Efforts To Prosecute Blackwater Collapse

New York Times:

Nearly four years after the federal government began a string of investigations and criminal prosecutions against Blackwater Worldwide personnel accused of murder and other violent crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cases are beginning to fall apart, burdened by a legal obstacle of the government's own making.

In the most recent and closely watched case, the Justice Department on Monday said that it would not seek murder charges against Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater armorer accused of killing a guard assigned to an Iraqi vice president on Dec. 24, 2006. Justice officials said that they were abandoning the case after an investigation that began in early 2007, and included trips to Baghdad by federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents to interview Iraqi witnesses.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Edward Standley]

09:35 PM on 11/15/2010

What is really dangerous here is that the families of murdered civilians may feel that the only way to get any "justice" may be to exact it themselves. Be careful of unintended consequences.

[Masonx]

01:50 PM on 10/22/2010

Neither this (Holder) nor the previous Attorney Generals (Ashcroft, Gonzales, Mukasey) had any intention of prosecuting the crimes of the Bush Administration corrupt and illegal war - otherwise it they wouldn't have delayed it for 4 years. To prosecute these contractors would risk exposing and unraveling the entire US government's leaders in the participation and deceptions in this fraudulent scam and illegal war - not to mention of their sell out of every US citizen to the big money interests who wanted and continue to profit from the war. We have been privatized and are now corporately owned - every man, woman and child of us. We are being used accordingly.

I voted for Obama (like Palin/McCain was a choice) and have come to the sad realization he is just an extension of the same polices and crimes that was the puppet show - that was the Bush Administration and that US democracy is nothing more than a farce of soap opera theatrics - mental busy work for the drones. Having made this connection - the obvious linked conclusion is that if Obama is and extension of Bush, then in truth we have only on party - manipulated and owned lock, stock and barrel by the big money interests of the world. The US is now nothing more than a multi-national corporate division.

[phread]

10:05 PM on 10/21/2010

This is a d@mned shame...

[SpoonieLuv]

09:20 PM on 10/21/2010

It doesn't exactly show that the US is serious about fighting terrorism when we send terrorists into foreign territories to murder the locals. US troops near Nissour Square should have eliminated those mercenaries when they had the chance. It sickens me that they are alive and well in my own country.

[mamababa]

09:12 PM on 10/21/2010

American Justice triumphs AGAIN!

[AZreb]

08:47 PM on 10/21/2010

One of the reasons given for hiring mercenaries is that we don't have the troops to do the jobs. Solution: raise the pay of the troops so that more would join or re-up. Bring back the SeaBees for construction and reconstruction, let the troops do the jobs they used to do such as transportation and security for fuel trucks, guarding the embassies, the jobs like cooking, laundry, delivering the mail, delivering and protecting supplies.

Instead we, the taxpayers, are paying mercenaries billions while our troops and their families make do with low pay along with the many deployments. Use the billions to bulk up our military troops with higher pay and you will have more men and women joining.

Mercenaries are just what the name implies - working for whoever pays them the most.

[Theatrixnyc]

12:54 PM on 10/22/2010

We have plenty of troops, occupying space all over the globe. What's going on here sounds as though our Govt. goes thru the ads in Soldier of Fortune, looking for employees. Not a very good policy.

[scorpioman]

08:38 PM on 10/21/2010

since their very existence is illegal and immoral, they should be dealt with in a like manner......they are all hired murderers

[foxisms]

08:26 PM on 10/21/2010

You can't very well prosecute this branch of the MIC any more than you could prosecute the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines.

[lvdragonlady]

07:59 PM on 10/21/2010

All the government needs to do is PULL all their contracts with blackwater and let them disappear. They are not but a bunch of mercenaries for hire anyway, so why would anyone but cheney back them in the first place?

[JibberJabberwocky]

04:44 PM on 10/21/2010

Why do I get the sinking feeling that the growth of and deference paid to these mercinary armies is strikingly similar to the clone armies from Star Wars lore?

All Dick Chaney has to do is name himself Emperor and he'd have loyal, well-armed troops that outnumber actual US military personnel.

[TexasDem0]

04:19 PM on 10/21/2010

Well Geroge, you were so obsessed with your legacy and now we have a major piece of it.

[booki]

03:33 PM on 10/21/2010

tee.this surprises who?

so what will the next ... non bid ...contract be, awarded to Blackwater?
XE? Halliburton.......
who started thei contract garbage? ...........was it Dick?

[jspkim]

04:07 PM on 10/21/2010

The O admin already gave KBR ( a former subsidiary of Halliburton) and Xe fresh new contracts.

[TexasDem0]

04:15 PM on 10/21/2010

While the administration is surprised that the base is disgusted.

[AZreb]

08:40 PM on 10/21/2010

Xe (Blackwater) has new contracts with the CIA and the State Department.

[zg]

03:22 PM on 10/21/2010

Of course corporations have a License to Kill. When did we start believing people matter? How foolish of us all. We are just the grist in the mill.

[JibberJabberwocky]

04:38 PM on 10/21/2010

If corporations are now treated as individuals (as stated in the USSC's Citizens United ruling) they should also be subject to prosecution for crimes as an individual would.

[FoonTheElder]

05:02 PM on 10/21/2010

They are only treated as individuals when it is to the corporation's advantage. When it's not to their advantage, they are considered a personless entity.

[Masonx]

01:58 PM on 10/22/2010

Let's give credit where credit is due. The Bush court appointments made the Citizens United decision to allow us to become a corporately owned stealth fascist state. You would be an ultra idiot if you did not see how long the right worked to get this court assembled for their corporate owners to reach this critical point. What a bloodless coup. The only bigger idiots are the rest of us that let this happen and continue to accept it as if we have to - while our countries historic and traditional identity turn to dust and memories. We are the new Greece - with the same fate as the old one.

[chitowner1]

02:03 PM on 10/21/2010

Not surprising that government outsourcing of military/security responsibility to corporations is jeopardizing legal and all other types of accountability.

This is one of the most egregious examples of how crony government-corporate collusion by both parties is moving the republic toward fascism.

Worse, it's a slap in the face to our troops, who are held more accountable and paid far less than these mercenary war profiteers. That is the most sickening part of this whole corrupt system.

[cayuse]

02:33 PM on 10/21/2010

Yahoo

[falco]

01:57 PM on 10/21/2010

FYI. Blackwater (name changed to Xe Services to create a better image) was recently purchased by Monsanto. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation just bought $23 million in stock in Monsanto. Good one Bill. Two companies that are hell bent on destroying the world and you throw you money at them.

[VillainUs]

02:20 PM on 10/21/2010

Of course Gates bought into Monsanto. He is NOT a philanthropist. He is a capitalist.

Gates has been using the cover of philanthropy to protect intellectual property rights when the most effective way to battle disease is to release the patents on drugs that work. Instead, he buys the drugs at market prices (propping up the suppliers which he OWNS) and then distributes the drugs to needy patients. Note that this does not provide a solution to the problem. It just looks like he is doing good while he moves money from one pocket to another.

Monsanto is a monument to the evil of intellectual property. Their unethical practices (the ones we know about) are many, varied, and documented. So of course Gates bought in.

[cayuse]

02:35 PM on 10/21/2010

Monsanto, they kill the dogs by using atomic cellophane that melted into the dog food, right

Monopolies becoming monopolies. Oligopolies better watch out

[Inkosi]

04:09 PM on 10/21/2010

fanned and fave! Thanks for that comment.