Trial of four Blackwater security guards hinges on belief, not reality, of a threat

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/06/trial-blackwater-security-guards-iraq-belief-threat

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As the US military returned to combat in Iraq this summer, a group of jurors in Washington DC were hearing arguments over a dark chapter of the last war.

Though some elements of the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad road junction by Blackwater private security guards remain shrouded in mystery even after a trial that lasted 10 weeks, prosecutors provided overwhelming evidence that the tragedy was one of the most one-sided encounters of the US occupation.

The civilian vehicles caught up in the incident were so riddled with bullets and explosives that their contents could barely be identified, yet the convoy of four armoured vehicles in which the guards were riding was marked only by a handful of tiny dents and scratches of indeterminate origin.

And while the four Blackwater guards on trial for the deaths of 14 of the victims claimed they believed they were under attack by an insurgent car-bombing attempt, no weapons or explosives were found on any of the dead Iraqis, despite an extensive FBI investigation. Instead, the official US investigation led to three men facing manslaughter charges, one accused of murder, and a fifth admitting manslaughter of other victims and testifying against his former colleagues.

But the 12 jurors who sat through harrowing evidence from victims and their relatives were not asked to assess the proportionality of the response. Like so many controversial encounters with security forces the world over, the crux of case is not whether the dead Iraqis posed a threat to the Blackwater convoy, but whether the guards’ belief that they did was a reasonable one.

From the perspective of soldiers working in hostile environments – whether as contractors or in the military – the distinction is a crucial protection and something that will have weighed heavily on the minds of a jury that included several veterans and US government employees. Other Blackwater employees – also working as guards for the US State Department – had been hit by a roadside bomb elsewhere in the city earlier that day.

Yet remarkably little evidence was presented to justify the guards’ ultimately false belief that the vehicles in Nisour Square posed a similar threat.

Both the prosecution and defence teams agreed that the primary reason for the guards thinking the convoy was about to be blown up was they had seen a white Kia sedan rolling toward them in what they claimed was a suspicious manner.

Defence lawyers allege the car was moving relatively fast and the guards shot at its engine block first to disable it, before killing the occupants. Prosecution lawyers allege the occupants – who turned out to be a medical student and his mother – were shot first and the car rolled forward slowly once the driver was dead because it was an automatic and his foot was off the brake.

The main alternative evidence presented to support the theory of self-defence concerned reports from some in the convoy that they had heard the sound of AK-47 gun fire and concluded it must have come from insurgents firing on the convoy.

Though this was not corroborated by any Iraqi witnesses, defence lawyers argued the theory was supported by a handful of AK-47 bullet casings found near the scene and several small dents on the Blackwater armoured vehicles and a leaking radiator that could have been caused by incoming rounds.

Prosecution lawyers argue that the damage was more likely to have been caused by fragments from the grenades that the guards were using and that bullet casings were a common sight on the streets of Baghdad at the time.

As justification for the killing of 14 unarmed civilians, several of whom appear to have been shot in the back allegedly while trying to flee the scene, such evidence may appear painfully thin. But jurors asked to convict the four defendants – Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard – need only reasonable doubt to acquit in such circumstances.

Since an earlier attempt to try the same case collapsed when a judge questioned the way the defendants were initially interrogated, for the many Iraqis enraged by the incident, this may be the last chance to hold the men accountable.