Iraq Mass Murder - 'Raven 23' - Sharyl Attkisson Interview With US Mercenary War Lord Eric Prince - 9 Sept 2018
The massacre left 14 civilians dead and at least 17 wounded. “None of the victims was an insurgent, or posed any threat to the Raven 23 convoy,” the government said, in a sentencing memorandum filed to the court.
Also quoted in the memorandum was David Boslego, a retired US army colonel, who said that the massacre was “a grossly excessive use of force” and “grossly inappropriate for an entity whose only job was to provide personal protection to somebody in an armored vehicle.”
Boslego also said that the attack had “a negative effect on our mission, [an] adverse effect … It made our relationship with the Iraqis in general more strained.”
“This is far from the ordinary case,” the memorandum continued. “The crimes here were so horrendous – the massacre and maiming of innocents so heinous – that they outweigh any factors that the defendants may argue form a basis for leniency.” It said that the defendants had “shown no remorse for their actions”.
During the trial, prosecutors said Slatten viewed killing Iraqis as “payback for 9/11”. No connection between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the attacks of September 11 2001 has ever been proved.
“These men took something that did not belong to them: the lives of 14 human beings,” said Anthony Asuncion, the lead attorney for the prosecution. “They were turned into bloody bullet-ridden corpses at the hands of these men.”
In his closing argument, Asuncion added that it “must have seemed like the apocalypse was here”. One witness told the court that the attack was “the most horrible botched thing I have ever seen in my life”.
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Additional Background Info
Around noon on September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where US and Iraqi officials were meeting,[20]:547 and a Blackwater Tactical Support Team answering to the call sign "Raven 23" took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the US officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them. Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more.[17]:116
The Blackwater guards' account of the triggering incident differed from that set forth in an Iraqi government account. The latter claimed that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her grown son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer's whistle to clear a path for the convoy.[28] According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded.[29][30]
The account by the Blackwater firm stated that the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles which were thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing it. In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman.[31] In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men. They communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police."[31] According to Blackwater vice-president Marty Strong, the convoy was hit with "a large explosive device" and "repeated small arms fire" which disabled a vehicle.[32] Several sources have stated that the explosion was caused by a mortar round, though this is not reflected in the Department of State incident report.[33][34] Blackwater has denied Iraqi allegations that one of their helicopters fired from the air during the incident.[35][36]
A State Department report stated that eight to ten attackers opened fire "from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms".[33] The report said that as the convoy tried to leave, its route was blocked by insurgents armed with machine guns at 12:08 pm. According to another U.S. government report, "The team returned fire to several identified targets" before leaving the area and a second convoy en route to help was "blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel".[34] A U.S. Army convoy, possibly the same one delayed by Iraqi forces, arrived approximately a half-hour later, backed by air cover, to escort the convoy back to the Green Zone.[32]
On September 27, 2007, The New York Times reported that during the chaotic incident at Nisour Square, one member of the Blackwater security team continued to fire on civilians, despite urgent cease-fire calls from colleagues. It is unclear whether the team-member mistook the civilians for insurgents. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop.[37]
Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident said that they believed the shootings were unjustified.[38]
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It seems every military conflict has its own tragic version of innocent civilians killed wrongly in the heat of war. In Iraq, there was the Nisour Square shootings in 2007. One of the accused, a decorated former U.S. soldier, was on trial just last week eleven years after the incident. In fact, the lives of four decorated former US soldiers still hang in the balance after all this time. Were their actions in legitimate self defense..or criminal acts? And did our own government suppress or misrepresent evidence? That's today's cover story: the case of Raven 23.
The logical place to begin is in Iraq— at the time, one of the most dangerous places on the planet. After the 9/11 attacks, U.S. forces deposed dictator Saddam Hussein — then faced a constant barrage from Islamic extremist terrorists and insurgents. On September 16, 2007 there was a deadly clash in the capital of Baghdad. A team of former US military troops code named “Raven 23” were working for the private firm, Blackwater, when they reportedly opened fire on innocent civilians. The episode heightened tensions between Iraq and the US— and the FBI stepped in to investigate. It concluded the Blackwater contractors “unleashed powerful sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers on innocent men, women, and children” shooting at least 14 “without cause.” Including two boys ages 9 and 11. But like most stories—there are at least two sides. Erik Prince was Blackwater’s founder.
Erik Prince: This is the story of American military veterans who answered the call again when their country needed them— this time to protect diplomats— in a very large scale, in a war zone. And it is their political prosecution that followed an unfortunate incident in the middle of a war zone after multiple enemy attacks.
Prince, a former Navy SEAL, made Blackwater an integral part of U.S. overseas security after Islamic extremist terrorists bombed the USS Cole in 2000— murdering 17 sailors. Blackwater was hired to train our sailors in counterterrorism. In 2004, Iraqi insurgents killed four Blackwater contractors, set their bodies on fire, dragged them through the streets and hung them from a bridge.
Sharyl: What was the claim from the other side? What did they say that your guys had done wrong?
Erik Prince: And it was a bad firing that there was all these innocent civilians that were killed.
In fact, to this day, media accounts make it sound as if the “Blackwater guards” randomly “open(ed) fire” on Iraqi civilians— unprovoked and for no reason. But Prince says that sorely lacks context: the Raven 23 team thought it had come under ambush trying to escort the US official to safety.
Erik Prince: A car bomb had gone off. And the support team, Raven 23 was to block the traffic circles so the fleeing vehicles can move through there, uh, smoothly. All the vehicle stopped except for one which kept coming and coming and coming. It was a white Kia.
The Blackwater team reported the white Kia was driving straight at the convoy like a suicide bomber. When it kept going despite verbal orders and hand signals to stop, at least one Blackwater guard fired— killing the driver and his mother. Iraqis began firing back and a full-blown firefight broke out. Reba and Darrell Slatten are the parents of one of the Blackwater guards: Nick Slatten.
Sharyl: So your understanding is that car to them was seen as a threat. So maybe that, maybe, maybe a car bomb.
Darrell Slatten: That's what it was. So ‘stop, stop, stop.’ Keeps coming.
Reba
Slatten: They had been actually a brief that morning: ‘Be on the
lookout for a white Kia because it's probably a car bomb.’
But Iraqi investigators and the FBI said panic and animosity toward the locals drove some members of Raven 23 to commit a criminal massacre.
Sharyl: When you heard this report, did it ever occur to you that these men would end up being criminally prosecuted?
Erik Prince: When I first heard the report of the events of September 16, it actually sounded like dozens and dozens of other incidents, uh, that the guys had been in and subject to in Iraq in war zones. Remember, helicopters were shot down, vehicles blown up, men shot by snipers, by suicide vests, by every kind of have a danger you could face. 41 of our men had been killed in action doing that work for the U.S. government and, you know, hundreds wounded on top of that.
Sharyl: What do you think made this one different?
Erik Prince: This was the height of the surge and it was also the height of real antiwar, noise and protest in the United States.
Blackwater and other private contractors were also under increasing attack in Congress over allegations ranging from poor supervision to harmful misconduct. After the murky and disputed accounts of the tragedy in Iraq involving Raven 23 the pursuit of criminal charges against Slatten and the other Blackwater guards has spanned three U.S. presidential administrations. In 2008, Slatten and four others - all decorated former military soldiers—were charged with multiple counts of manslaughter.A year later—all the charges were thrown out due to misconduct by prosecutors. In 2011, prosecutors refiled charges — then dropped them against one man after new allegations of prosecutor misconduct. Among the four left, Nick Slatten was hit hardest. This time, instead of manslaughter, the Justice Department charged him with first degree murder — accusing him of firing the first shot at the Kia driver. Even though teammate Paul Slough had admitted to doing so.Nick Slatten’s sister, Jessica, is an attorney.
Jessica Slatten: Multiple other up gunners shot into the car because the car kept coming. My brother never shot at the Kia. The government has known that since day one.
The Slattens say Nick told them not to bother to come from Tennessee to the first trial a joint trial held in Washington DC in 2014.
Reba Slatten: He said, mom, I'm not a murderer. I didn't shoot the driver of the Kia. Um, so don't come up here. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your money. I'll see you. I thought he was coming home.
At that first trial, Slatten was forbidden from telling the jury that one of his co-defendants had admitted to the shooting he was accused of. All four men were convicted. All of them except Slatten got 30 years in prison. Slatten got life— for first degree murder.
Sharyl: So what did it make you think as a mom when you thought he was just doing his job and you heard that he was being perceived as a criminal?
Reba Slatten: I couldn't believe that the United States was doing this to my son who served four years in the 82nd airborne and loves this country. I was in shock.
But the story was far from over after the 2014 trial. The convictions started a movement by family members and advocates. For them, a big break came last year. An appeals court determined the sentences were “cruel and unusual punishment” and threw them out. And it said Slatten deserved a new trial because jurors had been kept from hearing key evidence in his defense. The new trial began in Washington D.C. in JulyThis time, Slatten’s parents, grandmother and sister were all there. And this time, jurors finally got to hear that Slatten’s teammate had acknowledged shooting the driver of the white Kia. The one prosecutors accused Slatten of murdering. But this past Wednesday, after a month of deliberations, the trial — Slatten’s second — ended with no resolution. A hung jury. The Justice Department declined our requests for comment and hasn’t yet said whether it will try Slatten yet again. Slatten’s family say Nick is the victim of a malicious prosecution in our government’s misguided attempt to use Raven 23 as a symbol of accountability in an unpopular war.
Darrell Slatten: And this case has brought me to understand that we don't really live in a country of justice and truth. It's about the check in the winners' column. And that's what our justice system is today. Totally corrupt.
Slatten and the other Raven 23 members have been charged, had charges dropped, were recharged and convicted, then had those sentences thrown out. All are still in prison while the Justice Department decides on next steps. Meantime, they’ve served more than four years— that’s longer than a Blackwater colleague who plead guilty a decade ago to voluntary manslaughter served a year and a day.
http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/raven-23
- Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y
- Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali
- Osama Fadhil Abbas
- Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq
- Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud
- Qasim Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud
- Sa'adi Ali Abbas Alkarkh
- Mushtaq Karim Abd Al-Razzaq
- Ghaniyah Hassan Ali
- Ibrahim Abid Ayash
- Hamoud Sa'eed Abttan
- Uday Ismail Ibrahiem
- Mahdi Sahib Nasir
- Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein
Wounded:
- Majed Salman Abdel Kareem Al-Gharbawi
- Jennan Hafidh Abid al-Razzaq
- Yasmin Abdul Kidr Salhe
- Mohanad Wadhnah
- Haydar Ahmad Rabie Hussain Al-Khafaji
- Hassan Jaber Salman
- Farid Walid Hasoun Al-Kasab
- Abdul Amir Raheem Jihan Yasser
- Wisam Raheem Fliah Hasan Al-Miri
- Talib Mutluk Diwan
- Adel Jaber Sham'ma Al-Jadiri
- Nasir Hamzah Latif Al-Rikabi
- Mahdi Abid Khider Abbas Al-Faraji
- Abdul Wahab Abdul Qadar Al-Qalamchi
- Bara Sadoon Ismail Al-Ani
- Sami Hawa Hamud Al-Sabahin
- Fawziyyah Aliwi Hassoon
- Ali Hadi Naji Al-Rubaie
- Alah Majeed Sghair Zaidi
- Jassim Mohammad Hashim
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