Een Blackwater huurling, door het Witte Huis ingehuurde particuliere moordebaars. Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet
Posted on January 29, 2008
Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell
Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal
conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide,
the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company. Lest you think
you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The
"criminals" in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17
Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad's Nisour
Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had
the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater's
7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the
actions of mercenaries acting with impunity -- and apparent immunity
-- in their names and those of every American.
The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent
locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries
have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians. "The
courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly
and peaceable world," said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest
organizers. "In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the
U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed,
brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis."
A month after the Nisour Square massacre, on Oct. 20, a group of
about 50 activists gathered outside Blackwater's gates in Moyock,
N.C. There, they reenacted the Nisour Square shooting and staged a
"die-in," involving a vehicle painted with bullet marks and blood.
The activists stained their clothing with fake blood and dramatized
the deadly shooting spree. Some of the demonstrators marked
Blackwater's large welcome sign -- with the company's bear claw in a
sniper scope logo -- with red hand prints. The demonstrators believed
these "would be a much more appropriate logo for Blackwater,"
according to Baggarly. "We're all responsible for what is happening
in Iraq. We all have bloody hands." It took only moments for the
local police to respond to the protest, the first ever at
Blackwater's headquarters. In the end, seven were arrested.
The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail.
Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail.
All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an
additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of
injury to real property. "We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in
Iraq," Baggarly later said. "And as for injuring property, they
injure men, women and children every day." The activists were jailed
for five days and eventually released pending trial.'
Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell
Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal
conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide,
the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company. Lest you think
you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The
"criminals" in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17
Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad's Nisour
Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had
the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater's
7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the
actions of mercenaries acting with impunity -- and apparent immunity
-- in their names and those of every American.
The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent
locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries
have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians. "The
courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly
and peaceable world," said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest
organizers. "In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the
U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed,
brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis."
A month after the Nisour Square massacre, on Oct. 20, a group of
about 50 activists gathered outside Blackwater's gates in Moyock,
N.C. There, they reenacted the Nisour Square shooting and staged a
"die-in," involving a vehicle painted with bullet marks and blood.
The activists stained their clothing with fake blood and dramatized
the deadly shooting spree. Some of the demonstrators marked
Blackwater's large welcome sign -- with the company's bear claw in a
sniper scope logo -- with red hand prints. The demonstrators believed
these "would be a much more appropriate logo for Blackwater,"
according to Baggarly. "We're all responsible for what is happening
in Iraq. We all have bloody hands." It took only moments for the
local police to respond to the protest, the first ever at
Blackwater's headquarters. In the end, seven were arrested.
The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail.
Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail.
All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an
additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of
injury to real property. "We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in
Iraq," Baggarly later said. "And as for injuring property, they
injure men, women and children every day." The activists were jailed
for five days and eventually released pending trial.'
Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/story/75244/
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