Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Blackwater comes under attack in Baghdad, beginning with this massive IED

*** UPDATE:

RAW DATA: Read the Indictment (pdf)

Blackwater Security Guards Surrender in Utah

WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards surrendered on 14 counts of manslaughter and dozens of other charges Monday in connection with an investigation into a deadly 2007 shooting at a busy Baghdad intersection.

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Neither the guards nor their attorneys spoke to reporters as they entered the courthouse. Though the case has already been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina in Washington, attorneys want the case moved to Utah, where they would presumably find a more conservative jury pool and one more likely to support the Iraq war.

The guards face the prospect of 30-year mandatory prison terms under the anti-machine gun law passed during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. A sixth guard struck a plea deal in Washington to avoid that lengthy sentence. Details of the deal remain sealed in Washington but could be made public later Monday, when the Justice Department holds a news conference to discuss the case.

The indicted guards are Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.; and Paul Slough, an Army veteran from Keller, Texas.

The sixth guard has not been identified.

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Defense attorneys accused the Justice Department of bowing to Iraqi pressure .

“We are confident that any jury will see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution to appease the Iraqi government,” said defense attorney Steven McCool, who represents Ball.

Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater is the largest security contractor in Iraq and provides heavily armed guards for diplomats. Since last year’s shooting, the company has been a flash point in the debate over how heavily the U.S. relies on contractors in war zones.
(AP / FOX)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense attorneys on Saturday lambasted U.S. indictments against decorated war veterans for deadly 2007 shootings after they’d been hit with an IED and came under fire in Baghdad.

Charges against Blackwater security guards will be unsealed Monday, more than a year after the fatal shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Defense lawyers say the case has unfairly tarnished the images of the Blackwater guards. Each man has received honors for his service in some of the world’s most dangerous places, from Bosnia and Afghanistan to Iraq. The five were to surrender to the FBI on Monday, when the Justice Department plans to unseal the charges against them.

“These are indictments that never should have been brought,” said Mark Hulkower, a lawyer for Army veteran Paul Slough of Keller, Texas.

Attorney David Schertler, who represents former Marine Dustin Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., said the guards “were defending themselves and their comrades who were being shot at and receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents.”

According to their lawyers, the other men charged are Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; and Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.

A sixth suspect was in negotiations to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his cooperation against his former colleagues. Documents related to that matter remain sealed as well.

Some Iraqis said Saturday they look forward to the trial.

“I think it is a move in the right direction to make the security company employees realize that they are no longer above the law and they should stop behaving like cowboys on the streets of Baghdad,” said Mohammed Latif, 52, a retired police officer.

He said he hoped the indictments were not just “an act of propaganda.”

Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats, says its guards were responding to a car bombing and were ambushed by insurgents. Some witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked.

The shooting strained relations between the U.S. and Iraq, and provided fodder for anti-American insurgent propaganda videos in Iraq. Top Blackwater officials were ordered to appear at congressional hearings in Washington.

An Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Baghdad welcomed any attempt to “hold the criminals accountable for their crime.” He said the Iraqi government has hired lawyers to seek money for the victims’ families.

The charges come after 14 months of investigative missteps, legal wrangling and fierce debate within the U.S. government—and the Justice Department itself.

Among the hurdles the government now faces:

_Whether U.S. law permits civilian contractors to be charged in the United States for crimes committed overseas. Prosecutors must convince a judge that the guards can be charged under a law targeting soldiers and military contractors—even though Blackwater works for the State Department.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that, if not for Blackwater, military personnel would provide diplomatic security. In that way, Blackwater could be seen as supporting the Defense Department’s mission.

_Convincing a jury that a drug law intended to crack down on assault weapons should be used to pump up potential penalties against the guards. The five men are expected to be charged with assault or manslaughter under a provision in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that requires 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes, whether drug-related or not.

_Proving that prosecutors did not rely on protected statements the guards gave to State Department investigators within hours of the shootings. The State Department gave limited immunity to all the guards in the four-car convoy, promising not to prosecute them based on the initial statements recounting how the violence began.

Additionally, under its contract with the State Department, Blackwater was allowed to repair and repaint the armored sport utility vehicles involved in the shootings. Also, legal complications resulting from the immunity agreements delayed the FBI investigation for more than two weeks after the shootings.

Taken together, the missteps left national security prosecutors with a crime scene long cold and limited forensic evidence to bolster their case.

Since then, the Justice Department has relied on witnesses to the shootings and relatives of the civilian victims in trying to persuade the grand jury to indict. Several Blackwater guards who were in the convoy were ordered to testify against their colleagues.

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