Columnist explains why Trump is unsurpassed in abusing the pardon powers Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Prescott Valley Event Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ
President Donald Trump is hardly the first U.S. president to draw criticism for the presidential pardons he has granted, but it is safe to say that Trump s pardons have been especially controversial â for example, the ones he announced on Tuesday, December 22, including pardons for Blackwater employees jailed for killing Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. The Washington Post s Ruth Marcus, in an op-ed published the following day, lays out some reasons why Trump s pardons have been especially egregious.
BBC News
Published
image captionThe 2007 incident in Baghdad s Nisoor Square caused an international outcry
The UN has sharply criticised President Donald Trump s decision to pardon four former Blackwater contractors jailed over the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians.
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard opened fire in Baghdad s Nisoor Square in 2007 while guarding an American diplomatic convoy.
The UN Human Rights Office warned that the pardons would serve to embolden others to commit similar crimes.
The father of a nine-year boy who died said Mr Trump broke my life again .
There was no immediate response from the Iraqi government.
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.
Published date: 23 December 2020 09:03 UTC | Last update: 3 months ago
Ali Kinani s life was cut short at nine years old in 2007, when Blackwater American security contractors opened fire without provocation in Baghdad s Nisour Square, killing 17 people.
Ali, who liked to be called Alawi, was in the back of his father s car on the way home after picking up his aunt and cousins, on what had appeared like a normal day until the shooting started in all directions.
Determined to bring the killers to justice, Ali s father Mohammed Kinani moved to the United States to follow the prosecution of the Blackwater employees. The blood of innocent Iraqis that was spilled in the Nisour Square is red blood that is no different than the blood of Americans
Richard Ojeda (D) blasted President
Donald Trump for his pardon of four contractors with the private military firm, Blackwater. Ojeda voted for Trump in 2016 and has later publicly acknowledged that was a mistake.
Trump released a flurry of pardons on Tuesday night, granting clemency to public figures connected to the Russia investigation, multiple former Republican congressmen convicted for corruption, and the four Blackwater contractors, who were convicted for killing Iraqi civilians in 2007. This comes shortly after Trump pardoned his former White House national security adviser,
Michael Flynn, which raised questions for weeks about who else might get pardoned before Trump leaves office.