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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBREAKING: Blackwater Mercs found GUILTY in Nisour Square killings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/verdict-expected-in-blackwater-shooting-case/2014/10/22/5a488258-59fc-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.htmlSeven years after American security contractors killed 14 unarmed Iraqis by firing machine guns and grenades into a Baghdad traffic circle, a jury in Washington on Wednesday convicted all four Blackwater Worldwide guards charged in the incident, one of the most ignominious chapters of the Iraq war.
The guilty verdicts marked a sweeping victory for prosecutors, who argued in a 10-week trial that the defendants fired wildly and out-of-control in a botched security operation after one of them falsely claimed to believe the driver of an approaching vehicle was a car bomber.
The guards claimed they acted in self-defense and responded appropriately to the car-bomb threat and the sound of incoming AK-47 gunfire, their defense said.
Overall, defendants were charged with the deaths of 14 Iraqis and the wounding of 17 others at Baghdads Nisour Square shortly after noon on Sept. 16, 2007. None of the victims was an insurgent.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)The cynical side of me (and it's all cynical today) believes that it will probably be some sort of fine.
Bryant
malaise
(269,157 posts)along with Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc.
brer cat
(24,596 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)justice for the losses they suffered. The are a danger to society and should spend the rest of their of their lives in prison. Then all contracts with Mercenary Orgs like Blackwater, Caci et al should be cancelled.
FSogol
(45,524 posts)underpants
(182,870 posts)The Pentagon wanted these types to not be susceptible to prosecution by Iraqis. We have SOFA's with every other country we have the military but NO not Iraq.
The Magistrate
(95,252 posts)It is in small measure, but it is justice.
reddread
(6,896 posts)seriously.
y'all Democrats, or looking to refight Vietnam somewhere?
she's your girl.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/22/blackwater-guilty-verdicts/
While Barack Obama pledged to reign in mercenary forces when he was a senator, once he became president he continued to employ a massive shadow army of private contractors. 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 administrations global war machine throughout his first term in office.
Just as with the systematic torture at Abu Ghraib, it is only the low level foot-soldiers of Blackwater that are being held accountable. Prince and other top Blackwater executives continue to reap profits from the mercenary and private intelligence industries. Prince now has a new company, Frontier Services Group, which he founded with substantial investment from Chinese enterprises and which focuses on opportunities in Africa. Prince recently suggested that his forces at Blackwater could have confronted Ebola and ISIS. If the administration cannot rally the political nerve or funding to send adequate active duty ground forces to answer the call, let the private sector finish the job, he wrote.
None of the U.S. officials from the Bush and Obama administrations who unleashed Blackwater and other mercenary forces across the globe are being forced to answer for their role in creating the conditions for the Nisour Square shootings and other deadly incidents involving private contractors. Just as the main architect of the CIA interrogation program, Jose Rodriguez, is on a book tour for his propagandistic love letter to torture, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives, so too is Erik Prince pushing his own revisionist memoir, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Prince, while a lowlife, wasn't there firing a weapon so unclear how he could have been charged.
And his complaint that Obama officials aren't being prosecuted for a 2007 crime is bizarre.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)The intercept is really proving to be a libertarian version of the Blaze
or something.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)First, employers are seen as directing the behavior of their employees and accordingly, must share in the good as well as the bad results of that behavior. By the same token that an employer is legally entitled to the rewards of an employee's labor (profit), an employer also has the legal liability if that same behavior results in harm.
Second, when someone is injured or harmed and needs to be compensated, who is the most likely to pay: the employee or the employer? Fair or not, the legal system is interested in making the victim whole, and assigning liability to the employer rather than the employee has the best chance of meeting that goal.
http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/liability-and-insurance/an-employer-s-liability-for-employee-s-acts.html
And Obama, after taking office, continued using Blackwater, and other mercenary operatives to wage war to conduct covert "dirty wars", including assassinations, all over the globe.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)and criminal law?
Respondeat superior is not the rule in criminal cases.
Whom did Obama assassinate using Blackwater?
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)for the actions of their mercs, oops, sorry, 'contractors' will NEVER pay the price of their horrific crimes against humanity. Just like Abu Ghraib. And if you think the very smart loved ones of the victims of this particular crime don't know WHO is responsible you haven't been following this story since its beginning.
But hey, let's defend one of the most incredibly insane Fundy war criminal right here on DU. There WAS a time here on DU, infact around 2007, when we knew who was ACTUALLY responsible for the crimes of the Mercenaries overseen by their bosses, from Caci, Blackwater among others. But something seems to have created a certain 'blindness' to what we KNEW and what Jeremy Scahill among others, consistently reported on and are STILL reporting on.
I wonder what that is?? 2007! Maybe there is a clue there, no?