Lawyers Accuse Blackwater - But their Cop-Killer and Al Qaeda Ties Taint Allegations

Trial lawyers suing Blackwater Worldwide on behalf of Iraqis allegedly suffering from the September 16 Nisoor Square incident in Baghdad are accusing the company of covering up evidence.

But the trial lawyers' documented ties to terrorist groups and activists causes undermine the credibility of the accusations. And the propagandistic reporting of the Associated Press undermines the credibility of the news organization.

For months, the Associated Press has avoided identifying the trial lawyers by name andtheir terrorist connections in its reporting on the issue. In a display of the wire service's increasingly sloppy journalism, the AP's April 25 headline reads, "Iraqis Accuse Blackwater of Shredding Documents." The article identifies none of the accusers and carries no byline, raising questions about accountability within AP's editorial offices.

As this blog has documented, members of the legal team suing Blackwater in this case include Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who has spent the better part of 40 years defending terrorists and cop-killers as part of his self-described professional mission; and Shereef Hadi Akeel, who represents a group the US says is an al Qaeda organization.

For more of AP's propagandistic reporting of this lawsuit, see our December 19 posting.