blackwater massacre documentary

[16] The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. [37], Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held hearings on the use of Private Security Contractors in February 2007, said his committee would hold hearings "to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests". Black Water is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich. His forehead and brains were missing and his skin completely burned. The film, an international co-production of Australia and the United Kingdom, is set in the mangrove swamps of northern Australia, and stars Diana Glenn, Maeve Dermody and Andy Rodoreda. [8][98] A White House statement said the men had a "long history of service to the nation" as veterans of the US Armed Forces, and that there was strong support for the pardons from the public and elected officials. In November last year, he pardoned a former US army commando who was set to stand trial over the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker, and a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire at three Afghans. [19] According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. The film's primary themes are: AFP. [23]:32 Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more. "If you perceive marriage as half of your life, Mohasin was my best half," he said. At the sentencing, the US attorneys office said in a statement: The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants criminal conduct on 16 September 2007 is staggering., After news of the pardon emerged on Tuesday night, Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for one of the four pardoned Blackwater defendants, said: Paul Slough and his colleagues didnt deserve to spend one minute in prison. His brother's wife had delivered their first child, a daughter, just 20 days earlier. The man was Ahmed, a 20-year-old medical student at the top of his class, and the woman his mother, Mohasin, a successful dermatologist and mother of three. He identified his wife of 20 years by a dental bridge. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. In August 2019, Slatten was once more sentenced to life in prison without parole, Al Jazeera reports. Blackwater guards were also known for driving on the wrong side of the road and crashing into civilian cars. [24] The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. [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. The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. 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. Blackwater's contracts for protecting American diplomats also weren't limited to Iraq. Two helicopters circled overhead, each with a man strapped in and a machine gun sticking out. Share this via WhatsApp Amid the wreckage, colorful clouds billowed into the air from the convoy's parting gift -- multicolored smoke bombs. The State Department has offered family members $10,000 for those killed in the Sept. 16 shootings -- an amount most consider insultingly low and have refused. On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company. The Blackwater team also claimed that some of the "aggressors" were dressed like Iraqi Police as well as civilians. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. In other cases, investigations don't even get off the ground, because of lack of political will, limits in the extraterritorial reach of US criminal laws, and the absence of investigative units on the ground. The other three guards faced decades in prison; the weapons charges carried a minimum 30-year sentence under a law enacted during the 1990s cocaine epidemic. Khalaf's observations are backed up by official accounts, including leaked FBI findings, which concluded that at least 14 of the 17 shooting deaths were unjustified, and statements by military. [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? According to CNN, between January and September 2005, Blackwater guards fired their guns 195 times, "an average of 1.4 times a week." Sign up for the VE Newsletter https://www.vigilanceelite.com/newsletterErik Prince is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer,and . That day changed my life forever. 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. He waited and waited, and eventually went home without them. However, according to the Joint Audit of Blackwater Contract, the State Department offered little-to-no oversight of Blackwater's performance or cost, and often monthly invoices were "paid without adequate review of support documentation." We responded to a threat accordingly." "I raised my left arm high in the air to try to signal to the convoy to stop the shooting," he said, thinking that it would respond to such a gesture by a police officer. An estimated 20,000 to 35,000 private security contractors operate in Iraq, without adequate oversight, without adequate training and without adequate legal sanctions to hold abusers accountable. He was shot through the roof of his car as the Blackwater convoy drove past firing down into traffic. Unfortunately, Blackwater continued to operate in Iraq and the United States didn't cancel their contract. Sadly, this lawsuit may be the only way that the victims and their families receive remotely adequate compensation for their losses. The Burke O'Neil lawsuit may be the only way that victims receive compensation for their loss. [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. The Blackwater guards also shot at cars, taxis, and buses. If successful, it will be the first time the US government has held private security contractors criminally liable for abusive behavior directed at Iraqis. At first, this seemed completely normal for the totally abnormal world of Baghdad in September 2007. In less high-profile cases involving US contractors, no one has offered anything. (These remarks were never actually delivered; the Department of Justice launched an investigation the day before the hearing and asked the committee not to discuss the details of the Sept. 16 incident. The aide also said that the Iraqi government was pushing for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. But the accounts of Khalaf and others contradict each of Prince's assertions. But the Iraqis' hands are tied. The Iraqi government and Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul stated that the killings were unprovoked. We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police. In 2008, the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Donald Ball, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten (pictured, center), and Paul Slough, all of whom were Blackwater guards during the Nisour Square massacre. The four guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital. Private. The Nisour Square massacreoccurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of BlackwaterSecurity Consulting (now Constellis), a private military companycontracted 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. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. "It was a horror movie," said Khalaf, describing the aftermath of the now notorious Blackwater shootings. The Kia continued to roll forward after the driver was killed, according to an eyewitness, and Raven 23 continued to fire on it, killing the passenger (the driver's mother); eventually, the Kia was struck by a grenade and was incinerated. [29] Several sources have stated that the explosion was caused by a mortar round, though this is not reflected in the State Department's incident report. According to the civil lawsuit filed against Blackwater by Saadoon's family, Moonen was drunk when he shot and killed Saadoon "for no reason." With the contract to provide security for L. Paul Bremer, Blackwater essentially "cement[ed] its presence at the center of conflict in Iraq," per PBS. Interviews with victims and witnesses to the Sept. 16 shooting in Nissour Square bring to light more information about the problems caused by private contractors, which have effectively operated with impunity as they've brought violence and widespread ill will to US operations in Iraq. US President Donald Trump has pardoned four former security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving long jail terms for killing 14 Iraqi civilians, including two children, during the infamous 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad. In August 2017, the D.C. Despite the reports and investigations that determined that the use of force was unjustified, the Blackwater guards maintain that they'd "never take an innocent life. He learned that all of the bodies there were identified -- except for two that were completely burned with body parts missing. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. Some of the Iraqis told me that they don't even care about the money. This is the untold truth of the Blackwater massacre. [54], Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. Other times, Blackwater guards left a trail of civilian casualties. [28] Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter charges, and of using a machine gun to commit a violent crime. Prince's prepared testimony also asserted that one of the vehicles had been disabled by the "enemy fire" and had to be towed. Salman ran over to the car and as he raised his hand to stop the shooting, the Blackwater guards responded by shooting Mohassin dead as she clung to her son, reports NPR. [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. Join our movement today. [37], Blackwater, which had been operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license, applied for one after the incident, but the application was rejected by Iraqi officials in January 2009. With Georgia Chris, Amy Simon, McCayne Blomberg, Jenny Robinson. As the convoy stopped, Khalaf watched as a large man with a mustache standing atop the third car fired several shots in the air. They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors . Essentially, Prince wanted a "free-market version" of military training. The team is suing Blackwater on behalf of the victims of the Sept. 16 shooting. Blackwater was even hired by the Department of Homeland Security during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and according to PBS, collected "more than $70 million in hurricane-related contracts. They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. In Nisour Square, the Blackwater team later claimed that they were "engaged with small arms fire" by an "estimated 8-10 persons." One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Finally, around 5 p.m., he phoned his brother who worked at the hospital closest to Nissour Square. [99], Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. With tears in his eyes, Haythem described his beloved wife and son. The trial against Heard, Liberty, Slatten, and Slough began around June 2014 and lasted over two months. The screenplay was originally written by Stuart Beattie, with Roskam penning the most recent draft. The Intercept reports that others who tried to run for cover were killed by machine gunfire. Erik Prince said that he didn't believe the FBI had fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisour Square, arguing that it would have been helpful if the defense had been in possession of a complete ballistics report. However, there's never been any evidence that the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire. 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." On YouTube.The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones. Khalaf, who was there before the shooting began, said he never saw anyone fire on or approach the convoy. Although one military review found that "all of the killings were unjustified and potentially criminal," in November 2007, the FBI determined that only 14 out of the 17 killings were unjustified, according to Reuters. Ghasson Mahmood was a 55-year-old civil engineer. However, according to Reuters, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, claiming that "the U.S. government had recklessly violated the defendants' constitutional rights." 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]". This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another Kastigar violation. Blackwater has been one of the biggest recipients. Even in this case, the FBI did not visit the crime scene for more than two weeks after the incident, during which time State Department investigators interviewing Blackwater employees offered them limited immunity, complicating the prosecution. Khalaf recounted the events of that day to a hushed room of lawyers with laptops. In October, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released its analysis of Blackwater's own internal reporting since 2005, which found 195 shooting incidents in the last two years, including 160 in which Blackwater employees fired the first shot. "Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families," said Jelena Aparac, Chair . It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. From Iraq to New Orleans, it's continued to pull in multimillion-dollar government contracts, mostly without accountability and in near secrecy.. That lethal incident was a watershed moment that brought intense scrutiny to the problems caused by private contractors, which have effectively operated with impunity as they've brought violence and widespread ill will to US operations in Iraq. [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. I don't know how to manage my life or care for my other two children without her. 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. Their first contract, awarded in June 2004, was for $100 million for one year. 3", is named Paul Slough. Initially, they worked providing training support to law enforcement and the justice department, but as Prince once stated, their "corporate goal [was] to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal service." Director Mark Manning Writers Natalie Kalustian Mark Manning Stars Rana al Aiouby Tariq Ali Reza Aslan The New York Times reports that when Richter confronted Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's Iraq project manager, about this on August 21, 2007, Carroll became incredibly aggressive and told Richter "that he [Carroll] could kill me [Richter] at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq. Meanwhile, although Moonen admitted that he was intoxicated, he maintained that he shot in self-defense. The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times The New York Times 4.26M subscribers 1.1M views 8 years ago In this 2007 video, witnesses shed light on the killing of 17 Iraqis by American. Then the mother was shot dead before his eyes. [32] In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men, who communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. The 2007 incident in Baghdad's Nisoor Square caused an international outcry. ", Meanwhile, on October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed charges against Blackwater U.S.A. on behalf of an injured survivor and the families of three men who were killed during the Nisour Square massacre. But according to ICD, some of the plaintiffs claimed that they were "forced to accept the settlement.". In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. This time, only four out of the five guards were charged, since the charges against Ball were dropped based on "prosecutorial discretion. [84], The other four went on trial starting on June 17, 2014;[5] ten weeks of testimony and 28 days of jury deliberations resulted in convictions for all four men on October 22, 2014. Although Blackwater denies using helicopters, "at least one [of] the car roofs had bullets through them.". The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. I took Mr. Carroll's threat seriously. Action Drama Thriller A deep-cover operative awakens to find himself imprisoned in a CIA black site on a submarine. - 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. [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. This wasn't the first time that Blackwater was involved in an unnecessary shooting. In 2002, Blackwater received its first contract from the United States government. "I thought I was dying.". [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. (modern). The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police". [44] Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. [19] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. The film documents the use of chemical weapons, particularly the use of incendiary bombs, and alleges indiscriminate use of violence against civilians and children by military forces of the United States of America in the city of Fallujah in Iraq during the Fallujah Offensive of November 2004 . He described how he crouched by the car, his right arm reaching inside, his head out and left arm up in the air, signaling to the convoy, his gun secure in its holster. courts. [56], On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. 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", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1151889827, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 21:36. An initial prosecution was thrown out by a federal judge sparking outrage in Iraq but the then vice-president, Joe Biden, promised to pursue a fresh prosecution, which succeeded in 2015.

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