistance forces. 'I hope she's scarred for life' Recalling my time as a Blackwater Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Trumps education secretary. [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. 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? WaPo says, 'Investigators for the military and the FBI later described . "Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future. I Sued Blackwater for the Massacre of Iraqi Civilians. Trump Just I represented the Kinani family and five other victims of the Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing at least 14 innocent Iraqi citizens that day and injured dozens more. By Andrew Emett - August 16, 2019 1269 SOURCE NationofChange He was told that he had to go to a neurologic hospital on the other side of Baghdad. 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. Hussein Saheb Nasser, 35, told NBC News by telephone from his home in Baghdad on Wednesday. Blackwater Trial: What You Need to Know - NBC News Mohammed was a businessman dealing in auto salvage. Dickinson says that the victims' families are likely to feel let down and abandoned by the U.S. government. Mohammed and his sister screamed for their children to get down. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the most publicized US crimes of the 8-year Iraq war. The black-ops of NATOs mercenaries in Ukraine were being directed from Ukraines Security Service (SSU) headquarter and the main center for information and psychological operations in Kyiv. Prosecutors said the Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. 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. What Is Blackwater? courts. 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. My law firm received a call from an immigration attorney the next year seeking representation for the Blackwaters victims, and I was eventually retained to represent the Kinani family in a civil lawsuit against Blackwater, Prince, and various other Blackwater companies and, of course, the men who were charged and eventually convicted of murder, manslaughter, and weapons charges for their conduct. [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. A 20,000-strong mercenary army is being assembled in Poland. Bullets were everywhere. That may be the overriding damage caused by these pardons. [100] UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said that forgiveness "contributes to impunity and has the effect of encouraging others to commit such crimes in the future". They left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State militant group overran large parts of the country. Victims were everywhere. In 2002, Blackwater received its first contract from the United States government. The deaths provoked international outrage and raised questions about the use of private security firms in war zones. [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]. 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 massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war. The bullets rained through the roofs of cars, taxis and buses, he says. Majid Al Kareem was 51 years old when he was shot. The Dark Truth about Blackwater - Brookings [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. [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. [1][2][3] The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. An Iraqi looks at a burned car in Nisour Square in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmukh, on Sept. 24, 2007, eight days after Blackwater guards who were escorting U.S. Embassy officials opened fire there. [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. A. They could not do anything for him. ", "By investigating these crimes and completing legal proceedings, the US complied with its obligations under international law," she added. Trump's Blackwater Pardons Reveal Security Contractor - JURIST Notorious mercenaries convicted of massacre in Iraq pardoned by Trump 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. American troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Paul Dickinson is a lawyer who represented six Iraqi families in a civil lawsuit against Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince (who is the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos). Blackwater mercenaries sentenced for 2007 Iraq massacre 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. Nassar Hamza was 67 years old when he was shot and wounded in the arm. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. [54] He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. Almost everyone who was killed or injured was shot in cars, taxis, or buses. [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. Machine gunfire tore through his body. Prosecutors asserted the heavily armed Raven 23 Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and grenade launchers. [17], Just before noon on September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where US and Iraqi officials were meeting,[20]:547 and a 19-man Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST) consisting of a convoy of four trucks, answering to the call sign "Raven 23", took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the US officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them. 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. Dickinson says the great expense that the FBI put into the prosecution of the case has now come to nothing. Erik Prince, chairman of the Prince Group, LLC and Blackwater USA, tesifies during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in 2007. pardon four Blackwater private security contractors, US announces troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was as if someone had targeted the area in his SUV where a persons head would have been. Ali was the youngest of Blackwaters victims that day. The men, all military veterans working in Iraq for the private security contractor Blackwater, were convicted of massacring 14 civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified rampage of gunfire and. Blackwater mercenary sentenced to life in prison - NationofChange The majority of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq after the . "We showed the world that we were going to hold people accountable," he says. Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes 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. The pardons have reduced American talk of human rights to mere "slogans," he said, adding, "They prefer animals over humans, and then they talk about human rights, justice and humanity. [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. They claimed they were fired on, but. Mohammed knew his sons injuries were fatal, but he had to try. Family members of Iraqis killed by Blackwater contractors condemn [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. Abraham Al Mafrage was a 70-year-old farmer and father of seven who was also shot in the head and died that day. [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". Despite the public display of uncharacteristic valor by sporting military fatigues and flaunting images and video clips of soldiers proudly standing beside caches of MANPADS and Javelins on social media, Ukraines conscript army was so frightened following Russias military intervention that it wanted to surrender territory and opted instead for mounting guerrilla warfare by adopting hit-and-run tactics from the safety of border regions of Poland and Romania. 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