Justice Discouraged, Denied, Disparaged Nisour Square Revisited

Because of the jury finding of guilty for four Blackwater contractors responsible for 17 civilian deaths in Nisour Square, Baghdad on September 16, 2007, a window has been opened—never closed in the first place, but now a useful reminder—to the widening concentric circles of private security companies on hire to the US government committing authorized public murder for a handsome fee, the USG standing behind them, fighting an illegal war for purposes of strengthening its geopolitical position in the Middle East, and America’s wider counterrevolutionary posture fighting what now amounts to a desperate rear-guard action to maintain its unilateral dominance of an international system which itself is becoming decentralized with the advent of new power centers including Russia, China, Japan, Latin America, and an awakening Third World.
Nisour Square is revelatory of a dying Empire, America, solipsistic, fear-driven, ideologically rigidified, a military Behemoth yet, given its passion for privatization, insistent on mobilizing private armed force to supplement its troops in prosecuting armed conflict. Supremacy, at the cost of humanity—hence, at all costs. Before commenting on the trial which has just concluded, I’d like to step back, explore in some detail Blackwater, and also point out through a comparable example, the Haditha killings in Iraq nearly two years before, that the line between private and official/public has broken down, America’s so-called military contractors (the euphemism for mercenaries) and regular service personnel are in the field of operations practically indistinguishable. Blackwater is America, Haditha and Nisour Square, along with our other killing fields and atrocities, emblematic of a nationhood tarnished by aggression, imperialism, and capitalism (as manifested through the extremes of corporatism, environmental degradation, and the widening of class differences).
READ MORE: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/24/nisour-square-revisited/

New Blackwater Footage

 Part of channel(s): Iraq (current event)

New footage of the aftermath of the deadly Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad�s Nisour Square is being cited by Blackwater defenders as helpful to their version of events.
A new 10-minute video posted on YouTube that shows the aftermath of the violent Sept. 16 shooting incident in Baghdad�s Nisour Square is being cited by people close to Blackwater USA as evidence which could counter allegations of possible abuses by its security operatives during a shooting incident that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. The video, apparently released by the Iraqi government, shows a burning vehicle and what appear to be soldiers and armored cars swarming into and out of the frame. Some Blackwater people think the video is helpful because of what it doesn�t show: no bodies, no pools of blood, no ambulances or stretchers. On the other hand, it does little to resolve the key issues under investigation, such as who fired first and why.

Read more: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=08e_1194115885 

 

 

Getting Closer to the Truth about the Blackwater Incident

On September 16, a Blackwater USA security unit returning to base after having dropped off the person it was guarding opened fire at Nisour Square, near Baghdad’s Green Zone. When the dust cleared it appears that 17 Iraqis were dead. The Iraqi Government reacted with outrage, while Blackwater and its patron, the State Department, went into overdrive trying to persuade an audience back in America that the incident was justified. To those who were familiar with the situation surrounding security contractors in Baghdad, few of the excuses offered up by Blackwater and the State Department rang true. A team of FBI investigators was dispatched to study the incident and form some recommendations as to whether the matter provides grounds for a criminal prosecution.
Today the New York Times reports that the FBI investigation is nearing its conclusion and it has concluded that serious crimes were committed by Blackwater personnel. David Johnston and John Broder report:

Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case. The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

So the baton now passes from the FBI to main Justice to decide how to deal with the matter.
This is an appropriate point to consider two questions: first, how has Justice dealt with accusations against contractors in the past? And second, what legal basis exists to support prosecutions coming out of the Nisour Square incident?
READ MORE: http://harpers.org/blog/2007/11/getting-closer-to-the-truth-about-the-blackwater-incident/