Blackwater indictments
By John Amato Monday Dec 08, 2008 7:00pm
via Bloomberg:
Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in the deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians in a hail of gunfire and explosives at a busy Baghdad intersection. The government said they displayed a disregard for human life.
The defendants chose to surrender to authorities in Utah today and were to appear in federal court in Salt Lake City. Government officials said at a news conference it intends to try them in Washington, where support for the war in Iraq isn’t likely to be as strong as in the western state.
A sixth Blackwater guard pleaded guilty last week to voluntary manslaughter and related charges, prosecutors said. The firearms charge against the five defendants carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 30 years and the penalty for manslaughter is 10 years.
Paul Bremer is probably not too happy right about now.
Blackwater is part of Bremer's Legacy: "The TROPHY Video"
Paul Bremer is responsible for many of the problems in Iraq after Bush gave him the power to run things there and Order 17 stands out today after the Iraqis gave the boot to Blackwater today.
Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer is expected to extend Order 17 as one of his last acts before shutting down the occupation next week, U.S. officials said. The order is expected to last an additional six or seven months, until the first national elections are held.
John Cusack's vision for his great movie War, Inc. came out of him being appalled by the Blackwater's that were created by BushCo. when the political climate in this country was not, let's say on the ball about these matters. In other words, he had a lot of trouble trying to make this movie. He had guts and I can't thank him enough...
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suppose they'll be pardoned?
Although the people that really deserve time most likely won't get it ie: dick and george and the rest of the republican idiots liars and dumbasses!
I have seen the Bush crime regime described was here. A poster, whose name I don't recollect succinctly summed up the the Bush Administration as 'A black stain on the fabric of the United States of America that will take decades to erase'.
There's a reason the assholes surrendered themselves there.
and I hope these indictments are the first of many. Throw the book at them all.
Blackwater has been getting away with murder, literally and figuratively, for too long.
This is good. A really good first start. Let's hope the prosecutors have the will to take it all the way to the top or where ever the trail leads. Really good day.
I saw that press confrence live earlier today. The video clip doesn't show the part were that DoJ mouthpiece is praising Blackwater for being an "honorable" organization and that these indictments should not reflect badly on Blackwater as a whole, or something like that.
Bullshit!! With carte blanche immunity from Iraqi law, provided to Blackwater for any actions perpetrated while in country, I can only imagine what this company of thugs got away with.
It would seem to me that, Mr. Bremer knew that something like this would happen, otherwise, why issue Order 17?
Immunity should be revoked, and these six, and any other mercenary personel who commited crimes while there, should be turned over to the Iraqi authorities to face full prosecution under their laws.
Exactly right! And let the Iraqi people be their judges and juries. That would be true justice.
This GOVERNMENT has displayed a disregard for human life as initiated by George W Bush and Dick Cheney.
This is a scam. They were indicted now, so that dickhead can pardon them. CYA and all that business you know.
I am counting down the minutes until this evil fucker gets out of our government.
as these guys were probably good Republicans and devout Christians. Being a Republican Christian, one doesn't get too maudlin about Muslims as all Muslims are going to hell anyway. Only through Christ can anyone get to GOP heaven, and consequently it doesn't really matter much how fast the Muslims get to that other place.
minimum of 10 years for manslaughter
minimum of 30 years for weapons charge
So killing someone is less of an offense than a weapons charge? Talk about disregard for life.
I don't know why you felt compelled to bring up John Cusack's train wreck of a movie. After looking so forward to a strong and much needed political statement, I was completely let down and bored to tears by it.
I loved it!
Voluntary manslaughter? Voluntary manslaughter??????? WTF? Opening fire on groups of innocent civilians "just because" is voluntary manslaughter? What kind of fucked up world are we living in? If those innocent civilians had been in New York or Boston would the charge still be voluntary manslaughter? God, we human being really suck sometimes.
Mr. Eric Prince, who started up and heads this bunch, is a "Religious Righter".....I am sure many of those who have joined up with Blackwater are from "Religious Right" as well.......you know, those PRO-LIFERS who think nothing of offing those - 'unbelievers'. I have never been able to figure out how PRO-lifers could enjoy being in with any group who enjoys shooting up people so much, or is it just the "power" angle???
Sick people. I wonder just how the sixth guy came to make a plea deal.
I hereby declare that anyone reading this is immune from prosecution for any crimes whatsoever.
Who reading that feels the urge to go hunting down people in cars?
What kind of person who finds out that someone has declared them outside the law then decides that murder is ok?
Nobody is innocent in this, not the asses who ordered the immunity - Bremer with his Order 17 and Bush with his equivalent Executive Order 13303 - or the people who picked up weapons and went hunting, or the people who witnessed it and said nothing or the officials who have been trying to sweep it under the carpet during the chaos that has been Iraq.
The irony is that Iraq may end up teaching the US about the Rule of Law among truly civilized people by insisting that this not be allowed to go unpunished, no matter how much the powerful bluster and protest.
I like the fact that all these Christian right-wingers believe in Hell, because they all have reservations there that cannot be canceled.
"pro-life" mercenaries "protecting freedom" by killing innocents.
...just another part of Bush's legacy.
They turned themselves in in Salt Lake City to try to force the prosecutors to try them in Utah, where they expect a sympathetic jury pool.
Blackwater Worldwide, formerly Blackwater USA, vs Al-Qaeda, alternatively spelled al-Qaida.
Christian "fundamentalist" vs Muslim "fundamentalist"
What is the common denominator?
______________________
Occam's razor: is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_World...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occums_razor
Why aren't they tried under Iraqi law, or is that only for non-Americans?
On September 23, 2007, the Iraqi government said that it expects to refer criminal charges to its courts in connection with a shooting involving Blackwater guards.[74] However, on October 29, 2007, immunity from prosecution was granted by The U.S. State Department, delaying a criminal inquiry into the September 16 shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians.[75] Immediately afterwords, the Iraqi government approved a draft law to end any and all immunity for foreign military contractors in Iraq, to overturn Order 17. The U.S. Department of Justice also said any immunity deals offered to Blackwater employees were invalid, as the department that issued them had no authority to do so.[76] It is unclear what legal status Blackwater Worldwide operates under in the U.S. and other countries, or what protection the U.S. extends to Blackwater Worldwide's operations globally.[77]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_World... See:Iraqi courts and legal action
Erik D. Prince (b. June 6, 1969, Holland, Michigan) is the founder and sole owner of the private military company Blackwater Worldwide.[2] Testifying before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on October 2, 2007, he gave his title as chairman and CEO of the Prince Group and Blackwater Worldwide, then named Blackwater USA.[3] RE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince
Note: Religious beliefs Christian; a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, raised in the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church[1] and Spouse(s) Joan Nicole Prince (deceased); Joanna Ruth Prince,
Children 6; 4 from his first marriage and 2 from his second.
_____________________________
Paul forbids divorce, but Jesus allows it under one circumstance. What is that circumstance? >>> If the wife has sex outside of marriage. --Sexism illustrated: in Christianity, only a male can divorce a cheating spouse.
"It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Matthew 5:31-32) Not only did Jesus contradict Paul (I Corinthians 7:10), he admittedly contradicted the Mosaic law (Deuteronomy 24:1), which allowed divorce on much broader grounds.
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What does Paul say about marriage?
"I wish everyone were single like me." --As author Ruth Green put it, the "Christian family" is a "Christian fantasy." Paul's belief that "it is good for a man not to touch a woman" (I Corinthians 7:1) led to the doctrine of celibacy and other warped teachings on sexuality. Nineteenth-century feminist author Matilda Joslyn Gage pointed out that this teaching directly led to such woman-hating abuses as the witch-hunts.
"For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I." (I Corinthians 7:7-8)
and none of it is consistent, unless one believes it is all the inspired word of a supreme being with a supreme mental disorder. The arguments back and forth, over centuries, about the bible's meaning are really as rational as starting cults in favor of Rudolph's nose being red with opposing ones favoring orange, and each of them further divided with branches favoring lcd vs. plasma.
Great news. But this is the tip of the iceberg of all of the violence that has taken place on the Iraqi people by US forces and contractors
Manslaughter? Go figure ... that's multiple murder if not serial killing. Eric Prince should be held financially and criminally responsible, as should GWB, Cheney and every politician who voted FOR the war.
The over-reliance on mercenaries in Iraq who are paid three times what our soldiers recieve and have largely been immune from prosecution is another point the Bush Legacy Team will likely spin or ignore.
Abolish Blackwater and imprison Eric Prince, he's a fucking terrorist for hire!
War, Inc. was - a - GREAT - movie? Really?
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