Lawyers of Indicted Blackwater Guards Slam Government

[MountainLaurel]

Attorneys representing five Blackwater security guards charged in a shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead last year accused the government today of overstepping its authority and engaging in unfair second-guessing of the contractors' actions in a war zone.

The five guards -- a sixth is in plea negotiations -- were indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury in Washington, according to several sources familiar with the case. The indictment was sealed, and the exact charges are not known. The guards are expected to surrender to federal authorities Monday, the sources said.

snip

The guards' lawyers declined to discuss their legal strategy but said they will fight the the government on jurisdictional and factual grounds.

Tom Connolly, who represents Slatten, said "the indictment is an effort by bureaucrats in Washington to second guess split second decisions made by honorable men during a firefight in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/06/AR2008120601180.html?hpid=topnews

:puke:

[lib_wit_it]

1. WHy isn't the military capable of doing what these Blackwater posers are being paid loads of cash

to do. I'm assuming it's just more of Bush, Cheney, etc. giving their slimy friends more chances to milk the treasury.

[merh]

2. The factual attack on the indictment is par for the course.

That will be their defense if the indictments are allowed to stand.

The jurisdictional question is the legitimate question.

If, as this administration has been saying since no WMDs were found, since they invaded and occupied Iraq, the Iraqi government is a sovereign nation and the US is in Iraq to help the Iraqis establish a democratic government, the US has no jurisdiction over crimes that occurred in Iraq. The killings did not occur on US soil, in the green zone, on a US base, on the US embassy grounds. The US has no jurisdiction to bring charges against the Blackwater employees.

If a US citizen commits a crime in Mexico, the US prosecutors cannot indict and try that person in the US. Mexico has jurisdiction and those wrongs are subject to Mexican laws, not US laws.

So for these killers, the jurisdiction lies in Iraq or with the international courts.

[Mist]

3. Yet if it were actual American soldiers, the gov't could intervene, right? There's an

enormous loophole letting these mercenaries off the hook.

[merh]

4. Not off the hook.

The Iraqis do have jurisdiction. The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction as these are alleged war crimes.

[Mist]

5. I'm glad the mercs may have to answer to SOMEBODY. At least in theory. nt