Blackwater guards to be sentenced in Iraq shootings of 31 unarmed civilians

[JonLP24]

Source: Washinton Post

Federal prosecutors called on a federal judge to impose lengthy prison terms at sentencing Monday for four Blackwater Worldwide guards convicted in the 2007 shooting that killed 14 unarmed Iraqis and injured others in a Baghdad traffic circle.

Paul A. Slough of Keller, Tex.; Evan S. Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; and Dustin L. Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., were found guilty by a District federal jury in October of multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2007, incident at Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

A fourth man, Nicholas A. Slatten of Sparta, Tenn., was convicted of murder in the incident, in which American security contractors fired machine guns and grenades into halted noonday traffic, a low point of the U.S. war in Iraq that sent relations between the two countries into a crisis.

Jurors found that the defendants, at the time among 19 Blackwater guards providing security for State Department officials in Iraq, shot recklessly and out of control after one of them falsely claimed that their convoy, called Raven 23, was threatened by a car bomber.

Read more: Link to sourcehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/blackwater-guards-to-be-sentenced-in-iraq-shootings-of-31-unarmed-civilians/2015/04/11/142a8aa0-de27-11e4-be40-566e2653afe5_story.html

[irisblue]

1. good & why were mercenaries doing security work?

aren't the troops used for that?

[JonLP24]

2. Not at all

Contractors are tasked with FOB security. In BIAP they used to throw a bullet proof vest on a TCN and hand him a rifle and have him guard the entrance checkpoint but I don't think they do that anymore because they'd have to pass background checks.

Security for State Department Officials would definitely be contractors or Blackwater (Academi) would do more of the important stuff. They often work with the CIA.

I was there in '06-'07, the military is just a cog in the machine. Defense contractors run the show.

[JonLP24]

4. More on that

In 2013, for instance, ACADEMI’s subsidiary International Development Solutions* received roughly $92 million in contracts from the State Department for security guards. More recently, ACADEMI, based in McLean, Virginia, and with 1,250 employees, received a $9 million contract from the Pentagon for private security services in Afghanistan.

In addition to protecting U.S. installations in the war zones, ACADEMI also has contracts to train Pentagon personnel heading abroad at the 7,000-acre training center in Moyock, North Carolina, which was built by Prince as the centerpiece of his Blackwater empire. The site features multiple firing ranges, a three-mile driving track, and two airfields.

The steady government work has made ACADEMI, like Blackwater before it, attractive to outside investors. In early June, ACADEMI joined forces with rival private security company Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings, adding even more distance (and name changes) between it and the original Blackwater.

Triple Canopy is one of several private security companies hired by the State Department to protect its embassies and consulates around the world. It had a particularly good year in 2012, when it received more than $200 million in contracts for security of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The next year it received $5 million more to protect the U.S. Consulate in Basra in Iraq

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwaters-descendants-are-doing-just-fine/

[DeSwiss]

5. ACADEMI’s subsidiary International Development Solutions = Fishy smell

- No executives listed?

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=140784107

http://feraljundi.com/tag/international-development-solutions/

[George II]

3. Anything less than life in prison would be a sham!

[Historic NY]

6. Still cleaning up after Bush...

if you don't vote then you trust the Republicans to act on your behalf.

[Hekate]

7. Damn right. NEVER forget who is responsible, and how LONG it is lingering. nt

[dicksmc3]

8. There's still more to convict and sentence

How about BUSH,CHENEY,RUMSFELD and the other NEO-CONS responsible for all the lost service men and women!!

[LiberalFighter]

9. They should be tried and convicted in Iraq.