AMY GOODMAN: This is
The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
President Trump’s pardon of four former Blackwater mercenaries convicted for their role in a massacre in Baghdad has sparked outrage in Iraq. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said the decision violates, quote, “the values of justice, human rights and rule of law” and, quote, “ignores the dignity of the victims,” unquote. The Blackwater guards included Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children, the youngest victim a 9-year-old boy named Ali Kinani.
Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley. Read Scahill’s article on the story at TheNation.com
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: We bring you today an explosive
Democracy Now! exclusive. Last weekend, Vice President Joe Biden announced the U.S. Justice Department would appeal the dismissal of the criminal case against five Blackwater operatives accused of being behind the infamous Nisoor Square massacre in Baghdad in September of 2007.
Some 17 Iraqis were killed and more than 20 wounded in 15 minutes of sustained gunfire. On New Year’s Eve, Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina threw out the cases, but not for lack of evidence or because the men are not guilty. Urbina charged that prosecutors had committed gross misconduct in the case and violated the constitutional rights of the Blackwater men.