After Pardon, Blackwater Guard Defiant: I Acted Correctly | Voice of America voanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jan 3, 2021
In this Dec. 31, 2020, file photo pardoned Blackwater contractor Evan Liberty poses for a photo in Washington. Liberty is one of four former Blackwater contractors pardoned by President Donald Trump in one of his final acts in office, wiping away their convictions in a 2007 shooting rampage in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians. The pardons were met with intense condemnation both in the United States and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) Evan Liberty was reading in the top bunk of his cell one evening late last month when a prison supervisor delivered news he had hoped for.
After Pardon, Blackwater Guard Defiant: I Acted Correctly theusnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theusnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
One of four former U.S. government contractors pardoned by President Donald Trump in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians says he feels like “I acted.
Historically, presidential pardons have been reserved for nonviolent crimes, not manslaughter or murder, and the traditional process led by the Justice Department values acceptance of responsibility and remorse from those convicted of crimes. The Blackwater contractors meet none of that criteria. They were convicted in the killings of unarmed Iraqi women and children and have long been defiant in their assertions of innocence.
In an interview with The Associated Press, his first since being released from prison, Liberty, 38, again expressed little remorse for actions he says were defensible given the context.
“I feel like I acted correctly,” he said of his conduct in 2007. “I regret any innocent loss of life, but I’m just confident in how I acted and I can basically feel peace with that.”