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April 13, 2015 5:23 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

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Prison terms are from 30 years to life for four Blackwater guards convicted in the 2007 deaths of 14 unarmed Iraqis.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Nicholas A. Slatten of Sparta, Tenn., to life in prison. Slatten is the only of the four guards convicted of murder in the incident, in which American security contractors fired assault rifles and grenades into halted noonday traffic, a low point of the U.S. war in Iraq that sent relations between the two countries into a crisis.

Three other guards, Paul A. Slough of Keller, Tex.; Evan S. Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; and Dustin L. Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., were convictedof multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2007, incident at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. All three were sentenced Monday to 30 years plus one day in prison.

…Monday’s sentencing brought an emphatic end to the U.S. government’s years-long effort to demonstrate accountability for American security contractors’ conduct on the battlefield…

Jurors found that the defendants, at the time among 19 Blackwater guards providing security for State Department officials in Iraq, shot recklessly and out of control after one of them falsely claimed that their convoy, called Raven 23, was threatened by a car bomber.

 

 

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D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

18 responses to Blackwater Guards Convicted In Killings Of Unarmed Iraqis

  1. Guy Lauten April 13th, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    About damn time. Now they need to go for Cheney.

    • Suzanne McFly April 13th, 2015 at 6:10 pm

      …”and his little dog bush too”…..

      • Guy Lauten April 13th, 2015 at 6:46 pm

        “Ahhhhhh hahahahahahahaha! Fly my lovelies, fly!”

        • Suzanne McFly April 13th, 2015 at 7:04 pm

          😉

        • Hirightnow April 13th, 2015 at 8:29 pm

          Ohweeeoh! Ohweigho! Ohweeeoh! Ohweigho!

  2. fancypants April 13th, 2015 at 5:30 pm

    Good ! I was starting to wonder if this was going to be forgotten

  3. William April 13th, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    Sadly we are going to be feeling the effects of Cheneys oil war and the shame it has bought to this nation for generations.

  4. arc99 April 13th, 2015 at 6:49 pm

    When a couple of ACORN employees were found to be submitting fraudulent voter registration forms in an investigation requested by the national chair of ACORN, a gutless Congress cowed by right wing blowhards, revoked all funding for the organization.

    But Blackwater employees are convicted of killing innocent people, another employee is accused of threatening the life of a State Department inspector, and the latest corporate incarnation continues to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer funded contracts.

    Phony voter registration by two employees results in a permanent lifetime ban from federal contracts for ACORN. Cold blooded murder by Blackwater employees barely interrupts the feeding frenzy at the trough of taxpayer dollars.

    Right wingers, this is an excellent example of the fundamental hypocrisy and dishonesty of far too many conservatives which underlies my belief that with precious few exceptions, 21st century conservatives lack the basic integrity required for good governance.

    http://rt.com/usa/172156-blackwater-contracts-threat-investigator/

    Blackwater awarded over $1bn from State Dept. since threat on investigator’s life

    Published time: July 11, 2014 17:28

    • Guy Lauten April 13th, 2015 at 7:27 pm

      There you go again…
      Tryin’ to use facts with people who live in the fact-free infobubble of Faux Noos.
      I appreciate the effort, but doubt it can ever get through to those who need to hear it.

  5. illinoisboy1977 April 13th, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Justice would be a death sentence, for those trigger happy cowboys. They fired with zero regard for innocent lives. They didn’t care who they were firing on and had absolutely no remorse, after the fact.

  6. Obewon April 13th, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    Why did the GOP’s biggest Blackwater/Xe/Triple Canopy and Halliburton donor corps move to UAE Dubai?
    A: UAE Dubai has no legal service, or extradition to U.S. courts!

    • Hirightnow April 13th, 2015 at 8:53 pm

      Wait….I thought that the Arabs were our friends?!!??
      What have they ever done to us?
      (ducks head, runs away quickly…)

    • granpa.usthai April 13th, 2015 at 10:58 pm

      -and no regulation on banking.

      now where could a group such as ISIS possibly get their financial backing?

      100 million nets 3 trillion?

  7. Hirightnow April 13th, 2015 at 8:28 pm

    But ISIS is all Obummashambalango’s fault.
    Right.

  8. Winslow Bunny April 13th, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    Blackwater/Xe/Triple Canopy is a customer of Knight’s Armament Company, a big supplier of rifles and accessories to our armed forces during our last 14 years of war. The Republican owner of the company made millions of dollars from his contracts, and also picked up a pile of dollars from Blackwater, for the same products.

  9. fahvel April 14th, 2015 at 11:17 am

    good – next bush and cheney who committed crimes so far beyond these jerks it’s amazing they still breath.

  10. Bunya April 14th, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    It’s interesting that these men are going to jail, while Dick Cheney/Halliburton are enjoying the sweet $39.5 billion they reaped in the atrocity that was the Iraq war. Shameful. He should be going to jail with them.

  11. Budda April 15th, 2015 at 9:10 am

    Murder is murder, even in a war zone