Another win for America, another blow to Obama. This disgusting witch hunt by the Justice department was stopped dead in its tracks by rule of law. Now about those Black panthers brandishing weapons at the voter polls on election day .............
Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq NY Times
WASHINGTON — In a significant blow to the Justice Department, a federal judge on Thursday threw out the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards over a shooting in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqis dead and about 20 wounded.
The judge cited misuse of statements made by the guards in his decision, which brought to a sudden halt one of the highest-profile prosecutions to arise from the Iraq war. The shooting at Nisour Square frayed relations between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration and put a spotlight on the United States’ growing reliance on private security contractors in war zones.
Investigators concluded that the guards had indiscriminately fired on unarmed civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified assault near the crowded traffic circle on Sept. 16, 2007. The guards contended that they had been ambushed by insurgents and fired in self-defense.
A trial on manslaughter and firearm offenses was planned for February, and the preliminary proceedings had been closely watched in the United States and Iraq.
But in a 90-page opinion, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court in Washington wrote that the government’s mishandling of the case “requires dismissal of the indictment against all the defendants.”
In a “reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights,” the judge wrote, investigators, prosecutors and government witnesses had inappropriately relied on statements that the guards had been compelled to make in debriefings by the State Department shortly after the shootings. The State Department had hired the guards to protect its officials.
News of the judgment came out late Thursday afternoon, when it was the middle of the night in Iraq.
Mark J. Hulkower, the defense lawyer for the lead defendant in the case, Paul A. Slough, who was manning a turret machine gun during the episode, said that his client and his family had gathered in Texas for New Year’s Eve when he called them to convey the news. They were “overjoyed,” he said.
“We are obviously pleased at the decision dismissing the entire indictment and are thrilled that these courageous young men can start the new year without this unfair cloud hanging over their heads,” Mr. Hulkower said.
The other defendants were Evan S. Liberty, Dustin L. Heard, Donald W. Ball and Nicholas A. Slatten. The Justice Department had earlier said it intended to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against Mr. Slatten.
Another Blackwater employee involved in the case, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the shootings and was cooperating with prosecutors.
A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said no decision had been made about whether to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“We’re still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options,” Mr. Boyd said.
But Judge Urbina’s scathing and detailed review of the ways that crucial evidence and witnesses had been tainted by exposure to the defendants’ early statements — or to news media accounts based on them — appears likely to complicate any effort to ask an appeals court to overturn his opinion or to bring a new prosecution by a different legal team using any untainted evidence.
Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches criminal law at Columbia University, said that it was rare to have a judge issue a lengthy opinion at a pretrial stage. While cautioning that he had not read the opinion, he said that rulings like this one, consisting heavily of factual findings rather than merely legal interpretation, were “hard to challenge on appeal.”
