Justice Department Brings New Charges in Blackwater Shootings
Source: Associated Press
@AP: The Justice Department brings fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors: http://t.co/s6h511wZql -CJ
Oct 17, 3:14 PM EDT
AP NEWSBREAK: NEW CHARGES IN BLACKWATER SHOOTINGS
BY FREDERIC J. FROMMER AND ERIC TUCKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department Thursday brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, resurrecting an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad.
A new grand jury charges the men in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war. The men were hired to guard U.S. diplomats.
The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, including women and children. Prosecutors say the heavily armed Blackwater convoy used machine guns and grenades in an unprovoked attack. Defense lawyers argue their clients are innocent men who were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.
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The guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in 2008, but a federal judge the following year dismissed the case, ruling the Justice Department withheld evidence from a grand jury and violated the guards' constitutional rights. The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed Americans consider themselves above the law. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Baghdad in 2010, expressed his "personal regret" for the shootings.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BLACKWATER_PROSECUTION
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