National Security & Defense

unhappycamper

(60,364 posts) Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:50 AM Jun 2014

Iraqis testify in U.S. court about Blackwater shootings

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/06/iraqis-testify-us-court-about-blackwater-shootings

Victims and their families meet with a U.S. prosecutors in Baghdad, Iraq on Dec. 13, 2008 to discuss the case against the Blackwater Worldwide guards indicted in the fatal September 2007 shootings of 14 Iraqis in the Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

Iraqis testify in U.S. court about Blackwater shootings
By Matt Apuzzo
The New York Times
© June 27, 2014

WASHINGTON

Sarhan Deab Abdul Moniem was a traffic officer in Baghdad in September 2007, when a convoy of Blackwater Worldwide trucks pulled into his traffic circle and started shooting.

Speaking through a translator, in a courtroom just steps from the U.S. Capitol, Moniem explained to jurors how he had pleaded with the U.S. security contractors to stop shooting. He also said he had run to try to assist a victim inside a white Kia sedan.

“There was a lady. She was screaming and weeping about her son and asking for help,” Moniem said. He showed jurors how she had cradled her dead son’s head on her shoulder.

More than four-dozen Iraqi citizens like Moniem are scheduled to travel to Washington in the coming months to testify against the Americans who, they say, fired wildly on unarmed citizens, leaving 17 Iraqis dead.

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Iraqis testify in U.S. court about Blackwater shootings (Original Post) unhappycamper Jun 2014 OP

A Blackwater official threatened to kill a government investigator bemildred Jul 2014 #1

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

1. A Blackwater official threatened to kill a government investigator

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Tue Jul 1, 2014, 12:22 PM

Jul 2014

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On 21 August, 2007, the two state department investigators - Jean C Richter and Donald Thomas Jr - met with Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's Iraq project manager, and a US embassy official to discuss their findings.

The meeting turned acrimonious. Mr Richter described what happened next:

Mr Carroll said "that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq," Mr Richter wrote in a memo to senior State Department officials in Washington. He noted that Mr Carroll had formerly served with Navy SEAL Team 6, an elite unit.

"Mr Carroll's statement was made in a low, even tone of voice, his head was slightly lowered; his eyes were fixed on mine," Mr Richter stated in his memo. "I took Mr Carroll's threat seriously. We were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract."

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28101132

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