Iraqis outraged as Blackwater case thrown out

[babylonsister]

Iraqis outraged as Blackwater case thrown out

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer


BAGHDAD – Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.

The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge's decision as proof of what they'd long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law.

"There is no justice," said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. "I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards who committed a massacre in Nisoor Square."

What happened on Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007, raised Iraqi concerns about their sovereignty because Iraqi officials were powerless to do anything to the Blackwater employees who had immunity from local prosecution. The shootings also highlighted the degree to which the U.S. relied on private contractors during the Iraq conflict.

Blackwater had been hired by the State Department to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The guards said they were ambushed at a busy intersection in western Baghdad, but U.S. prosecutors and many Iraqis said the Blackwater guards let loose an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades.

"Investigations conducted by specialized Iraqi authorities confirmed unequivocally that the guards of Blackwater committed the crime of murder and broke the rules by using arms without the existence of any threat obliging them to use force," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement Friday.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_blackwater

[Frustratedlady]

1. They are not alone. n/t

[Chulanowa]

2. The solution is simple

Iraq's government declares blackwater a terrorist organization and either kills or incarcerates as many agents of this network as they can. If the US has a problem with this notion, we can always demand blackwater cease operations, cancel contracts, and use our own forces to herd them back onto the planes for the states.

I have no love or sympathy for mercenaries. Fuck them.

[tabasco]

3. Sue the fuckers in Iraq.

They have courts, don't they?

[G_j]

4. It seems to me, the government can deliberately sink a case..

"The disputed evidence concerned statements the guards gave to state department investigators, which they were told would not be used to bring a criminal case.

This limited immunity deal meant that prosecutors should have built their case against the men without using the statements."

[johnaries]

5. I don't blame them.

From what I read in another article, the prosecutors really fucked-up. The judge had no choice but to throw the case out. But try explaining that to the families.

We should not have been using mercenaries in the first place. But, it was part of the Bushco plan to privatize the military. At least that plan has been totally discredited.

[malaise]

6. And then they ask why these people hate

America.

[madokie]

7. The hate for America over there is thousands of times stronger now as pre invasion

We've all but destroyed their country and killed many of their citizens. If I was a betting man I'd bet there is not a family in either Iraq or Afghanistan who have not been touched by all this carnage. It has to stop and the only way it will is for us to just get up and leave. Leave them alone and send them some money to help them in rebuilding their country and make it paid for by the very perpetrators of this. 911 was the excuse but that is not why we're there. We're there for their oil and the strategic location they provide to the region where more of our oil companies oil is hiding under their sand. Being America we don't ask we take. It all sucks and it'll be a long long time before we live this down if our country ever can. we're for all times branded as a terrorist state. We're terrifying them people and thats all there is to it. I would do no less than any of them if I was in their place.
:hi:

[G_j]

8. k