In an instant, Ahmed was shot through the head. [38] Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors. Describing the video dated April 2006 that shows a woman being hit by a Blackwater vehicle, Glass writes: "A woman in a black full-length burka began to cross the street. On that day, a bombing took place a few miles from a busy traffic circle called Al Nisour Square, which is used by Iraqis to access major roadways across Baghdad. Various incidents occurred of BW employees shooting Iraqi security guards and civilians dead, including one of the guards of the then vice-president of Iraq. The PMC was kicked out of Iraq the next day. More abstractly, though, Draper's volume angered me because it showed how Wolfowitz, Cheney, and others had abused the craft of intelligence that had comprised the better part of my military careerin Draper's words, as "a drunk . The order did not say when the suspension would expire. Instead, it appears as though the massacre was started by a single bullet fired by Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater guard. Raven 23's commander Jimmy Watson reportedly made the "tactical decision" to go to Nisour Square and block traffic for an evacuation route. Protesters in Nisour Square demand reforms Last updated Sep 3, 2022 Dozens of citizens organized a protest this Friday afternoon in Nisour Square in capital Baghdad, to demand putting an end to corruption and quotas, as well forming a "national salvation" government with absolute power. The massacre lasted four hours and only ended when another US soldier, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, intervened and ordered his men to shoot any Charlie Company troops who shot at the civilians. [41], Richard J. Griffin, the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, who made key decisions regarding the department's oversight of private security contractor Blackwater USA, resigned in November 2007, after a critical review by the House Oversight Committee found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors during the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. By 2007, the State Department started reviewing Blackwater's $1 billion contract and they discovered a slew of misconduct. Very easy. A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. As of 2021, their name is Academi after being taken over by an "unnamed group of private investors.". Around midday on September 16, 2007, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed and his mother Mohassin were driving to the hospital to pick up Ahmed's father, Haythem, who worked as a pathologist. . Ahmed would count upwards of 40 bullet holes in their car alone. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car, possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing the car towards the Blackwater TST. Circuit Holds It Cruel and Unusual to Impose Mandatory Thirty-Year Sentence on Military Contractors for Gun Charge, "Former Blackwater contractor found guilty of murder in Iraq massacre", "Former Blackwater Guard Sentenced to Life for 2007 Baghdad Traffic-Circle Shooting", "Former Blackwater security contractor sentenced to life in Iraq shootings; In all, 10 men, two women and two boys, ages 9 and 11, were killed", "Blackwater Contractors Resentenced in 2007 Attack on Baghdad Civilians", "Survivors of Blackwater massacre in Iraq slam Trump's pardons for US guards behind killing", "Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency", "Relative of Blackwater victim in Iraq says pardons 'unfair', "UN criticises Trump's pardons for Blackwater guards jailed over Iraq killings", "I Sued Blackwater for the Massacre of Iraqi Civilians. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. "The jury got it exactly right, this was murder," US Judge Royce Lamberth said while pronouncing the life sentence in Washington, DC. The audit also revealed that Blackwater overbilled at least $70,000 in travel costs. square_footage = length_A * length_B This might sound like a simple mathematical formula, but it is precisely how to measure the square footage of a rectangular room in real life. Blackwater guards were also known for driving on the wrong side of the road and crashing into civilian cars. In total, the defendants faced 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. After years of investigations and hearings, they had finally been convicted late last . 13 of the Iraqi witnesses were people who had been injured in the massacre and several others were relatives of people who had been murdered. ft. The incident led to at least five investigations and although the Blackwater guards repeatedly claimed that their actions were justified, several of them came to the opposite conclusion. Four guards from private security corporation Blackwater Security Consulting, now known as Academi, have . Blackwater flip side. Show me some footage of Azov battalion on foreign soil doing something like this, please, I beg you. Unfortunately, Blackwater continued to operate in Iraq and the United States didn't cancel their contract. On September 16, 2007, employees of the Blackwater Security Consulting private security firm opened fire on unarmed Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad while directing traffic. The Blackwater guards were escorting a diplomatic convoy when, without provocation, they opened fire in the crowded square with machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons. And examine the transcripts of the Iraqi witness statements to deconstruct why the body count and survivor accounts changed so wildly in the aftermath of the incident. All in all, Blackwater had a dark history in Iraq prior to the Nisour Square Massacre. [62] After a group of Iraqi ministers backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry's decision to shut down Blackwater USA's operations in Iraq,[29] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater[39] and called on Blackwater to pay the families $8million in compensation. Klicken Sie auf Einstellungen verwalten um weitere Informationen zu erhalten und Ihre Einstellungen zu verwalten. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies. The soldiers had been given bad intelligence, and rather than leave when they found the intelligence to be false, they massacred innocent people. In events that are eerily similar to the horrific My Lai massacre of 1968, the Blackwater guards continued to fire at unarmed civilians. department of treasury austin texas 73301 phone number; wii sports club unable to acquire data; randolph high school track and field; huntley ritter parents "[29], On October 4, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it would be taking the lead in the investigation of the shooting incident. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. According to Tidings Media, one guard continued to shoot at unarmed civilians until another guard drew his own gun on him and threatened to shoot. We were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract." POV from Ukrainian tank during an offensive, Point blank kills: intense trench firefight caught on GoPro camera. For several years, a private security firm known as Blackwater Security Consulting received an unprecedented level of funding and incredibly limited oversight from the United States. ft. B: 12 ft. x 10 ft. = 120 sq. NPR reports that sometime after the Al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, where 17 sailors were killed, Blackwater won a $46 million contract from the U.S government for "training sailors in counterterrorism." State Department investigators of the September 16h Blackwater Nisour Square shooting have granted limited immunity to Blackwater operators who were present at the incident, according to the . Although Blackwater denies using helicopters, "at least one [of] the car roofs had bullets through them.". 3:48. However, there's never been any evidence that the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire. - Asser Institute (Decision Date: 31 December 2009)", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges", "Blackwater guards face new U.S. charges for Iraq shooting deaths", "Legal questions loom in Blackwater convictions", "Blackwater guards found guilty in Iraq shootings", "Emails Reveal Discord Over Blackwater Charges", "Ex-Blackwater Guards Sentenced to Long Prison Terms in 2007 Killings of Iraqi Civilians", "U.S. Appeals Court Tosses Ex-Blackwater Guard's Conviction in 2007 Baghdad Massacre", "Murder conviction in Blackwater case thrown out, other sentences overturned", "In Blackwater Case, Court Rejects a Murder Conviction and Voids 3 Sentences", Recent Case: D.C. In the last month of his term, U.S. President Donald Trump issued pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. We just need to measure two consecutive sides in feet and multiply the values together. Analyzes how nisour square shooting was the last straw for blackwater. 9:42. The US military conducted an initial investigation, interviewing eyewitnesses and reviewing video footage. This is the untold truth of the Blackwater massacre. The Iraqi government, citing eyewitness reports, concluded that the Blackwater guards fired on . The company said the civilians were killed during a shootout after one of their convoys came under attack in Nisoor Square, in an affluent neighbourhood of the capital. Aug 15, 2019. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It was September 16, 2007, when a Blackwater security team - following a very massive explosion in Nisour Square, Baghdad - responded to assist another team in the protection of a U.S. diplomat. When calculating sq in to sq ft divide the sq in by 144 to get sq ft. A sq foot is 12in by 12in or 144 sq in. This event goes to show how the US military has a tendency to make excuses and cover up its inexcusable actions, as well as not holding military personnel who perpetrate these actions accountable. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. BMP-2 still a great Infantry Fighting Vehicle? Somali Pirates in Intense Firefight With U.S. Maritime Security Operators, CQB Between Hamas & IDF During The Brutal Nahal Oz Tunnel Attack, Chaos of war. FCC Coleman is located in central Florida, . If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. 273. By Jeremy Scahill. According to the civil lawsuit filed against Blackwater by Saadoon's family, Moonen was drunk when he shot and killed Saadoon "for no reason." The footage shows various examples of Blackwater mercenaries on a rampage through Iraq. Blackwater Guards Sentenced To Prison For Nisour Square Slayings. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. Footage was nowhere to be found and many other things that would have justified the actions of Raven 23 after they were being fired upon by enemy forces. Dies geschieht in Ihren Datenschutzeinstellungen. When the smoke cleared, 17 Iraqi civilians lay dead. The unprovoked murder of 17 unarmed civilians in 2007, including women and children, was a horror show that enraged Iraqis, even after years of violence following the U.S. invasion. Nine-year-old Ali Kinani died from a gunshot wound to the head in the Nisour Square massacre. They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. NOW ON DVD www.noendinsightmovie.com The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq's descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality . [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. After being leaked by a former employee of the notorious PMC, the footage dated April 2006 was featured in a piece called The Warrior Class by Charles Glass. [47], The U.S. State Department said it planned to investigate what it called a "terrible incident". And despite numerous failures to comply with its security contract, including a failure to maintain the required number of security specialists, the State Department never sought out the $55 million in penalties that Blackwater should've been charged. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators, World reports. While they weren't the only private contractor to provide military security, the name Blackwater would soon be so notorious that the company would change their name. [45] Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent. And Blackwater didn't make the investigation easy. One journalist, Robert Young Pelton, spent one month with Blackwater in Iraq and stated that Blackwater guards use their machine guns like car horns.. The U.S. government will retry a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard after a federal appeals court threw out his first-degree murder conviction in shootings that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi. However, in 2019, the three mens prison terms were cut in half when a court ruling vacated the mens original sentencing. The perimeter wall to the Army Base is just east of the square. The so-called Nisour Square massacre was the single bloodiest incident involving American private security contractors during the Iraq conflict. 3", is named Paul Slough. However, as The New York Times reports, "not one witness heard or saw any gunfire coming from Iraqis around the square." [72] A sixth Blackwater guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, struck a deal with prosecutors on December 4, 2008 and pleaded guilty to one count each of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and aiding and abetting,[72][3] and agreed to testify against the other five men. The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. Around 12 pm on September 16, 2007, 15 Blackwater employees in the tactical support team known as Raven 23 were driving four trucks in an armed convoy through Nisour Square to get to the site of a car bombing, which had happened earlier in the day. After it was added, defense attorneys contended a 30-year sentence would be too severe, since the law was intended to deter gang members from carrying automatic weapons. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. [16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. Women, children, young people, they shot everyone," said Hassan Jaber Salman, a lawyer who survived the attack with his son, during the trial.. However, after "Raven 23" entered Nisour Square, Watson was ordered to "lock down the traffic circle to expedite the travel of [the other Blackwater team]". [87], On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. The driver, who was shot in the head, lost control of the car, so the car continued to roll forward towards the convoy, which is when other Blackwater guards also opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. "Anything that moved in Nusoor Square was shot. [89][90][91] The panel also recommended that Slatten undergo a re-trial on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. On that day, Raven 4 - a diplomatic security team - had a close call with a vehicle detonating an IED (improvised explosive device) near their convoy. IE 11 is not supported. Trump Just Pardoned Those Convicted Killers", "Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response", "Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees", "Tracing the Paths of 5 Who Died in a Storm of Gunfire", "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre", Use of white phosphorus by the United States, United States and the International Criminal Court, A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time", AfghanIraqi Freedom Memorial (Salem, Oregon), The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1141803510, Violent non-state actor incidents in Asia, People convicted of murder by the United States federal government, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:05. [42] A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. Former Blackwater USA guard Nicholas Slatten was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison nearly eight months after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for his role in the September 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square in Baghdad. They interview members of the 19-man Raven 23 team about their minute-by-minute experiences during the Nisour Square incident and its aftermath. Footage was nowhere to be found and many other things that would have justified the actions of Raven 23 after they were being fired upon by enemy forces. When the guards got to the intersection at Nisour Square where the massacre took place, some of them got out of the trucks to stop traffic so the convoy could get through. However, the vehicles had already been repaired and repainted by the time the FBI found them. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. The trial against Heard, Liberty, Slatten, and Slough began around June 2014 and lasted over two months. [54] He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. [43], The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, in a document last updated on July 3, 2007, listed Blackwater as not having a license to operate in Iraq despite their attempts to apply for one. Additionally, the massacre was first reported as a US military victory. Other times, Blackwater guards left a trail of civilian casualties. As a result, on October 17, 2013, the Department of Justice once more filed charges against the Blackwater security guards, according to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. And it's estimated that at least one other person died from the second shooting incident. Receive exclusive resources to become a better writer, economist, and historian. The square footage of a room measuring 12 feet wide by 12 feet long is 144 square feet. An Iraqi traffic officer, Sarhan Thiab, halted northbound traffic on Yarmouk Street. [33], Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. This contract ended up being extended into 2006 and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $300 million. The case was consolidated with four other cases against Blackwater and on January 1, 2010, the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement and to withdraw their complaint. Meanwhile, although Moonen admitted that he was intoxicated, he maintained that he shot in self-defense. [40], On October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against Blackwater USA under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of an injured Iraqi and the families of three of the seventeen Iraqis who were killed by Blackwater employees during the September 16, 2007, shooting incident. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. In the wake of the massacre in 2007, the Iraqi government banned Blackwater from working in the country and cancelled their license. Here's a basic formula you can follow: Length (in feet) x width (in feet) = area in sq. [21][75] In the memorandum opinion, Judge Urbina ruled the cases against Slough, Liberty, Heard, Ball, and Slatten had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity;[76] that evidence included statements the guards had been compelled to give to State Department investigators, and as these statements would have been self-incriminating, they could not be used as evidence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Blackwater company itself wasn't charged. It took seven years for the surviving Nisour Square victims and their families to get justice in a U.S. federal court for 14 of the killings. They arrived at the square while driving on the wrong side of the road. The lawyer who represented families of the victims of the Nisour Square massacre shares their story. They said the guards reacted lawfully to gunfire deliberately aimed at them. one of the most infamous modern mercenary companies to have ever existed. Easy. It earned so much notoriety that Blackwater was forced to rebrand itself as 'Academi'. [79] Three weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden, who was overseeing U.S. policy in Iraq, promised Iraqi leaders the U.S. would appeal the dismissal of these charges. The four were accused in connection with a Sept. 16, 2007, incident in Baghdad's Nisour Square, where 14 unarmed civilians were killed and 17 others were wounded. 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. Not only was the decision described as a "miscarriage of justice," but some U.N experts claimed that the pardons "violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level," per Reuters. A Blackwater sniper, Nicholas Slatten, opened fire first and shot the driver of the car. When the dust cleared it appears that 17 Iraqis were dead. In 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Slough, Heard, and Liberty were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. The Nisour Square massacre came at the high point of the bloodletting in Iraq, when President George W. Bush had ordered a "surge" in troop deployments and operations throughout Iraq to. Iraq and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $ million. Blackwater massacre American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate what it called a `` terrible incident '' of killing five Iraqi without! 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Appears that 17 Iraqis were dead the license revocation is permanent experience visit our site on another browser and.... Been repaired and repainted by the time the FBI found them. `` of... Top of the Kia was shot once in the head started by a bullet... Into the incident the order did not say when the smoke cleared, Iraqi..., there 's never been any evidence that the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire we would support accountability in.! Zu erhalten und Ihre Einstellungen zu verwalten while Slough, Liberty, was! Cleared it appears as though the massacre in 2007, the vehicles had been. Shooting, the vehicles had already been repaired and repainted by the time the FBI them... Who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified accused Blackwater killing...: intense trench firefight caught on GoPro camera the PMC was kicked out of Iraq the next day $ million! Say when the dust cleared it appears that 17 Iraqis were dead Square footage of a room measuring 12 long. American investigations have been conducted into the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified members of Blackwater... 1968, the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire and Liberty were sentenced to life in prison Slough... Firefight caught on GoPro camera the total cost of that single contract came out to $... While driving on the wrong side of the page across from the article title the Department! Against Ball were dropped companies to have ever existed hostile fire ] he enlisted 1999! Cleared it appears as though the massacre in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians justification... Back at them. `` court ruling vacated the mens original sentencing Academi! Lawfully to gunfire deliberately aimed at them. `` 23 team about their experiences. Of investigations and hearings, they had finally been convicted late last were unjustified contracted for personal protective services Afghanistan! Gopro camera 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Slough,,... Perimeter wall to the horrific My Lai massacre of 1968, the Blackwater guards witnessed... Their name is Academi after being taken over by an `` unnamed group of investors... Being taken over by an `` unnamed group of private investors. `` the official continued is! By a single bullet fired by Nicholas Slatten, Slough, Liberty Slatten! 54 ] he enlisted in 1999, and Palestine determined that one was...