You all know that I have been covering the politically-motivated charges against the Blackwater guards who were charged with murder for a shooting in Nisour Square in 2007. The charges were finally dropped and the judge gave a scathing rebuke to the prosecutors, but it was on procedural grounds. They should have been cleared on the merits and the fact that this cloud hangs over their heads is a shame. Here is my piece in the Wash Times When he walked into the operations center during the Nisour Square shootings in Baghdad, the first thing a State Department employee heard was a radio call from the Raven 23 convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police." He wonders why he never hears about that in media reports about the incident. The paper also chimes in with an editorial of their own on the Blackwater lynching and there is an investigative piece by their excellent reporter Eli Lake coming out soon as well. This was a shameful travesty that made a bad situation worse. The guards acted in good faith and sadly lives were lost. The government acted in bad faith and fortunately no lives were destroyed.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/xFU6yQRZrFI/oped-in-wahington-times-on-blackwater.html
Posted
Jan 06 2010, 10:56 PM
by
BLACKFIVE