From the Washington Post, “Four Blackwater guards found guilty in 2007 Iraq shootings of 31 unarmed civilians“:
Seven years after American security contractors killed 14 unarmed Iraqis by firing machine guns and grenades into a Baghdad traffic circle, a jury in Washington on Wednesday convicted four Blackwater Worldwide guards of murder and manslaughter charges in the incident, one of the most ignominious chapters of the Iraq war.
The guilty verdicts marked a sweeping victory for prosecutors, who argued in a 10-week trial that the defendants fired wildly and out-of-control in a botched security operation after one of them falsely claimed to believe the driver of an approaching vehicle was a car bomber.
The guards claimed they acted in self-defense and responded appropriately to the car-bomb threat and the sound of incoming AK-47 gunfire, their defense said.
Overall, defendants were charged with the deaths of 14 Iraqis and the wounding of 17 others at Baghdad’s Nisour Square shortly after noon on Sept. 16, 2007. None of the victims was an insurgent….
Much more detail at the link.
mai naem mobile
I’m wondering since Eric Prince relocated Blackwater to Dubai, would they be able to collect money from a civil suit. I’m figuring not only because I am figuring Dubai is not going to want to piss off any Islamic fundies.
scav
Oh, look, even Blackwater yahoos in a near warzone are held to a higher standard than many suburban cops.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: Alas, this rings of truth.
karen
No Eric Prince?
BGinCHI
I wish I could afford to hire Blackwater to knock off both Chicago newspapers:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bruce-rauner-dave-mckinney-resignation-sun-times
JPL
@BGinCHI: Some government official, whose job it is to monitor this site, is laughing.
kindness
Don’t drop the soap during your next hotel stay boys.
Yea I know…completely tacky and out of place in a liberal blog.
KG
And O’Rielly wanted an army of these fucktards running around?
Arclite
So, if you’re not in the army but a mercenary, and you kill a bunch of people, you go to jail? Who would have thought that?
Can we please stop contracting out for our national defense now? It is exorbitant and it doesn’t work.
BGinCHI
@KG: He knows they don’t shoot white rich loudmouth idiots.
skerry
Eric Prince has a new company, https://uk.news.yahoo.com/beyond-blackwater-prince-looks-resources-africa-121747973–sector.html#SlXv35F, with Chinese backing. They are “deployed” principally in Africa.
ETA: FYWP. Link didn’t go in right. The company is called Frontier Services Group.
BGinCHI
America prepared to freak over the guy who shot the soldier in Ottawa today, while Canada reasons about how to figure out how to make things better. Americans who want to vilify Muslims are tensely awaiting the news of a Muslim connection so they can go crazy.
Meanwhile a white, Christian armed man is roaming the PA wilderness after shooting a police officer dead and wounding another. He is armed and dangerous and at large. But since he has White Privilege, there is no CNN coverage and no fear amongst the xenophobe pantspissers.
This fucking country…..
scav
@BGinCHI: Well, just like fetuses v. babies and theoretical children that must be protected from damn near everything and those actual ones bleeding out in Sandy Hook, not even all cops lives are valued equally to those with the agendas and the fearfearfear pushers and addicts.
KG
@BGinCHI: we’ve all seen that movie. the mercenaries don’t shoot at rich white loudmouth idiots until the check bounces. granted, that usually happens in the sequel, so maybe he didn’t expect it.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I’ve been wanting to thank you for channeling my rage so many times recently. It’s especially appreciated because I am feeling so worn down by frustration lately that I can’t seem to express it myself.
Mike in NC
@Arclite: Rachel Maddow’s “Drift” should be required reading for all American taxpayers.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: I have an MA in Rage Channeling and a PhD in Fixing To Bust the Place Up.
Happy to be of service.
It all just makes me so tired. Playing with my kid helps.
JR in WV
Thank Noodly One they weren’t acquited! Must have been an unusual amount of common sense in the jury pool!
Also, about time, and also too, their boss (rich Eric) should be liable, he cocked them, aimed them, sent them on their way!
Tree With Water
Doubtless the three mercenaries are thought by Bush-Cheney (et.al.) to be good men they were forced to sacrifice. Lord knows they pulled out all the stops to derail the prosecution. Those responsible for fighting the good fight unto today’s convictions did the country and humanity real service.
Evil was unloosed upon the world by political gangsters in 2003. It’s disturbing so many Americans refuse to admit that fact even 11 years later, much less face the implications of what is, after all, America’s own infamy.
WereBear
This is a pleasant surprise.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Hmm, I might have to apply to that PhD program!
Even though I know this is just what the bastards want – they are trying to keep us discouraged and unmotivated – it does seem to have worked on me, which would completely piss me off if I had more energy. You are exactly right, it all makes me so tired.
And it’s not just politics, it’s watching police murder young black men and slithering slime trying to take away the right to vote.
I am going to vote early on friday and see if that gets my spirits up.
Culture of Truth
But how does this prove liberal disappointment in Obama??
Chris
@mai naem mobile:
I don’t know why he moved to Dubai, exactly, but I think the south side of the Persian Gulf is the best possible place for him. There’s a gaggle of oil rich despots in a region rocked with protests from a public that’s increasingly mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Erik Prince is surrounded with the kind of people who need Pinkerton thugs like those he provides, and who have the means to pay them insanely well. I sure wouldn’t want to move.
Also according to his Wikipedia page, “Prince describes himself as a libertarian and a practicing Roman Catholic.” Color me shocked.