Criminal Charges Against Former Blackwater Employees Dismissed

31 December 2009

Criminal Charges Against Former Blackwater Employees Dismissed

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – Since it began its private security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former Blackwater Company has received great scrutiny for its policies. Its corporate executives have been questioned by the United States Congress and by humanitarian organizations throughout the world.  Today, one of the company’s greatest controversies was answered. A federal District Court Judge dismissed all criminal charges against five Blackwater employees stemming from a 2007 incident in Iraq.

Since the 2007 incident, Blackwater has changed its name to Xe Services. It provides private security services and support personnel to the United States government. Their employees have worked in both the conflict in Iraq and the conflict in Afghanistan. Xe Services employees are normally former members of the different branches of the United States military. The company has been questioned for some of its policies and practices since receiving contracts from the United States government. For example, Xe Services has been accused of providing active service in certain raids by the CIA. This went against its contract with the CIA to provide only support services in a protective role. At the time of the 2007 incident, Blackwater was under contract to provide security for State Department officials in Iraq.

The five Blackwater employees were supposed to go on trial in one month for the allegedly criminal actions they took in 2007. According to prosecutors, while patrolling the Nisour Square in downtown Baghdad on September 16, 2007, the five employees opened fired and killed unarmed Iraqi civilians. A later F.B.I. investigation found that fourteen or the seventeen Iraqi’s that were killed during the incident were unarmed and the employees use of force was unjustified. Military investigators agreed with the F.B.I.’s assessment and stated that their actions were criminal. Blackwater and its five employees defended themselves stating that they fired on insurgents who first fired upon the employees. The Iraq government wanted to try the employees for murder in Iraq.

After an investigation by the State Department, the Justice Department brought manslaughter charges against the five employees. However, Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the manslaughter charges today in a ninety page ruling. The main reason cited by the Judge for dismissing the case was prosecutorial misconduct. According to the opinion, the five employees were initially questioned by State Department officials after the incident. Those investigators promised the employees that their statements would only be used for an internal State Department investigation and could not be used in a later criminal prosecution.  Despite the promise of immunity, prosecutors used the statements to obtain evidence and search warrants in building a case against the employees. Nevertheless, Judge Urbina’s ruling did not discuss who was at fault in the killings of the seventeen Iraqis. The Justice Department can appeal Judge Urbina’s ruling.

For more information, please see:

MSNBC – Judge Tosses Blackwater Shooting Charges – 31 December  2009

NYTIMES – Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq – 31 December 2009

LATIMES – Blackwater Joined CIA Raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sources Say – 11 December 2009

Author: Impunity Watch Archive