blackwater massacre documentary

Blackwater in Baghdad: "It was a horror movie" - Human Rights Watch And in 80% of the cases, Blackwater guards were the ones firing first. Some of the Iraqis told me that they don't even care about the money. But the accounts of Khalaf and others contradict each of Prince's assertions. Stuck in heavy traffic on the opposite side of the square from Yarmouk road, he heard the shooting start. [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. 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. However, there's never been any evidence that the Blackwater convoy took hostile fire. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. And despite subsequent trials, it's unclear if the victims of the massacre and their families got the justice they deserve. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police". However, the company was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the U.S.Iraq Status of Forces Agreement took effect. [88], On August 4, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned Slatten's murder conviction and ordered the other defendants to be re-sentenced to time already served. [1] The ambush [ edit] [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. The screenplay was originally written by Stuart Beattie, with Roskam penning the most recent draft. Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. Blackwater Trial: What You Need to Know - NBC News Sign up for the VE Newsletter https://www.vigilanceelite.com/newsletterErik Prince is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer,and . [1][2][3] The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. [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". "It was a horror movie," said Khalaf, describing the aftermath of the now notorious Blackwater shootings. Assadi, 31, a stoic, unsmiling man, became the head of the family after his older brother Usama was killed in the shootings. On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company. [71], In December 2008, the United States Department of Justice announced it was filing criminal charges against five of the Blackwater employees, and ordered them to surrender to the FBI. [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". One of the Blackwater guards reportedly screamed "No! 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. Blackwater has made more than $1.5 billion in "security" contracts in Iraq alone since 2003. The Iraqi government ordered Blackwater to leave Iraq as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finished drafting new guidelines on private contractors under the Iraqi-U.S. security agreement. And after the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Blackwater won a $25 million contract to provide security for L. Paul Bremer, an American diplomat who led the transitional government following the invasion. [42] A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. The Road to Fallujah (2008) - IMDb [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. [14] The Iraqi government vowed to punish Blackwater. The pardons are one of several the US president has granted to American service personnel and contractors accused or convicted of crimes against non-combatants and civilians in war zones. Share this via Twitter The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, according to the report. [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it? 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 film's primary themes are: Meanwhile, although Moonen admitted that he was intoxicated, he maintained that he shot in self-defense. 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]". 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 ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood. Two days after the meeting with Carroll, Richter and Thomas were told by an embassy official to "leave Iraq immediately.". 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. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. [19] The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. "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 . His brother's wife had delivered their first child, a daughter, just 20 days earlier. Blackwater Founder Remains Free and Rich While His Former Employees Go 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 . He documented what was left of his brother's car. Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. But the Iraqis' hands are tied. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post. Despite being heavily involved with the United States' military involvement in Southwest and Central Asia, Blackwater was often harmful and rarely helpful. Please give now to support our work, New testimony from witnesses and victims provides the most in-depth, harrowing account to date of the US security firm's deadly rampage in Iraq, Share this via Facebook Sequence of events triggering the Nisour Square massacre, Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, Private Security Company Association of Iraq, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Inspector General of the U.S. State Department, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, "U.S. Robert Young Pelton, a journalist who spent a month with Blackwater in Iraq, said that the guards "use[d] their machine guns like car horns," per Tidings Media. Blackwater mercenaries committed a massacre. [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. Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished. 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". 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. [70] A second civil lawsuit filed jointly by the families of six victims against Blackwater was settled on January 6, 2012 for an undisclosed sum. He waited and waited, and eventually went home without them. Within 10 days of the massacre, it appeared as though the State Department had already investigated the incident based on a report leaked to the media. US prosecutors are now reportedly trying to build a case against those involved in the Sept. 16 shootings. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators, World reports. After the September 11th attacks, Blackwater expanded their security-related work and followed the U.S. military into Afghanistan. [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. [81] A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found "systemic" errors in the district court's 2009 decision to dismiss charges against the five former Blackwater guards and added "We find that the district court's findings depend on an erroneous view of the law". A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! 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. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

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