Trump Considers Pardoning Blackwater Mercenary Convicted of Murder

[riversedge]

Serious problems with Presidential pardons.

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Trump Considers Pardoning Blackwater Mercenary Convicted of Murder


https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-pardoning-blackwater-mercenary-convicted-of-murder?via=twitter_page
BODY COUNT

An effort to clear a Blackwater merc doing life for murder in the infamous Nisour Square massacre may soon bear fruit, multiple sources tell The Daily Beast.

Updated Jan. 03, 2020 4:06AM ET / Published Jan. 02, 2020 7:59PM ET
AP Photo/Cliff Owen

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.

In recent weeks, the president has asked close advisers what they think of additional clemency, according to a source close to the president and a senior administration official. “He’s said he wants to do more,” said the administration official, who discussed this case, as well as others, with the president. “There are more warriors out there who he believes have been treated unfairly and whose [cases] need another look.”

Not all of those “warriors” are U.S. servicemembers, however.

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. Blackwater was founded by Trump ally Erik Prince, who has insisted for over a decade that the company was railroaded after Nisour Square by an American left gone insane.

The White House declined comment on this story on Thursday afternoon.

Should Trump go through with the Blackwater pardon, it would be a stunning denouement to a wrenching episode in which Iraqis watched 10 men, two women and two pre-teen boys die violently despite being unarmed commuters. Ever since, U.S. diplomats have counseled the Iraqis to trust in the American justice system–which turned Nisour Square into a prolonged legal fiasco. And any clemency for Slatten would happen in the aftermath of angry Iraqis storming the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has raised questions about the Iraqi government’s willingness to continue the U.S. military presence...............................

[pwb]

1. These guys go around starting shit.

Probably outside the bagdad embassy starting the scary fires.

[Ohiogal]

2. Dump is gleeful

to twist the knife

He makes me sick.

[bitterross]

3. He will do it. For revenge and a f-you.

He doesn't give a damn about the geo-political consequences. He only cares about getting what he wants and what he thinks is right. None of which is ever moral, ethical or proper.

[lunasun]

4. Paid mercenary who committed war atrocities the Iraq war. Don't think these war crime releases

by trump go unnoticed in Iraq
Probably more than here in the US (where a large part is people who agree he should be free) Iraqis are aware of US future intentions implied by the trump pardons he makes