They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. I took Mr. Carroll's threat seriously. Two days after the meeting with Carroll, Richter and Thomas were told by an embassy official to "leave Iraq immediately.". [29] The banning was described by P. W. Singer, an expert on the private military industry, as "inevitable", given the US government's reliance on and lack of oversight of the private military industry in Iraq. [70] A second civil lawsuit filed jointly by the families of six victims against Blackwater was settled on January 6, 2012 for an undisclosed sum. [54] He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. They arrived at the square while driving on the wrong side of the road. ", Ahmed "was my first baby boy," he said. They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. Trump Just Pardoned Those Convicted Killers", "Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response", "Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees", "Tracing the Paths of 5 Who Died in a Storm of Gunfire", "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1151889827, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 21:36. [82][20] On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed. The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. "Everyone loved him. In 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Slough, Heard, and Liberty were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. [19] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. And despite numerous failures to comply with its security contract, including a failure to maintain the required number of security specialists, the State Department never sought out the $55 million in penalties that Blackwater should've been charged. For a moment, it appeared as though Blackwater was going to be responsible for guarding the FBI agents, but the Bureau soon announced that the FBI agents would instead be guarded by "official personnel," rather than the very company that they were to be investigating. A Blackwater team was already there, with the diplomat, who ended up being escorted back to the International Zone without any incident. "I raised my left arm high in the air to try to signal to the convoy to stop the shooting," he said, thinking that it would respond to such a gesture by a police officer. It looks at the rise of private security contractors such as Blackwater in the era of modern warfare. He waited and waited, and eventually went home without them. In remarks prepared for delivery before a congressional hearing in October, Blackwater chairman Erik Prince claimed company guards "returned fire at threatening targets," including "men with AK-47s firing on the convoy" and "approaching vehicles that appeared to be suicide car bombers." Prince's remarks were subsequently reported in the Washington Post.). Blackwater was founded by ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997 as a shooting range and military training ground in Moyock, North Carolina. Blackwater has made more than $1.5 billion in "security" contracts in Iraq alone since 2003. [77] "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. He also maintained that he wanted to limit and reduce the authority of all security contractors, not just Blackwater, Timereports. and thus prosecution by U.S. His brother left behind a wife and four children. A rocket grenade was fired into one of the cars, killing its driver. After the September 11th attacks, Blackwater expanded their security-related work and followed the U.S. military into Afghanistan. Rogers. Share this via Twitter Prince strongly criticized the way in which federal authorities had handled the investigation and disputed the claims that U.S. or Blackwater personnel were to blame for the shootings. Five were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, New Hampshire; Nicholas Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tennessee, and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas. In the end, after seven weeks of deliberations, Slough, Heard, and Liberty were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and Slatten was found guilty of murder, since he was responsible for the first death in Nisour Square, Reuters reports. "Please, we want to live in peace, surrounded by friends not killers. "All of a sudden, I felt pain in my right arm and left leg, opened the car door, and rolled out," said Hooby. NOW ON DVD www.noendinsightmovie.com The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq's descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality . [46] On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day. [54] He served one tour in Iraq before being hired as a Personal Security Specialist in Iraq. Another young man, 27-year-old Abu Hassam, suddenly became the head of his family just a week earlier, when on Sept. 9 his older brother was shot in front of the family's carpet shop -- in an incident also attributed to Blackwater. [26][27] A U.S. Army convoy arrived at 12:39p.m., backed by air cover, to escort TST 22 back to the Green Zone. The numerals and letters matched the family's plate. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. "Conduct our deepest love to all the Americans who support and work hard to stop killing of innocent people all over the world," he said. The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. The scene as the Blackwater convoy exited the square was also described to the group of lawyers by Hooby, a 32-year-old bank employee who was there on lunch break, returning from a failed attempt to buy a gift for a friend's newborn. One of the Blackwater guards reportedly screamed "No! Some of the counts resulted in a mistrial, but none of the defendants got an acquittal on any count. [49], An Interior Ministry spokesman said Iraqi authorities had completed their investigation into the shooting and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. With experience learned from a similar lawsuit filed two years ago against US contractors implicated in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Burke O'Neil is perhaps the only law firm in the nation that could so quickly gather eyewitness and victim accounts, make the right legal arguments and begin the process of holding Blackwater to account. [63], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. But the accounts of Khalaf and others contradict each of Prince's assertions. An Iraqi looks 24 September 2007, at a burnt car on the site where Blackwater guards who were escorting US embassy officials opened fire in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Yarmukh, a shootout . Like Khalaf, Hooby said he never saw anyone on his side of the square make even a threatening gesture toward the Blackwater convoy. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators, World reports. As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each. The Burke O'Neil lawsuit may be the only way that victims receive compensation for their loss. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times The New York Times 4.26M subscribers 1.1M views 8 years ago In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American. Khalaf's observations are backed up by official accounts, including leaked FBI findings, which concluded that at least 14 of the 17 shooting deaths were unjustified, and statements by military. When he got out of his car to find out what was happening, he saw the convoy and the white car burning, and started yelling at the other cars to turn around. A few token prosecutions of a handful of Blackwater employees will not be enough. He watched as all four cars drove away as the 15-minute shooting spree ended, and huddled in fear as the helicopters began firing. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop. [14], On October 13, 2007, the FBI reported that it had concluded that at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis who died in the square had been killed without cause. [17], Just before noon on September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where US and Iraqi officials were meeting,[20]:547 and a 19-man Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST) consisting of a convoy of four trucks, answering to the call sign "Raven 23", took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the US officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them. Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. Haythem, the composed, articulate and powerfully calm father and husband of Ahmed and Mohasin, who died in the white car, expected them to pick him up at the health center where he worked that afternoon. [14], On October 2, 2007, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report stating that Blackwater USA guards had used deadly force weekly in Iraq and had inflicted "significant casualties and property damage". Donald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.