Blackwater guards’ charges dismissed

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Washington on Thursday dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in an incident that strained U.S.-Iraq relations and sparked an outcry over the military’s use of private contractors.

The judge did not rule on the substance of the charges, but instead decided that prosecutors had wrongly relied on what the guards told State Department investigators shortly after the incident. As government contractors, the Blackwater employees were required to speak to an investigator after a shooting.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the use of these statements violated the defendants’ rights against compelled self-incrimination.

“In their zeal to bring charges against the defendants … the government used compelled statements to guide its charging decisions … and ultimately, to obtain the indictment in this case,” the judge wrote in a 90-page opinion.

Because the indictment was thrown out on legal grounds, the government could bring an appeal. It could also re-charge the guards, although a new prosecution could be difficult given the judge’s finding that the case was so thoroughly tainted.

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said: “We’re disappointed by the decision.” He added that the department is “still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who has in the past sponsored legislation that would prohibit the hire of private military contractors, said she was dismayed by the news.

“A question I’ve been asking for a long time is, ‘Can these private military contractors actually get away with murder?’ ” Schakowsky said. “This indicates that the answer is yes.”

“There’s a long history of these kinds of companies being able to operate with impunity,” she said.

The news of the dismissal came to Baghdad late Thursday, prompting warnings that it could further damage U.S.-Iraq relations.

“The message is these people are protected by the American administration,” said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. “These people were backed by the State Department. … We are entering the new year with a bad message.”

The five guards in the case were Paul Slough of Keller, Texas; Nicholas Slatten of Sparta, Tenn.; Evan Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tenn., and Donald Ball of West Valley City, Utah. Each had been charged with multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter and firearms violations.

A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and helped authorities confirm the details of the incident. It is uncertain what effect the judge’s decision will have on Ridgeway’s case.

The guards maintained that they fired their weapons in response to an attack by insurgents. But according to U.S. prosecutors and an Iraqi government investigation, the shooting was unprovoked.

The September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, which also wounded 20, put a harsh spotlight on the role of private security guards in the war there. Blackwater guards were hired to provide protection for U.S. officials, but they were not bound by the same rules and procedures as the U.S. military.

Before the 2007 incident, Blackwater’s guards had been involved in other shootings, and they were faulted for firing at unarmed civilians.

In their defense, the five guards who were in Nisoor Square said they were responding to reports of an explosive device detonating nearby as a convoy of U.S. officials approached the area.

Government prosecutors disputed that the guards were returning fire.

“None of the victims of this shooting was armed,” said Jeffrey Taylor, the U.S. attorney in Washington, when he announced the indictment. “None was an insurgent.”

Separately, Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince, have been sued in federal court by the victims of the Nisoor Square shooting.