Ex Blackwater Guards Charged in Murder
After the incident in May, the two Blackwater guards were terminated from Blackwater. With the company being under strict scrutiny from the US government, Blackwater felt it in their best interest to wash their hands of this episode and work with the US investigation.
The two men claim their innocence of any wrong doing on their part and felt that Blackwater was just trying to make them a scapegoat. Blackwater claims the men were drinking and that is why they were terminated. Both men deny any consumption of alcohol prior to the shootings.
The arrests came on the heels of the federal district judge's dismissal of a separate criminal case against four other Blackwater guards involved in a 2007 shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad where 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. Blackwater and the company's owner, Erik Prince have been the target of several investigations since the 2007 shootings in Baghdad.
It has been reported that Erik Prince and Blackwater settled out of court with the families of the victims at Nisour Square in Baghdad. The families of the dead were paid $100,000 and the wounded were paid between $20,000 and $30,000 each, to drop their civil lawsuits against Blackwater. This is a bargain for Blackwater as it is estimated to have made over a billion dollars in security contracts in Iraq alone since 2003.
Erik Prince has resigned as head of Blackwater USA currently called Xe Services and turn it over to its employees and a board, and exit defense contracting altogether. It is said that Erik Prince plans to teach high school history and economics and possibly coach wrestling.
With the arrest today of the two former guards of Blackwater, it is highly unlikely that Erik Prince has heard the last of the government investigation into his Blackwater involvement and Erik Prince himself.
Source: Barrett, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/07/us/AP-US-Afghan-Contractor-Shooting.html?_r=1
Source: Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/01/blackwater-201001?currentPage=1
Published by Denise Nuttall
Denise Nuttall has been an active freelance writer and online business entrepreneur since 2006. Denise has also been very active in citizen journalism for well over a year and owns her very own hyper-local b... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentSounds like another Eric Holder witch hunt. Perhaps Holder should volunteer himself to risk his own life conducting operations and protecting diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, elitist liberals don't do that. Well written except that you don't have an account about what happened....
Penelope, I had not heard about any such accusations. I will have to check in this.
So a man accused of condoning child prostitution wants to be a high school teacher?
ummm
in this country or in Iraq?
I think that Blackwater might have been the scab company hired to cross the lockout picket line at my husband's former employer.