Blackwater guards in Baghdad shooting surrender
December 8th, 2008 . by TexasFredBlackwater guards in Baghdad shooting surrender
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards surrendered on 14 counts of manslaughter and dozens of other charges Monday in connection with an investigation into a deadly 2007 shooting at a busy Baghdad intersection.
A sixth guard admitted in a plea deal to killing at least one Iraqi in the shooting, in which prosecutors say Blackwater guards used machine guns and grenade launchers on motorists and bystanders. His guilty plea, likewise, was unsealed Monday.
“The government alleges in the documents unsealed today that at least 34 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, were killed or injured without justification or provocation by these Blackwater security guards,” national security prosecutor Pat Rowan said.
In addition to being charged with manslaughter, the five guards also face 20 counts of attempted manslaughter. They are also charged with using a machine gun to commit a crime of violence, a charge that carries a 30-year minimum sentence.
Though they are charged in a sealed indictment in Washington, they surrendered at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City.
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Blackwater guards in Baghdad shooting surrender
I am NOT going to condemn the Blackwater guys, not in ANY way. It is my opinion that until the full facts of these indictments are heard, in a court of law, they are simply indictments. And once again I say, indictment does not necessarily equate to conviction.
It is my opinion that Blackwater does employ some very bad guys, and I view them with the greatest respect. Blackwater guys are NOT in theater to make nice, they are NOT set decoration. They are in theater to protect their client, at ALL costs! That is their ONLY job and Blackwater USA does that job very well.
Blackwater employs high speed, low drag, 1st class professional operators. Guys that are at a premium in todays market, and make no mistake about it, they are a high value item. There are only so many of them to go around. I refer to really competent, and trustworthy ones, you can find hired cannons all day, for a dime a dozen, wannabes that can’t think their way through an episode of ‘Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?’.
Yeah, those guys, literally, a dime a dozen. The ones you wouldn’t them want guarding a bank in your home town. But 1st class professionals are a rare and beautiful thing, and worth their weight in gold simply because, they will keep you alive.
And again I ask, how many diplomats has Blackwater lost under their watch?? Anyone?? That’s right. NONE! That is all the vindication Blackwater needs, they deliver a JOB WELL DONE! And they bring their charges back alive!
I can’t speak for everyone, but to ANY man that has ever been in a combat situation, that one caveat, they bring their charges back alive, that equates to VICTORY! Now, lets see what the bleeding hearts and libbers have to say about that. And I am waiting to see if some of the Mil-Blogs jump to the defense of Blackwater the way they did for the Haditha Marines. I hope they do, Blackwater deserves that support too!
There are “mercs” and there are the professionals. I would tend to place Blackwater in the latter category. I too will be waiting for all the possible information to “out” before I conclude — Haditha made “conclusion jumping” a very painful and embarrassing event.
BZ
Speaking of Haditha, has Murtha apologized yet?? Didn’t think so.
I’ve always been of the opinion that you shoot first and don’t ask any questions.
I knew some merc’s years ago and they were all professionals, even if many of them had been in the SS during WWII.
Unfortunately I think these BW guys will be the scapegoats for everything bad that ever happened in Iraq…
I think the so-called INNOCENT’S in Iraq are way over rated, When our guys kill someone they are innocent, when they are blown up, shot or decapitated by Iraqi’s, or Islamic douchebags they are forgotten and nothing is ever heard about it again.
Another heartfelt “Amen” for this artilce, Fred. I could not agree more!
JDL
This crap just pisses me off. How about when the Blackwater guys were ambushed and murdered in Fallujah? Why isn’t out government looking into who murdered those men?
http://www.aztlan.net/torched_hung.htm
We send out troops and contractors into Hellholes like Iraq and then hang them out to dry the first time non-combatants get killed in a firefight. This is just wrong.
I am going to reserve my opinion of the Justice System until this is over but I am fully aware of the way that the Iraqi insurgents wage war.
The sons a bitches do it from behind a burkha clad woman or they hide behind a child. It’s called *vindication*, it’s OK to attack the running dog Americans and kill them, and it’s OK to martyr as many of the brethren as necessary to make it appear that the INFIDELS were attacking YOU and NOT vice versa.
But I am going to stave off my desire to espouse on this matter for now, because if I did I would likely call this the biggest trumped up case of BULL SHIT to come out of the Bush administration to date!
While I would really like to take Fred’s high road on this one I just can’t help wanting that pantywaist President Bush to grant an unconditional pardon to these people.
I figure that he will do that just about the same time that he gives one to Ramos and Campeon…
Patrick Sperry: precisely! Bush’s “pardons” will bespeak volumes. We’re waiting.
BZ
BZ & Patrick, Bush won’t step up and do the right thing, he never has, why would we even imagine that he will now?
Those BW guys were quite likely attacked, the only thing I personally see that they did wrong was, they left witnesses…
Oops…
I have a really good friend of mine serving with DynCorp in Afghanistan. He served for years as an Army Ranger and other jobs of which he cannot speak. He apparently did some ops in places that are so ‘black’ that all the energy used by Al Gore’s mansion could not shed light on them.
He went to work for DynCorp as a professional high-level security expert. This means he is a ‘mercenary’ as some people describe them with scorn on their tounge. However, he is one of the nicest, most respectable men I know. Loving husband, father of two adroable children and decorated law enforcement officer. He is also a cold blooded killer who’s veins must course ice water when he is called to be one. He is not proud of the death that he has caused, but he is very proud of the lives that he has saved, protected and rescued. He is proud of the missions he undertook in the service of his nation, though most likely he can never tell anyone about them.
These men that get so much villification for being hired guns are quite often cut from the finest cloth our military has to offer. They take these jobs because they are good at what they do and civilian corportations like Blackwater and DynCorp can simply pay much better than the military. If you got offered a job doing something you were trained to do and exceptionally good at for twice the money, would you not take it?
I know a few of these men and all that I have met from most of the big corporate security firms are the utmost professionals and not the wild-eyed hired guns that the media portrays them as.
If these men did wrong, then they should be punished, but I will side with them until they are proven guilty beyond all reasonalbe doubt and it is shown that they acted outside of charter with malice and without regard for innocent life.