Following up on the October convictions of four Blackwater employees for their roles in the 2007 Nisour Square Massacre in Baghdad, a US court today sentenced all four to substantial prison terms.
Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard each faced multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter, and were each sentenced to 30 years in prison. The heaviest charges fell on Nicholas Slatten, however.
Slatten, who bragged to friends of his intention to “kill as many Iraqis as he could as payback for 9/11,” was charged with first-degree murder in the killings, and was sentenced to life in prison. He was also the one who fired first.
The Nisour Square Massacre left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and 20 injured and led to the revocation by the Iraqi government of Blackwater’s license to operate in the nation, though they remained for quite some time under State Department auspices anyhow.
The guard were charged in a relatively rare case of using the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000. The defense argued unsuccessfully that this did not apply because they were working as military contractors for the US State Department, not the military itself.
The precedent is set!
These four murdering thugs wouldn't have committed this shameful
atrocity if the murdering Bush regime hadn't lied the USG into
a bogus (war) on Iraq. We see the disaster it had turned into.
The Bush regime and its Demo flunkies should be in the same
jail cell with these four criminals.
Four down. How many to go, exactly? It'd be tragic if all things like this turn out to be is scapegoating people who happened to embarrass the instigators and their handlers.
Re: "…US Court Sentences Blackwater Guards Over 2007 Baghdad Massacre…Slatten Gets Life in Prison, Others Get 30 Years, etc."
I lost 359 co-workers on 11.Sept.2001, in NYC, as a result of the semi-competitive, 'Superficial_Piety_Celebration' committed by the late Muhammad Atta, and 18 criminal associates…
Had I NOT been Romney_Sized, (aka: 'outsourced'…), a few weeks before this sinful crime…I WOULDN'T be typing just now!
I consider this conviction 'N jailing to be VERY good news! Pity Geo. W. "Plausibly, Denied" Bush and Tony "Collateral's, Damaged" Blair aren't facing eqaully sever jail time / fines!!
War is a crime! NOT a method for balancing the corporate ledgers! Wars for profit, (aka: 'Iraq, L.L.C.', 'Vietnam', etc.), is / are, even greater crime(s)!
…Isn't it ironic?
Geo. W. "Plausibly, Denied" Bush and Tony "Collateral's, Damaged" Blair, (former U.S. President, 'N English Prime Minister, respectively…) are the two, (so, called…), 'Xian_Pro_Lifers' MOST responsible for 'gifting' humanity with their, (14-year, 1 Trillion, 'N counting…), war-profiteering crime(s)!
question:
Why is there almost, always such a huge swath of destruction, despoilment and heaps of DEAD hominids / Hominid pieces whenever, (so, called), Pro_Life_Xians get to bungle U.S. / other foreign policy matters?