On September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near a U.S.-Iraqi meeting site. Pt.2 (AMAZING VIDEO) Sniper (Blackwater Commando) in Iraq shoots insurgents. Weapons Sold to the Saudis Are Hitting Hospitals in Yemen. 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. [59] (The Protocol makes no distinction between defensive and offensive actions, but the U.S. does make such a distinction, in that it does not regard defensive actions by security guards to be combat. We responded to a threat accordingly." Blackwater guards were also known for their aggression. [15] The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ", Once their name was associated with the Nisour Square massacre, Blackwater ended up changing its name to Xe Services. We were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract." Some witnesses also claimed that the same Blackwater team subsequently opened fire on another line of traffic after the shooting in Nisour Square. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. When the smoke cleared, 17 Iraqi civilians lay dead. A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. Similarly, many people did not consider Nisour Square to be an isolated incident. The Russian Deep State. [37][38] The incident caused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater USA,[39] and for the Iraqi government to push for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". 0ur_Benefactors 6 yr. ago. [12] The U.S. State Department has said that "innocent life was lost",[13] and according to The Washington Post, a military report appeared to corroborate "the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault". The BBC reports that during Slatten's second trial in 2018, a mistrial was declared after the jury deliberated for 16 days. 3", is named Paul Slough. There were 1,000 Blackwater security guards in Iraq on the day of the massacre. Founded by Putin's close confidante, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Wagner Group is the Russian version of Blackwater. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. Batya founded Reaper Feed to provide unprecedented insight into the lesser-seen sides of human conflict and modern warfare. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. The military's report, which was completed within a month of the Nisour Square. A Blackwater team was already there, with the diplomat, who ended up being escorted back to the International Zone without any incident. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. However, according to "Blackwater" by Jeremy Scahill, the report was written by Darren Hanner, a Blackwater contractor. The lawyer who represented families of the victims of the Nisour Square massacre shares their story. [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. [100] UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said that forgiveness "contributes to impunity and has the effect of encouraging others to commit such crimes in the future". 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." In addition, the vehicles that were meant to protect diplomats were "poorly maintained," and during one party, four drunk Blackwater guards had crashed a $180,000 armored vehicle into a concrete barrier. Erik Prince. Slough was found guilty of one firearms offense, 17 counts of attempted manslaughter, and 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter. However, as the War on Terror broke out in 2001, Blackwater took on an entirely new role and became the security company we know now which would go on to become one of the most infamous modern mercenary companies to have ever existed. [40] The US House passed a bill, titled the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings", "F.B.I. I also love stand-up comedy! One of the Blackwater guards reportedly screamed "No! 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]". [66] Howard Krongard, who was appointed Inspector General of the U.S. State Department in 2005,[67] resigned in December 2007 after he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. Rogers. 0. . After the massacre, the State Department, which had a history of allowing misconduct, did not hold the firm accountable. Pronunciation of Nisour square massacre with 1 audio pronunciations. Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted. ft. for short), determine the length and width of the area you are working with, measured in feet. From firing rifles into traffic and smashing cars out of the way to running a woman over trying to cross the street, the footage added fuel to evidence that the PMC "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." [82][20] On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed. [55], On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. In the wake of the massacre in 2007, the Iraqi government banned Blackwater from working in the country and cancelled their license. The guard was immediately flown out of Iraq, but no charges have ever been filed against him. 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. And Blackwater didn't make the investigation easy. [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. Raven 23, under the command of Blackwater contractor Jimmy Watson, was ordered to secure an evacuation route through Nisour Square for . [21]:116[22] The Blackwater commander, Jimmy Watson, had received an order to stand by and not leave the Green Zone upon reaching a checkpoint, but he made a "tactical decision" to advance to Nisour Square after waiting for a few minutes; upon informing the Blackwater Tactical Operations Center of this, he was ordered to return to the Green Zone. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. The facts of the Nisour Square massacre case have been well documented and authenticated. However, according to The New York Times, the Iraqi government technically didn't have the legal authority to do so since the U.S.-led transitional government shielded security contractors from Iraqi laws, per CNN. Rejecting claims from defense attorneys and family members that U.S. prosecutors scapegoated former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten to improve U.S.-Iraqi relations, a federal judge sentenced former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten to life in prison Wednesday for his role in the notorious 2007 Nisour Square . The soldiers had been given bad intelligence, and rather than leave when they found the intelligence to be false, they massacred innocent people. During one incident in the Green Zone of Baghdad in 2006, a car accident took place between a US Army Humvee and a Blackwater SUV. Four guards from private security corporation Blackwater Security Consulting, now known as Academi, have . As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents. ft. B: 12 ft. x 10 ft. = 120 sq. 20ft 20ft = 400 sq ft. How many square feet is a 12x12 room? 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. And that harm was only the beginning, before the world would learn of Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and Nisour Square. 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. 132. By Jeremy Scahill. [63], A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world. 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. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. 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