Blackwater guards in Baghdad shooting surrender

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

AP WASHINGTON – Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted for a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting have surrendered.

The men face manslaughter and other charges in Washington but they surrendered Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Utah. The Justice Department is preparing to make the charges public later Monday.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed in the September 2007 shooting. Witnesses said the heavily armed U.S. contractors opened fire unprovoked, killing innocent motorists and children at a crowded intersection.

Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq, says its guards were ambushed by insurgents.

The guards want to move the case to Salt Lake City, where they would find a more conservative jury pool and one more likely to support the Iraq war.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_on_go_ot/blackwater_prosecution;_ylt=AipUhODPUq4PiihnW1FVaTWyFz4D

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U.S. to unveil charges in Blackwater shooting in Iraq
Mon Dec 8, 2008 10:02am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI will hold a news conference on Monday to announce criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards over a shooting in Iraq last year that killed 17 civilians, legal sources said.

The department said Assistant Attorney General Patrick Rowan, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor from Washington, D.C., and Joseph Persichini, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, will hold a news conference at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on a "significant investigation."

The legal sources said the news conference would be to announce the charges against the guards, who are expected to surrender to authorities this morning in Salt Lake City, Utah.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4B73YS20081208?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[Jennicut]

1. Good but the higher ups will get off scot free

[SemperEadem]

2. Utah... that's cute

they think the Mormon's will acquit them because they bankrolled the Yes on Hate side?

[merh]

3. Want to move it to Salt Lake City?

What the hell?

Whatever happened to the federal rules of criminal procedure?

How do the feds have jurisdiction and doesn't proper venue mean anything any more?

[mike_c]

4. they should be tried in Baghdad by an Iraqi court....

Pigs.

[maddezmom]

5. Blackwater charges: 14 counts of manslaughter, 5 surrendered and a 6th plead guilty

Blackwater charges: 14 counts of manslaughter
Comments Dec 8, 2008 11:07 AM (12 mins ago) By LARA JAKES JORDAN and MATT APUZZO, AP

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards surrendered on 14 counts of manslaughter and dozens of other charges Monday in connection with an investigation into a deadly 2007 shooting at a busy Baghdad intersection.

A sixth guard admitted in a plea deal to killing at least one Iraqi in the shooting, in which prosecutors say Blackwater guards used machine guns and grenade laucnhers on motorists and bystanders. His guilty plea, likewise, was unsealed Monday.

"The government alleges in the documents unsealed today that at least 34 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, were killed or injured without justification or provocation by these Blackwater security guards," national security prosecutor Pat Rowan said.

In addition to being charged with manslaughter, the five guards also face 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. They are also charged with using a machine gun to commit a crime of violence, a charge that carrries a 30-year minimum sentence.

more:http://www.examiner.com/a-1732257~Blackwater_charges__14_counts_of_manslaughter.html

[sattahipdeep]

6. Merely a formal charging document. Immunity in exchange for their sworn statements

The public is reminded that an indictment is Merely a formal charging document notifying a defendant of the charges against him or her. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Five-Blackwater-Employees-Indicted-Manslaughter/story.aspx?guid={9C8BB021-D32B-437E-A8C1-B0A9CEE3539C}


Regardless of the charges they bring, prosecutors will have a tough fight. The law is unclear on whether contractors can be charged in the U.S., or anywhere, for crimes committed overseas.

To prosecute, authorities must argue that the guards can be charged under a law meant to cover soldiers and military contractors. Since Blackwater works for the State Department, not the military, it's unclear whether that law applies to its guards.

Prosecutors lost a similar case against former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr., who was charged in Riverside, Calif., with killing four unarmed Iraqi detainees.

Further complicating the case, the State Department promised several Blackwater guards limited immunity in exchange for their sworn statements shortly after the shooting. Prosecutors will need to show that they did not rely on those statements in building their case if those guards are charged.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtLfZVVNZF72Pzftxt21yza9lVwAD94SI54G0