Monday 08 December 2008
by: Del Quentin Wilber, The Washington Post
Blackwater employees in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004. Five blackwater employees have been charged with the brutal shooting of 14 Iraqis in Nisoor Square. (Photo: Gervasio Sanchez / Associated Press)
Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in the shooting deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians last year turned themselves in to federal authorities in Salt Lake City this morning, according to their attorneys, and the Justice Department unsealed a 35-count indictment against them.
The five guards were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Washington in connection with the shooting, which occurred Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad's bustling Nisoor Square. The indictment said all five were charged with voluntary manslaughter; attempt to commit manslaughter; and using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
A sixth security guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit voluntary manslaughter, according to papers filed in court today.
The five guards indicted in the case are Evan Liberty, 26, a former Marine of Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, 25, a former Army sergeant of Sparta, Tenn.; Dustin Heard, 27, a former Marine corporal of Maryville, Tenn.; Donald Ball, 26, a former Marine corporal of Salt Lake City; and Paul Slough, 29, of Sanger, Tex., who served in the Army and the Texas National Guard. All except Liberty served with the military in Iraq. After concluding their service, the men signed up with Blackwater to provide security in the country.
The papers unsealed today allege that the five security guards and Ridgeway "opened fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians," killing 14 people and wounding at least 20, when their convoy pulled into the square that day.
"None of these victims was an insurgent, and many were shot inside of civilian vehicles that were attempting to flee," the prosecutors wrote in the papers. One Iraqi was shot in the chest while standing in the street with his hands up, according to the prosecutors.
The guards' attorneys said they will fight the government on jurisdictional and factual grounds. They also will fight the government over the potential trial's venue. By turning themselves in to authorities in Utah, the guards are hoping to bolster their argument that the trial should be heard in that conservative state, not the District.
Steven McCool, who represent Ball, said his client was turning himself in to authorities in Utah because he has "a constitutional right to venue, to be tried in his home state."
"To protect that constitutional right, we have surrendered in Utah," McCool said.
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District, declined to comment on the investigation, which is being overseen by his office and the Justice Department's National Security Division.
The guards were working as Blackwater security contractors for the State Department when their convoy pulled into Nisoor Square and they opened fire.
An Iraqi government investigation concluded that the guards fired without provocation, and the U.S. military and the FBI found that the guards were the only ones who opened fire that day. Blackwater, which is not a target in the investigation, has consistently said the men were fired upon. Iraqi officials have said as many as 17 people were killed in the incident, but U.S. officials confirmed only 14 deaths.
David Schertler, an attorney representing Heard, said Saturday that the men "were defending themselves and their comrades who were . . . receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents."
Iraq's government and victims of the shooting expressed mixed emotions about the indictment.
"Subjugating this company to a trial makes the Iraqi government happy," said Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman. "We welcome this step."
He added that the Iraqi government is considering suing Blackwater in a U.S. court to seek compensation for the victims.
Mahdi Abdul-Khudor, who lost an eye in the incident, said he hoped the court would punish the contractors. "This matter makes me happy, and I hope they will receive a just penalty," Khudor said. "They took my eye, the better part of me. I hope the court will give me justice."
The shooting damaged relations between the United States and the Iraqi government and raised serious questions about oversight of U.S. security contractors in war zones. The Iraqi parliament recently approved a security pact that allows foreign security contractors accused of crimes to be tried under Iraqi law.
Sources familiar with the case said the government is bringing the charges under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which has been used in cases referred to federal prosecutors by the Defense Department for crimes committed by military personnel overseas.
The guards face the firearms charge under a 1980s drug law that made it a crime to use a machine gun in a crime of violence.
Some legal scholars and the defense lawyers have argued that the law does not apply to the Blackwater guards because they were working for the State Department. Such a position was buttressed in a report by the Congressional Budget Office in August that said the law does not apply to civilians working for agencies other than the Defense Department.
Prosecutors are likely to argue that a 2005 amendment to the law expanded it to include contractors "supporting the mission of the Department of Defense." Prosecutors could argue that Blackwater security guards were helping the military by protecting State Department officials, legal experts have said.
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Special correspondent Qais Mizher in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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