A federal judge cited repeated government missteps in dismissing all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a case that inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the case against the guards accused of the shooting in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.
The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead. The Iraqi government wanted the guards to face trial in Iraq and officials there said they would closely watch how the U.S. judicial system handled the case.
Now, among the problems the prosecution had was that some enterprising locals had picked the square clean of all brass, so there was no way to know who shot how much of what. Were the locals covering the tracks of the shooters? Or trying to recycle the metal? Who knows. What's been well-documented throughout operations in Iraq, however, was that terrorists hid among civilians and tried to use them as human shields to not get shot. In this case, though, the shooters had a different ROE than the soldiers did, and shot back despite the civilians.
And here's some more entertainment for you. Yep, the Iraqis - those paragons of justice - are criticizing us for sticking to our principal of releasing people that the government can't prove are guilty.
Ali al-Dabagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, said in a statement Friday that the government was dismayed by the court's dismissal of the case.
"The Iraqi government regrets the decision," he said. "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."
"The Iraqi government will follow up its procedures strictly and firmly to pursue the criminals of the above named company and to preserve the rights of the Iraqi citizens who were victims or the families who suffered losses from this crime."
Dr. Haitham Ahmed, whose wife and son were killed in the shooting, said the decision casts doubt on the integrity of the entire U.S. justice system.
"If a judge ... dismissed the trial, that is ridiculous and the whole thing has been but a farce," Ahmed said. "The rights of our victims and the rights of the innocent people should not be wasted."
Yep, we don't just lock folks up for being suspected of something. We have to actually prove that they're guilty. Oh yeah, we also don't catch criminals and lock them up, only to have overly-corrupt, religiously-motivated partisans let them back onto the streets.
Hey Iraq - fix your own house before you start criticizing the people who gave you the tools to build it.
By: Brant
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I saw this yesterday. "we don't just lock folks up for being suspected of something", you know, except for Gitmo. And the other prisons abroad. Oh yeah, and the Japanese in WWII. But otherwise that ain't our bag.
As for the PMCs, they really need to absorbed into the military task organization, and while they may be paid better, they need to have military control, and fall in line with US orders and activities. Otherwise, the hired guns are just criminals who are funded by our nation.
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