Trump Considers Pardoning Blackwater Mercenary Convicted of Murder
Less than two months after granting clemency to three convicted or accused war criminals, Donald Trump is considering pardoning a man convicted of murder in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq war—someone who served under the command of an infamous for-profit army.
The Daily Beast has learned that Trump is still quietly weighing pardoning at least one employee of the private army Blackwater, Nicholas Slatten. Convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Slatten, a former U.S. Army sniper, took part in the contractor’s infamous 2007 massacre at the Nisour Square traffic circle in Baghdad (in which Iraqis watched 10 men, two women and two pre-teen boys die violently despite being unarmed commuters).
Gary Solis, a retired Marine judge advocate, ex-West Point law professor and Vietnam combat veteran, said there “can be no good reason, legal or humanitarian, for exercising clemency in a case like Nisour Square and those who were involved in it.” Solis said Trump “knows nothing about these individuals, or what goes on on the battlefield. We’re talking about a multiple 4F-er,” referencing Trump’s Vietnam draft deferments, “and yet Trump wants to play the general and the Fox News hero.”
“Think about how this looks to Iraqi civilians who’ve been asked to trust U.S. forces, including contractors, to protect them,” said Sarah Holewinski, a former human-rights adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a board member of the humanitarian group CIVIC.
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-considers-pardoning-blackwater-mercenary-005914376.html
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