According to numerous national news sources, President Donald Trump has pardoned the four Blackwater private contractors, one of which was from Sparta, who were involved in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, in Baghdad.
A story from the New York Times states the president pardoned four former U.S. service members who were convicted on charges related to the Nisour Square incident while they were working as contractors for Blackwater, in 2007.
Nicholas Slatten, of Sparta, had been sentenced to life in prison for his alleged involvement in the incident. Slatten had been a contractor for the private company Blackwater. The news of his pardon broke on Dec. 22, 2020, which left family members and friends sharing their excitement on social media.
State Senator Paul Bailey, of White County, responded to the news of the pardon.
“I was notified Tuesday that President Trump was issuing a pardon for Nick Slatten,” Bailey said. “It’s been a long time coming, and I appreciate our president’s willingness to see justice prevail and Nick united with family.
According to the New York Times story, in 2009, a federal judge dismissed the cases against four of the contractors, arguing that investigators had reportedly relied on tainted evidence.
Two years later, the federal appeals court in Washington reversed that decision. In 2019, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison for what prosecutors alleged was his role in firing the first shot in Nisour Square that killed a civilian and led to contractors firing grenades and machine guns into the crowd.
According to various national news sources, around noon, on Sept. 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where U.S. and Iraqi officials were meeting, and a Blackwater Tactical Support Team answering to the call sign “Raven 23” reportedly took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the U.S. officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them. Shortly after assuming their positions, “Raven 23” reportedly began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing 14 and wounding 20 more.
The Blackwater guards’ account of the triggering incident reportedly differed from that set forth in an Iraqi government account. The latter claimed that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her grown son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer’s whistle to clear a path for the convoy. According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, reportedly opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded.
According to national news sources, the account by the Blackwater firm stated that the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles that were thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing it. In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. In response to the guards’ killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men. They communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack.
A State Department report stated that eight to 10 attackers opened fire “from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms.” The report said that as the convoy tried to leave, its route was blocked by insurgents armed with machine guns at 12:08 p.m. According to another U.S. government report, “The team returned fire to several identified targets” before leaving the area and a second convoy en route to help was “blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel.”
Tina Lomax, of Sparta, has been a staunch supporter of Slatten. She has maintained a Facebook page that provided updates on the case. Lomax spoke with The Expositor, on Dec. 22.
“It’s been a long battle for our men of Raven 23/The Biden 4,” Lomax said. “We have said from the beginning we will keep the faith and leave no man behind because we stood behind our men’s innocence. It’s been a long road. President Trump’s pardon is truly a Christmas miracle for all of the families. I’m so thankful that the children involved will now have their parents back in their lives. I’m most thankful for our hometown hero Nick Slatten to be able to get back to his normal life.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here