Trump Pardons Mass Murder By Mercenary 'Soldiers of Fortune' In Iraq - 24 Dec 2020

 

The circumstances of the 2007 Nisour Square massacre are not in doubt, following exhaustive investigations by the US military, the FBI and the Iraqi authorities. A squad of Blackwater mercenaries, deployed as guards for US State Department officials, left their base in the Green Zone, the US government’s compound in central Baghdad, on the morning of September 16, 2007, equipped with heavy weapons. At the first city square they entered, the mercenaries halted traffic, then opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on cars, taxis and buses carrying hundreds of ordinary Iraqis going about their daily business. No Iraqis fired shots, displayed weapons, or in any way threatened the Blackwater agents.

When the bloodbath was over, at least 14 Iraqis lay dead and 17 were wounded. None of the Americans suffered so much as a scratch. The death list demonstrates the essentially random character of the victims, 10 men, two women, and two boys, hit in the hail of gunfire and explosives. There is no reference to these names in the pardon declaration issued by the White House:

• Ahmad Haitham Ahmad al-Rubai, 20, a medical student
• Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, 46, Ahmad’s mother and a dermatologist
• Ghaniyah Hassan Ali, 55, mother of eight, who died on a bus shielding her daughter Afrah from the bullets
• Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq, 9, killed in the car his father was driving
• Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, 47, a delivery truck driver
• Qasim Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, 12, the truck driver’s son
• Mushtaq Karim Abd Al-Razzaq, 18, an Iraqi soldier standing at a military checkpoint
• Osama Fadhil Abbas, 52, a car dealer
• Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein, 54, a blacksmith commuting to work on his motorcycle
• Ibrahim Abid Ayash, 77, a gardener and passenger on a bus
• Mahdi Sahib Nasir, 26, a taxi driver
• Hamoud Sa’eed Abttan, 33, an unemployed job seeker, father of seven
• Uday Ismail Ibrahiem, 27, Hamoud’s cousin, also unemployed and a father of three
• Sa’adi Ali Abbas Alkarkh, 52, a businessman

The Nisour Square massacre came at the high point of the bloodletting in Iraq, when President George W. Bush had ordered a “surge” in troop deployments and operations throughout Iraq to forestall an impending disintegration of the Iraqi puppet regime established by the 2003 US invasion. The death toll skyrocketed with the ongoing clashes with Iraqi insurgent forces. It was impossible for US officials to move outside the Green Zone without heavily armed escorts, mainly provided by Blackwater, which held a $1 billion contract for guard services in the war zones. Mainly drawn from ex-military men turned highly paid mercenaries, Blackwater was characterized by a colonialist disdain for the “natives” and a penchant for shooting first and never asking questions.

The 2014 trial in the United States included 30 eyewitnesses flown in from Iraq to give testimony, the largest number ever to come to America for such a purpose. Their accounts were graphic and heart-wrenching. “Anything that moved in Nisour Square was shot. Women, children, young people, they shot everyone,” said Hassan Jaber Salman, a lawyer who survived the attack with his son. Blackwater claimed that the convoy had come under attack, that the witness accounts were fabricated, and the killings were justified. However, a congressional report found that in 80 percent of the cases where Blackwater guards used their weapons in Iraq between 2005 and 2007, they had fired first.

Despite repeated interventions on behalf of the Blackwater mercenaries by US politicians, and court rulings that overturned several guilty verdicts, four were finally convicted. Nicholas Slatten was the first to open fire, killing Dr. Al-Khazali and her son Ahmad, who was driving her to a medical appointment in a white Kia. Slatten was sentenced to life imprisonment. Three others, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough, joined in the killing. They received prison sentences ranging from 11 to 15 years.

 

See Also:

Iraq Mass Murder - 'Raven 23' - Sharyl Attkisson Interview With US Mercenary War Lord Eric Prince - 9 Sept 2018

   https://currentevents0000.blogspot.com/2020/12/iraq-mass-murder-raven-23-sharyl.html