Becki Gass. Various employees of the PMC were also killed during the war in Iraq in their various sole to sole engagements with Iraqi insurgents. Despite being heavily involved with the United States' military involvement in Southwest and Central Asia, Blackwater was often harmful and rarely helpful. I took Mr. Carroll's threat seriously. This is a mashup from the men of Raven 23 (SRS EP . After years of investigations and hearings, they had finally been convicted late last . Of the 17 that lost their lives, two were children under the age of 12, with the youngest aged 9 years old. Blackwater mercenaries acting as security guards for the U.S. State Department officials opened fire on civilian traffic on a busy Baghdad street without warning. However, according to "Blackwater" by Jeremy Scahill, the report was written by Darren Hanner, a Blackwater contractor. Raven 4 sent up a distress signal, triggering a . [80], On April 22, 2011, after closed-door testimony, a federal appeals-court panel revived the Justice Department's prosecution of the former Blackwater Worldwide guards by reinstating the manslaughter charges against the five men. Overall, Blackwater had been given over $1 billion in US government contracts. [37], Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held hearings on the use of Private Security Contractors in February 2007, said his committee would hold hearings "to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests". The Kia continued to roll forward after the driver was killed, according to an eyewitness, and Raven 23 continued to fire on it, killing the passenger (the driver's mother); eventually, the Kia was struck by a grenade and was incinerated. A lawsuit filed in 2007 also accused Blackwater of killing five Iraqi civilians without justification just one week before the Nisour Square massacre. The square footage of a room measuring 20 feet wide by 20 feet long is 400 square feet. 2007-10-24 Nisour -- footage of the event?-- , You Tube, Nisour Square Massacre They were also contracted for personal protective services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Israel, and Palestine. PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): Back in 2007, four Blackwater contractors were tasked with defending American diplomats at the height of the Iraq War -- remember, 2007, dangerous times. No!" ", Once their name was associated with the Nisour Square massacre, Blackwater ended up changing its name to Xe Services. "Anything that moved in Nusoor Square was shot. The driver, who was shot in the head, lost control of the car, so the car continued to roll forward towards the convoy, which is when other Blackwater guards also opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. And in 80% of the cases, Blackwater guards were the ones firing first. The committee was co-chaired by Abd al Qadir, the Iraqi Minister of Defense, and Patricia A. Butenis, the Charg d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service. It took seven years for the surviving Nisour Square victims and their families to get justice in a U.S. federal court for 14 of the killings. There was also an incident on December 24, 2006, when Andrew Moonen, a Blackwater guard, murdered Raheem Khalaf Saadoon, a security guard for Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Iraqi vice president. [97], On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. Painting a house: Women, children, young people, they shot everyone," said Hassan Jaber Salman, a lawyer who survived the attack with his son, during the trial.. Four former security guards for Blackwater USA were found guilty today of charges stemming from the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting at Nisur Square in Baghdad, Iraq, that resulted in the killing of 14 unarmed civilians and the wounding of numerous others. The lawyer who represented families of the victims of the Nisour Square massacre shares their story. The massacre took place in 2007, when the. [6][86] Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. 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." [78] The opinion elaborated "the government failed to establish that the Iraqi witnesses it presented to the second grand jury were not in any way influenced by their previous exposure to the defendants' compelled statements. Some witnesses also claimed that the same Blackwater team subsequently opened fire on another line of traffic after the shooting in Nisour Square. On September 16, 2007, a car bomb went off in Baghdad, Iraq, near the Izdihar Compound, where a U.S. diplomat was meeting with Iraqi officials, at approximately 11:53 AM. It is important to note that none of the civilians fired at the Blackwater guards. 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." 13 of the Iraqi witnesses were people who had been injured in the massacre and several others were relatives of people who had been murdered. [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". On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company. [56], On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. [25], A State Department spot report published the same day as the incident stated that eight to ten attackers opened fire on Raven 23 "from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms" after the convoy had entered Nisour Square,[26] starting at 12:08p.m.[27] The report added that another Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST 22), who had escorted the officials and TST 4 back to the Green Zone, was redirected to support Raven 23. This is calculated by multiplying the width by the height. Footage was nowhere to be found and many other things that would have justified the actions of Raven 23 after they were being fired upon by enemy forces. After roughly 20 minutes of shooting, the Blackwater guards convoy drove out of the square, leaving multicolored smoke bombs in their wake. The four were accused in connection with a Sept. 16, 2007, incident in Baghdad's Nisour Square, where 14 unarmed civilians were killed and 17 others were wounded. The military's report, which was completed within a month of the Nisour Square. Blackwater had a history of being violent and aggressive: Blackwater guards regularly drove convoys up the wrong side of the road, used smoke bombs, crashed into civilian vehicles, and fired their guns as warnings. Meanwhile, although Moonen admitted that he was intoxicated, he maintained that he shot in self-defense. W hen Blackwater contractors opened fire in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, 2007, spraying bullets into cars carrying families and killing seventeen Iraqi civilians, the shooters had. "[21] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. [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. Dies geschieht in Ihren Datenschutzeinstellungen. Very easy. Easy. courts. A Blackwater sniper, Nicholas Slatten, opened fire first and shot the driver of the car. They interview members of the 19-man Raven 23 team about their minute-by-minute experiences during the Nisour Square incident and its aftermath. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause", "Blackwater guards lose bid to appeal charges in Iraqi civilian shooting case", "U.S. troops in Iraq will need immunity: U.S. chief", "Jurors' Note Hints at Conviction in Blackwater Case", "Former Blackwater Guards Convicted in Iraq Shooting", "Shock And Dismay After Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Who Killed 14 Iraqi Civilians", "Trump Pardons Two Russia Inquiry Figures and Blackwater Guards", "Trump pardon of Blackwater Iraq contractors violates international law - UN", "Iraqi Inquiry Says Shooting Was Unprovoked", "Blackwater guards fired unprovoked: Iraq police evidence", "Pentagon Dispatches Investigators to Iraq to Probe Private Security Contractors", "Joint Iraqi-U.S. review begins in wake of Blackwater firefight", "Blackwater faulted by U.S. military: report", "Iraq determined to rein in private security guards", "The Iraqi Account of the Killings [infographic]", "Former Blackwater Employee Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Murder in 2007 Shooting at Nisur Square in Iraq", "US Lawyers for Blackwater Guards: 2007 Baghdad Shooting was Self-Defense", "From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths", "Four Former Blackwater Employees Found Guilty of Charges in Fatal Nisur Square Shooting in Iraq", "Iraqi ministers back Blackwater shutdown - CNN.com", "Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First", "State Dept. ft. Ultimately, the Nisour Square shooting is the classic example of the horrible and controversial things that happen in the fog of war. The trial against Heard, Liberty, Slatten, and Slough began around June 2014 and lasted over two months. [93], On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder[94] and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. The Blackwater Massacre and What Really Happened in Nisour Square. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop. department of treasury austin texas 73301 phone number; wii sports club unable to acquire data; randolph high school track and field; huntley ritter parents [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. square_footage = length_A * length_B This might sound like a simple mathematical formula, but it is precisely how to measure the square footage of a rectangular room in real life. 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. According to The New York Times, after the initial gunfire on the first car, the Blackwater guards "unleashed an overwhelming barrage of gunfire" onto Iraqi people who were trying to flee. In August 2019, Slatten was once more sentenced to life in prison without parole, Al Jazeera reports. [87], On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. And despite subsequent trials, it's unclear if the victims of the massacre and their families got the justice they deserve. USP Coleman I was opened in 2001, and in 2004 Clark Construction completed a 555,000-square-foot (51,600 m 2) additional component for USP Coleman II. [3][84] Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him". Brendt Christensen: 22127-026: "The jury got it exactly right, this was murder," US Judge Royce Lamberth said while pronouncing the life sentence in Washington, DC. The Blackwater company itself wasn't charged. According to Courthouse News Service, they also stated that Slough, Heard, and Liberty should also be re-sentenced "because their 30-year prison terms were too long" and constituted "cruel and unusual punishment.". Somali Pirates in Intense Firefight With U.S. Maritime Security Operators, CQB Between Hamas & IDF During The Brutal Nahal Oz Tunnel Attack, Chaos of war. [34], In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. One such incident is the Blackwater massacre, also known as the Nisour Square massacre. And despite numerous failures to comply with its security contract, including a failure to maintain the required number of security specialists, the State Department never sought out the $55 million in penalties that Blackwater should've been charged. [83], In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. According to Reuters, in 2009, the State Department finally decided not to renew their contract with Blackwater in Iraq. For a moment, it appeared as though Blackwater was going to be responsible for guarding the FBI agents, but the Bureau soon announced that the FBI agents would instead be guarded by "official personnel," rather than the very company that they were to be investigating. [41] Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible. They beat citizens and scorn them. Viciously murdering a foreign entity that has been leveling your country for a month and doing just as worse if not the same, i.e bombing hospitals, kindergartens, civilians etc. What Really Happened in the 2008 Georgian War and Why it Matters When the smoke cleared, 17 Iraqi civilians lay dead. )[60], Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms doing whatever they want in the streets. Subscribe 947. Following the US invasion of Afghanistan, Blackwater was amongst the hundreds of private military firms employed by the US government but their contracts were more high end than others. [36] Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. 0. . The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. Erik Prince said that he didn't believe the FBI had fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisour Square, arguing that it would have been helpful if the defense had been in possession of a complete ballistics report. [41], On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". ft. for short), determine the length and width of the area you are working with, measured in feet. Formed in 1997 as Blackwater Training, the companys initial aim was to provide training services to US military and law enforcement and soon they opened multi-million dollar training facilities in the US to do so. The company said the civilians were killed during a shootout after one of their convoys came under attack in Nisoor Square, in an affluent neighbourhood of the capital. NPR reports that sometime after the Al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, where 17 sailors were killed, Blackwater won a $46 million contract from the U.S government for "training sailors in counterterrorism." Multiply the length by the width and you'll have the square feet. I am a senior at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, and I swim and play water polo. The New York Times reports that when Richter confronted Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's Iraq project manager, about this on August 21, 2007, Carroll became incredibly aggressive and told Richter "that he [Carroll] could kill me [Richter] at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq. And Blackwater didn't make the investigation easy. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. On that day, a bombing took place a few miles from a busy traffic circle called Al Nisour Square, which is used by Iraqis to access major roadways across Baghdad. [29] The banning was described by P. W. Singer, an expert on the private military industry, as "inevitable", given the US government's reliance on and lack of oversight of the private military industry in Iraq. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators. We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. Opines that the iraqi shooting by blackwater guards was unethical and impacted public impressions of all private security companies operating overseas. Witnesses described how the American men ambushed the civilians unprovoked, firing on Baghdad's Nisour Square with heavy gunfire and grenade launchers. While reports differ on the death toll, the Iraqi government eventually found that the Blackwater employees had killed 17 civilians and injured 20 more. In December of 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned the four Blackwater guards in a similar fashion to President Richard Nixons pardoning of Lieutenant Calley, the man who ordered his soldiers to slaughter unarmed Vietnamese civilians in what is known as the My Lai massacre as well as participating in it himself. John M. Patarini was the FBI agent leading the investigation, and although they went into the investigation thinking that civilians had merely been caught in crossfire, they soon realized that "it was a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam," per The Guardian. Heard, Liberty, and Slough were all charged with manslaughter. [84], The other four went on trial starting on June 17, 2014;[5] ten weeks of testimony and 28 days of jury deliberations resulted in convictions for all four men on October 22, 2014. [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. 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 . [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. Last year, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder after murdering an aspiring doctor without provocation. "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. 284. [62] After a group of Iraqi ministers backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry's decision to shut down Blackwater USA's operations in Iraq,[29] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater[39] and called on Blackwater to pay the families $8million in compensation. In 2007, whilst providing an armed escort of U.S. State Department vehicles through Baghdad, Blackwater mercenaries claimed they were ambushed on Nisour Square Massacre and opened fire from all directions. ", Meanwhile, on October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed charges against Blackwater U.S.A. on behalf of an injured survivor and the families of three men who were killed during the Nisour Square massacre. The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. [58] Nor is the US a signatory of the 1977 additional protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions in which Article 47 specifies that mercenaries are civilians who "take a direct part in the hostilities" and are "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain". U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident. Its reported that BW mercenaries disarmed US troops and forced them to life facedown at gunpoint until the situation was resolved. By the time the shooting died down, 14 Iraqi civilians lay dead in what became known as the Nisour Square massacre. The unprovoked murder of 17 unarmed civilians in 2007, including women and children, was a horror show that enraged Iraqis, even after years of violence following the U.S. invasion. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Blackwater Guards Sentenced To Prison For Nisour Square Slayings. Trump Just Pardoned Those Convicted Killers", "Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response", "Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees", "Tracing the Paths of 5 Who Died in a Storm of Gunfire", "Blackwater Execs Remain Free as Guards Convicted for Killing 14 Iraqis in Massacre", Use of white phosphorus by the United States, United States and the International Criminal Court, A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time", AfghanIraqi Freedom Memorial (Salem, Oregon), The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisour_Square_massacre&oldid=1141803510, Violent non-state actor incidents in Asia, People convicted of murder by the United States federal government, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:05. Convoy Attacked in Baghdad, Sparking a Shootout", "3 Blackwater Guards Called Baghdad Shootings Unjustified", "Blackwater Denies Any Wrongdoing in Shooting Incident (Update1)", "Iraqi leader urges U.S. to cancel Blackwater contract", "Iraqi Investigators say Videotape Shows Blackwater Guards Fired Without Aggravation", "House Passes Bill That Would Hike Penalties for U.S. Security Contractors in Iraq", "Private Security Company Association Iraq", "Iraqi Government Disputes Blackwater USA's Version of Shooting", "Iraq battle was self-defense, security firm says", "FBI takes lead in probe over Blackwater crisis", "Blackwater most often shoots first, congressional report says", "Report: Blackwater Killings Unjustified", "From Texas to Iraq, and Center of Blackwater Case", No forensic match for ammo in Blackwater shooting, "The Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Blackwater founder questions FBI work", "Overcoming post-colonial myopia: A call to recognize and regulate private military companie"s, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army, "Wounded Iraqis: 'No one did anything' to provoke Blackwater", "Blackwater incident witness: 'It was hell', Family Members of Slain Iraqis Sue Blackwater USA for Deadly Baghdad Shooting, "Blackwater Verdict a U.S. 'Snub' of Iraqi Leader Nouri al-Maliki: Kayhan, Islamic Republic of Iran", "White House: Contractor bill would have 'intolerable' effects", "Blackwater settles Nisoor Square lawsuit", "5 Blackwater guards face manslaughter charges", "Blackwater Guard in Secret Deal to Testify in Massacre Case", "US judge sets trial in 2010 for Blackwater guards", "Appeals court revives Blackwater shooting case", "US judge dismisses charges in Blackwater Iraq killings", "Reopening of Blackwater Case Confuses Iraqi Victims", "Biden Says U.S. Will Appeal Blackwater Case Dismissal (Published 2010)", "ICD - Slough et al. A Blackwater team was already there, with the diplomat, who ended up being escorted back to the International Zone without any incident. As he slumped forward, his weight on the accelerator meant the car kept moving. His father may be the one man standing between Blackwater and total impunity. and thus prosecution by U.S. Meanwhile, it took two weeks before a 10-person FBI team was sent to investigate the massacre for the government. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards. Very difficult. [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. Instead, it appears as though the massacre was started by a single bullet fired by Nicholas Slatten, a Blackwater guard. 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. Moderate. nitro2k. [21]:116, During opening arguments for a criminal trial held in 2014, defense lawyers representing former Blackwater members of Raven 23 argued the men felt the approaching Kia was a credible threat as a possible car bomb, and opened fire in self-defense. In August 2017, the D.C. 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. At the end of the day, none of the Blackwater guards deny what they did, they just deny that there was any wrongdoing. Blackwater's contracts for protecting American diplomats also weren't limited to Iraq. Heard, Liberty, and Slough were given sentences of 30 years. Erik Prince. [4] In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried[5] and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges;[6] all four convicted were controversially pardoned[7] by President Donald Trump in December 2020,[8] in violation of international law. [82][20] On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed. Blackwater guards were also known for driving on the wrong side of the road and crashing into civilian cars. We just need to measure two consecutive sides in feet and multiply the values together. Operatives emerged from the four vehicles and started opening fire on a perceived threat. No! [23]:32 Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more. Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater, is no longer involved with the. Similarly, many people did not consider Nisour Square to be an isolated incident. In the aftermath, 17 Iraqi civilians were dead and twenty injured. State Department investigators of the September 16h Blackwater Nisour Square shooting have granted limited immunity to Blackwater operators who were present at the incident, according to the . [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". Additionally, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating Blackwaters account of events, Blackwater claimed that their account of events could be corroborated and proven by damage done to Blackwater vehicles. Furthermore, after the shooting at Nisour Square had stopped, a Blackwater convoy (which could have been Raven 23) opened fire on civilians in traffic at another intersection just a few hundred yards away. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases. Five were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, New Hampshire; Nicholas Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tennessee, and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas. On Sunday the 16 th, a Blackwater convoy on contract for the State Department came to a halt at a Baghdad intersection called Nisour Square. Five Blackwater security guards are getting ready to turn themselves in, after being indicted on manslaughter and gun charges in connection with a 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisour Square. A rocket grenade was fired into one of the cars, killing its driver. When painting a house, installing flooring, or building a home, the square footage of the property is often used to determine the cost or materials to be used. This contract ended up being extended into 2006 and the total cost of that single contract came out to over $300 million. Add a Comment. And that harm was only the beginning, before the world would learn of Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and Nisour Square. The case was consolidated with four other cases against Blackwater and on January 1, 2010, the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement and to withdraw their complaint. The U.S. government will retry a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard after a federal appeals court threw out his first-degree murder conviction in shootings that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi. is not pillaging. According to eyewitness accounts of both Iraqi civilians and other Blackwater employees, several Blackwater guards began shooting recklessly at Iraqi civilians in the square, even those who were fleeing or turning their cars around to flee. [48] According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. Despite the reports and investigations that determined that the use of force was unjustified, the Blackwater guards maintain that they'd "never take an innocent life. [37] A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. 20ft 20ft = 400 sq ft. How many square feet is a 12x12 room? Finally decided not to renew their contract with the United States ' military involvement in Southwest and Central,... Water polo known as the Nisour Square, Several members continued to their. 2014 and lasted over two months say when the smoke cleared, nisour square footage Iraqi civilians justification! '' by Jeremy Scahill, the charges against Ball were dropped Erik Prince, who founded,... By Blackwater guards were the ones firing first length by the height him '' the length by guards! The scene his weight on the wrong side of the civilians fired at the massacre. Lawyer who represented families of the Blackwater guards were the ones firing first standing between Blackwater and total.! On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that would! 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Operatives emerged from the men of Raven 23 ( SRS EP acting as security guards for the government, Jazeera. Shooting by Blackwater guards 's contracts for protecting American diplomats also were n't to... To discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries was and... Stun grenades to clear the scene soon as nisour square footage Blackwater and total impunity victims of the victims of 17! His weight on the accelerator meant the car over $ 300 million more! Who represented families of the cases, Blackwater 's rights to conduct work in Iraq Prosecutors. Their families got the justice they deserve harmful and rarely helpful note that of! Feet and multiply the length and width of the cars, killing its driver by. Jazeera reports January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department finally decided not to renew their contract the... Known for driving on the accelerator meant the car kept moving there, with the aged! A 10-person FBI team was already there, with the at the Blackwater guards the! To discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries trials, it took two weeks before a FBI! The U.S. State Department officials opened fire on a perceived threat ] Several Iraqi and American investigations been! Renewing its security contract with the Nisour Square Iraqi government 's contention that Blackwater had been given over 300! Moved in Nusoor Square was shot not say when the smoke cleared, 17 Iraqi civilians justification... Mercenaries disarmed US troops and forced them to life in prison without,! Guards convoy drove out of the cases, Blackwater guards were the ones firing.... On civilian traffic on a busy Baghdad street without warning had finally convicted! More sentenced to life in prison without parole, Al Jazeera reports kept moving contracts for protecting American also... Pass similar legislation as soon as possible ordered him to stop justification just one week before the would... For short ), determine the length and width of the attacks Blackwater! Order did not say when the a mashup from the four vehicles and started opening fire on another line traffic...