Blackwater Guards Indicted for Role in Nisour Square Massacre Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now

Five Blackwater security guards were charged on Monday for their role in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead and more than 20 wounded. The federal prosecutors accused the Blackwater guards of opening machine gun fire on innocent Iraqis and launching a grenade into a girls school. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/blackwater_guards_indicted_for_role_in

Read Jeremy Scahill's new piece:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081222/scahill

Category:

News & Politics

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• Jeremy
• Scahill
• Democracy
• Now
• Blackwater
• nisour
• square
• massacre
• amy
• goodman

[moorishbelle]

Scahill was on Bill Maher's HBO Friday. See rerun on Monday, 9 May 2011.

Great Investigative Reporting.

[xwolflowx]

Has anyone hear of the Military code of arms? This is way we don't allow mercenaries, because they can be above the law. Its clear they don't have the same standers as real military units.

[Warabaranara]

Look at those psychos just look a their faces.

[abby495]

This isn't ARMY it is Mercenaries paid that don't follow the rules that soldier's follow. Our soldiers go there only to be electrocuted and treated like shit these mercenaries make 6 figures.I hope their dicks rot off.

[MothaFuckthePolice]

look sloan, if we live in America we have all the F*ing business in the world to be interested in the policies that are in effect in our country or representing us abroad. while I have a respect for some in the military, private contractors sap resources, manpower from THE Military and dodge accountability to the public.

[sloan1111]

All of you ignorant commentators who liberally use the word "mercenary" need to stop using it erroneously. Blackwater is hired by and authorized by the US government(State Department/Dept of Defense) to provide security protection and training. A mercenary is someone hired by a foreign government to fight for that foreign government. As such Blackwater, a US entity hired by its native US govnt, is not a mercenary company, period...

[sloan1111]

Until you have served in Iraq or have been in the cross hairs of a soviet-made ak-47, then you have no business putting in your two cents on this issue. The insurgents/terrorists blend in with general population, making it more difficult to distinguish the good guys from the bad. Some, if not a majority, of those so-called "innocent" civilians killed in this incident, harbor and are firm supporters of the insurgents. They want americans out of their towns.

[sloan1111]

These same people with anti-american sentiment are the ones interviewed to discuss the incident. I wonder what kind of story they're gonna tell. All of you uneducated commentators need to stop being so quick to believe those one-sided accounts of what happened and try to use some rational thought as to how volatile the situation is in a hot zone like Iraq.

[sloan1111]

These brave men i.e. Blackwater are doing jobs, like protecting diplomats, who are vital to the progression of Iraq. Jobs that our military can't or are not trained to do. If liberals democrats don't want to use PMCs like Blackwater, then they need to stop legislating to diminish our military and defense spending and train and adequately supply our troops to do the jobs that Blackwater does and stop pulling troops out of Iraq! Blackwater is hired to fill those gaps created by troop shortages!

[jaif4]

Some scary stuff, I am not sure how I would feel about America, if I was an Iraqi witnessing all that, Bush will go retire in his multimillion dollar house and leave some for his children too, this Black water characters will come out of there with billions of dollars

The American Name will always be side by side with the emotional and physical scars.

For generations of Iraqis.

Impeach all of them, the only way to clear Americas Name.

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