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Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s decision to pardon four security guards from the Blackwater security company who had been jailed for a massacre in 2007 that sparked protests over the use of mercenaries in the war.
The four men were part of a security convoy that fired at civilians in a roundabout in central Baghdad, killing 14 people, including a nine-year-old boy, and wounding many more.
The four guards, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten, opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a roundabout, known as Nisour Square.
The killings were one of the low points of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and many Iraqis had viewed the convictions as a rare occasion when US citizens had been held accountable for the atrocities committed afterward. Baghdad residents who spoke to The Guardian described the outgoing US president’s announcement as a “cruel slap” and an insult.
“Trump has no right to decide on behalf of the families of the victims the pardon of these criminals,” said Dr. Haidar al-Barzanji, an Iraqi scholar and researcher. “It is against human rights and the law. Under Iraqi law, they can only be pardoned if the families of the victims forgive them. I encourage the families of the victims to file a complaint against Trump when the Biden administration begins. “
Iraqi human rights activist Haidar Salman tweeted: “I still remember my hematology professor in the pathology department at the University of Baghdad (who was shot during the massacre along with his family) when he came back to life after his two sons and his wife were killed in Nisour Square and he almost lost his mind.
“One of the reasons he survived was to convict the murderers. The person who frees these criminals is more of a criminal. The Iraqi government should ask the Biden administration to revoke the pardon. “
The carnage in Nisour Square occurred more than four years after the US invasion, which sparked a cruel sectarian war and the massive displacement of Iraqis. The prolonged American occupation had left citizens resentful of security convoys pushing through traffic at will, sometimes firing at cars that had gotten too close.
Private security contractors, support logistics companies, or in some cases the US military, were a frequent source of complaints about heavy-handed and disrespectful behavior toward locals.
“We used to be terrified of them, especially Blackwater, who were the nastiest of all,” said Ribal Mansour, who heard the chaos in Nisour Square on September 16, 2007 and ran to the scene. “What I saw there will haunt me forever. It should have been a red line. That they are released by the commander in chief of the United States is a shame. “
Slough, Liberty and Heard were convicted of multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life in prison and the others to 30 years in prison each.
A federal judge threw out an initial prosecution, but then-Vice President Joe Biden promised to proceed with a new prosecution, which was successful in 2015.
As the incoming president, Iraqi officials are sure to press hard on Biden to reverse the decision. “It will be the first thing we will discuss with him,” said an aide to the prime minister, Mustafa Khadimi.
At the sentencing hearing, the US attorney’s office said in a statement: “The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the criminal conduct of the defendants on September 16, 2007 is staggering.”
After news of the clemency broke Tuesday night, Brian Heberlig, attorney for one of the four Blackwater defendants pardoned, said: “Paul Slough and his colleagues did not deserve to spend a minute in prison. I am overwhelmed with excitement at this fantastic news. “
The pardons are among several the president has granted to US service personnel and contractors charged or convicted of crimes against noncombatants and civilians in war zones. In November last year, he pardoned three US servicemen who had been charged or convicted of war crimes, including a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire on three unarmed Afghans.
During the Blackwater contractors’ trial, defense attorneys argued that their clients responded to fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.
But in a post-sentencing memorandum, the US government said: “None of the victims were an insurgent or posed a threat to the Raven 23 convoy.”
The memo also contained quotes from relatives of the dead, including Mohammad Kinani, whose nine-year-old son Ali was killed. “That day changed my life forever. That day it completely destroyed me, ”Kinani said.
FBI investigators who visited the site in the following days described it as the “My Lai massacre in Iraq”, a reference to the infamous killing of civilian villagers by US troops during the Vietnam War in which only one soldier was convicted.
The Iraqi government announced an immediate ban on Blackwater after the killings, although it continued to operate in the country until 2009, and the state department eventually stopped using the company to provide diplomatic security.
The massacre led to successive investigations into Blackwater and the private contractor industry in general by the US State Department, the Pentagon, Congress and the UN.
Amid intense scrutiny, founder Erik Prince cut ties with the company in 2010, though he continued to work in the field, creating a US-led mercenary army in the UAE that has reportedly since been deployed in Yemen.
The latest incarnation of Blackwater, Academi, is owned by private investors and continued after Prince’s departure to win contracts with the State Department and the Pentagon to protect US facilities in war zones and train military personnel.
The 14 victims killed by the Blackwater guards were Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, Osama Fadhil Abbas, Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq, Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Qasim Mohamed Abbas Mahmoud, Sa’adi Ali Abbas Alkarkh , Mushtaq Karim Abd Al-Razzaq, Ghaniyah Hassan Ali, Ibrahim Abid Ayash, Hamoud Sa’eed Abttan, Uday Ismail Ibrahiem, Mahdi Sahib Nasir and Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein.
All but one of the victims’ families accepted compensation payments from Blackwater: $ 50,000 for the injured and $ 100,000 for the relatives of the dead.
Haitham al-Rubaie, who lost his wife, Mahasin, a doctor, and his son Ahmad, a 20-year-old medical student, was the only one who turned down the offer.
A former classmate of Ahmad said Trump’s pardon did not surprise Iraqis.
“The Americans have never approached the Iraqis as equals,” he told AFP. “As far as they are concerned, our blood is cheaper than water and our demands for justice and accountability are simply a nuisance.”
Additional information: Nechirvan Mando in Erbil
