Fed Judge lets Blackwater murderers off the hook.
January 1, 2010 by Dusty
From the NYT via Crooks and Liars:
In a significant blow to the Justice Department, a federal judge on Thursday threw out the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards over a shooting in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqis dead and about 20 wounded.
The judge cited misuse of statements made by the guards in his decision, which brought to a sudden halt one of the highest-profile prosecutions to arise from the Iraq war. The shooting at Nisour Square frayed relations between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration and put a spotlight on the United States’ growing reliance on private security contractors in war zones.
Investigators concluded that the guards had indiscriminately fired on unarmed civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified assault near the crowded traffic circle on Sept. 16, 2007. The guards contended that they had been ambushed by insurgents and fired in self-defense.
A trial on manslaughter and firearm offenses was planned for February, and the preliminary proceedings had been closely watched in the United States and Iraq.
But in a 90-page opinion, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court in Washington wrote that the government’s mishandling of the case “requires dismissal of the indictment against all the defendants.”
In a “reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights,” the judge wrote, investigators, prosecutors and government witnesses had inappropriately relied on statements that the guards had been compelled to make in debriefings by the State Department shortly after the shootings. The State Department had hired the guards to protect its officials.
Aint’ that some shit to start off the new year with?
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Good morning and hope for a productive and prosperous new year to evabuddy.
This is so blatant a “get out of jail-free” card that I’m curious as to how many young people who have followed this story will see this and begin their descent into true cynicism? ( I say “descent” because most of them will find voting for either side too unpalatable to be worth standing in line for, which is how most scumbag pols want things. )
This is yet another step our government has taken to enact two different systems of the “rule of law”. Just as Obama’s Justice Dept. has kept in place all of Bush’s secrecy policies, they’ve also upped the ante in keeping ordinary citizens from any recourse due to the government’s overstepping it’s own laws. And as predicted, the so-called ability to investigate the means and methods of the collaboration of the telecoms and spying orgs in the months preceding and following 9/11, have proven to be brick walls that prevent anyone from even looking at the evidence, nevermind actually charging those responsible with malfeasance.
Our cynicism is a wonderful thing for those who are allergic to sunlight.
Murdering aside, how can it be any good for our servicemen’s morale to be getting paid nickels next to Blackwater employees making enough to retire comfotably?
If we can’t fight another war without mercenaries and torturing people, we ought to give up war. It’s bad for everyone and it leaves a long lasting trail of stink.
ps. Trog, my cynicism makes yours look like a chapter of Pollyanna, but I toast you anyway!
Of course our service men and women feel fucked when they see these scumbags living high and mighty while they sleep in cots and make pennies on the dollar compared to the friggin merc’s.
Ah, but if we give up on war..wtf will happen to that all-mighty military industrial complex Robb?
Trog..I agree and concur Sir!
Whenever I see the ol’ “military industrial complex” now, I’m reminded that Eisenhower’s first draft also contained the word “congressional”. He should have left it in…
Oh hell yeah he should have Robb!!! Oh, and Congrats on your Fantasy win sweetie!!!
Dusty´s last blog ..Grayson slaps The Big Dick Cheney™ around.