NEWS & COMMENTARY 
Blackwater case dismissed
judge excoriates government prosecutors
Blackwater's (now Xe Services)
World Headquarters at Moyock, NC
January 01, 2010
UPDATE BELOW
A Federal judge today (12-31-09) dismissed all charges against Blackwater contractors for the killing of Iraqis in a shootout in Bagdad on September 16, 2007. The men--Paul Slough Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Donald Ball and Nicholas Slatten--were charged with manslaughter and faced up to 30 years in prison. You can read the details in the court's decision
by clicking here. A summary can be read
by clicking here.
The heart of this case is governmental bungling of the investigation, and specifically its violating of the Fifth Amendment rights of the defendants. They were forced to give evidence which they were told would not be used to prosecute them but then the government turnaround and prosecuted them anyway. The judge excoriated the prosecutors for how they handled the case.
Commentary
We are delighted with the outcome of this case. These men should never have been prosecuted in the first place and anyone who reads the facts as contained in the judge's decision, we think, would come to that conclusion.
These men were under contract with the U. S. State Department to provide security to American officials in Iraq. Most were highly trained ex-special forces soldiers. They responded to a site in Bagdad after receiving a call that a vehicle-bomb had gone off near the Green Zone they were hired to protect. When they arrived on site they were approached by a vehicle (white Kia) that refused to stop after being flagged to do so. Even after the driver was shot another man began pushing the car toward their position. The men testified they assumed the vehicle was another car bomb and that was the reason they attempted to stop the car. The convoy also came under fire from the surrounding area. Forensic evidence confirmed this.
In short, these men were doing their job and were attacked by insurgents in a dangerous area of Bagdad. They eliminated the enemy threat. For that our government prosecuted them.
We think this incident is but another example of how enforcing criminal laws on a battlefield is simply foolish. We suspect the same outcome from the trial of the Navy SEALS that is currently pending. And we view it as the same debacle as the investigations of the interrogators of the terrorists at Gitmo.
When criminal prosecutors force American soldiers (uniformed or contracted) to give accurate reports of battle incidents we do not think it appropriate for that compelled testimony to then be used to prosecute our soldiers.
This business of lawyers getting involved in combat battles and second guessing the decision that our soldiers have to make has reached the point of absurdity.
Fortunately this judge put a stop to this mockery.
But it should not end there. These men no doubt have suffered tremendously as a result of this prosecution, including probably what are astronomical legal fees. We don't believe they should have to bear that burden while these prosecutors and investigators simply walk away. The prosecutors should have to pay for the soldiers legal bills and they should then be prosecuted themselves.
This foolishness has got to stop.
Blackwater exonerated
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Originally Posted by Markas
