U.S. to appeal dismissal of Blackwater charges
The United States plans to appeal a federal judge’s dismissal of charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 people in Baghdad in 2007, Vice President Joe Biden announced Saturday.
Speaking at a joint appearance with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad, Biden said he was “disappointed” with the ruling, and that the Justice Department would file the appeal next week.
“The United States is determined to hold accountable anyone who commits crimes against the Iraqi people,” Biden told reporters.
The September 2007 shootout in Baghdad’s Nusoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and two dozen wounded. The killings led Iraq’s government to slap limits on security contractors hired by Blackwater, now known as Xe, and other firms…
Last month, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina found that…the government has utterly failed to prove that it made no impermissible use of the defendants’ statements or that such use was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Each of the now-former guards — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Donald Ball and Nicholas Slatten — faced 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
One of the critical examples of change offered by the Obama administration over the Cheney-Bush crime syndicate.
The Dems in Congress who hadn’t the backbone to oppose a Republican fiefdom are still there. But, now, at least, there is some leadership to direct their limpid commitment to history’s advance.
I don’t share your same enthusiasm. This prosecution was botched. Suspicious suicides in Guantanamo are glossed over with no probable investigation. Tortures and instigators, here and in Iraq and Afghanistan will get away with it. And Blackwater is still on the government payroll.
Mr. Fusion
January 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm