Independent Source Verifies Blackwater Team Was Under Fire at Nisoor Square

An independent source within the State Department's Tactical Operations Center in Baghdad has verified the account of Blackwater's Raven 23 unit, saying he was present at the Center when the radio calls came in that the convoy was under enemy fire at Nisoor Square.

The existence of such a source blows another huge hole in the US government's case against three former Marines and two former soldiers who served in the Raven 23 team on September 16, 2007. Prosecutors allege that the men deliberately and illegally killed innocent Iraqis without provocation. Apparently the defense is convinced that it has plenty of information to discredit the government's case, which some say is motivated by the Iraqi government's insistence on a prosecution in exchange for signing the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). If so, we'll probably see the hard evidence come to light as the defense makes its case.

The TOC is controlled by US State Department diplomatic security officials, not by Blackwater. Independent corroboration is likely to devastate the government's case, which rests on the idea that Raven 23 shot without provocation and therefore committed crimes.

Blackfive's Jim Hanson, co-host of the Blackfive show, tells G. Gordon Liddy what he learned from the source he developed within the TOC. Click here for the podcast. Hanson says on his blog that he knows the identity and the duty assignment of his source, who does not work for Blackwater.

He says in the interview, “the government’s case in this situation is highly leveraged on the idea that there was no incoming fire. That these gentlemen misperceived the situation and created a massacre."

Not so, Hanson says, with his source who was inside the TOC at the time. After reading the news accounts of the radio logs, the source called Hanson, who relates the following: “He heard these radio calls live. . . . he said they accurately reflect what was going on at the time. He heard these calls come in. As a matter of fact, the first call that he heard come in was, 'Contact, contact, contact.'"

"Contact" is shorthand for coming under enemy fire.

"And during that call he heard gunfire across the radio airwaves," Hanson continues, "It was obvious to him and to everyone else in that operations center that the folks who were calling in the radio seriously believed they were being attracked and were returning fire based on that. So it’s a tremendous blow to the government’s idea that this was some sort of cold-blooded massacre."

Hanson says he has about 30 photographs of the Raven 23 convoy after the incident, showing "several dozen bullet holes across the four vehicles that were involved in this convoy."

The source gave a vivid account of what he heard, real-time, over the radio in the TOC. "My source heard them describing Iraqi policemen in uniform and other folks in civilian clothes engaging them at this time."

Blackwater diplomatic security convoys had been attacked "at least five times in the previous week," according to Hanson. The nature of the radio calls on September 16, 2007, were consistent with the other calls when convoys came under attack. "They believed they were being ambushed by insurgents and were returning fire trying to exit the vehicles from the area."

Insider Account Reconstructs Nisoor Square Shootout

A source in Baghdad close to Blackwater, the Pentagon, the State Department, FBI and Iraqi government during and after the Nisoor Square shootout has reconstructed the scene for Blackfive's Jim Hanson.

Using clinical language, Hanson posts the description as an exclusive on his blog. Blackwater's Raven 23 convoy entered Nisoor Square to stop traffic, when a white Kia sedan failed to stop and the gunner, Jeremy Ridgeway, opened fire. Apparently members of Raven 23 mistook the Kia driver as a suicide bomber. Excerpts follow:

"The convoy entered the square and stopped traffic. The white Kia approached and ignored signals to stop. It was engaged and as stated in his proffer Ridgeway began engaging the passenger. A nearby Iraqi IP responded to the passenger side and was likely trying to assist the passenger, but to the guards it appeared he was pushing the vehicle toward them as it was still moving forward. They oriented fire toward him and he returned fire at them. This led other IP in the area to join and support his fire."

Standard practice for Blackwater is to get its protectees out of a hot situation as quickly as possible. In this case it didn't happen - the Raven 23 command vehicle had been put out of commission by incoming fire. The armored vehicle needed to be towed away. Hanson continues:

"This caused them to remain in the area longer while engaged attempting to put tow chains on the vehicle. During this time the Blackwater personnel continued to fire at muzzle flashes they identified from multiple areas around the square. Once the vehicle was ready to go they exfiltrated the area."

It's understandable why Raven 23 so easily mistook the oncoming white Kia as a suicide bomber. Over the previous week, insurgents had ambushed Blackwater convoys almost daily; days before a Blackwater helicopter was shot down, with a rescue team coming under attack by dozens of insurgents. Based on the reconstruction from his source, Hanson describes what the previous week had been like for the Blackwater guards:

"To the guards this may have seemed like another ambush in what had been a week of sophisticated ambushes almost every day. Less than a week prior one of their helicopters had been shot down with an RPG and the DART team sent to extract it was ambushed by several dozen insurgents. A day later a convoy was hit by up to 50 insurgents causing a large gunfight as they sought to disengage. The same week one of their vehicles was hit by an EFP, fortunately it hit the engine block and didn’t kill anyone. But the over force from the explosion actually ejected a turret gunner into the street and they had to recover him while again under fire."

Hanson has loaded his blog with photos, documents and other information relating to this case. Check it out at http://www.blackfivemedia.net/.

AP Says New Evidence Discredits Federal Case Against Ex-Blackwater Guards

Evidence is piling up that casts more and more doubt on federal prosecutors' case against five American military veterans who served as elite diplomatic security guards with Blackwater in Iraq.

We've already seen the reports that prosecutors would have to bend the law to make it fit the case. And the bullet damage to the armored command vehicle of Blackwater's Raven 23 team (click on picture for larger image).

And that, in what looks like a sloppy investigation, prosecutors are resting their case heavily on two discredited sources: The Iraqi Ministry of Interior and National Police, and an ex-Blackwater guard who admitted, in exchange for a lighter sentence, to killing civilians at Nisoor Square.

Now, even two of the company's biggest serious media critics - Matt Apuzzo and Lara Jakes Jordan of the Associated Press - admit that the government's case looks flimsier and flimsier. Here's what they reported on December 19:

• "Radio logs from a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad cast doubt on U.S. government claims that Blackwater Worldwide security guards were unprovoked when they killed 14 Iraqi civilians."


• "Because Blackwater guards were authorized to fire in self-defense, any evidence their convoy was attacked will make it harder for the Justice Department to prove they acted unlawfully."


• "The logs add a new uncertainty to an already murky case."


• While AP received a secondhand, anonymous report that at least one Blackwater guard "saw no gunfire," "others in the convoy told authorities they did see enemy gunfire. And Blackwater turned over to prosecutors pictures of vehicles pocked with bullet holes, which the company says proves the guards were shot at."


• Prosecutors don't even purport to know who shot whom: "And though they can't say for sure exactly which guards shot which victims, all five guards are charged with 14 counts of manslaughter."


• Federal prosecutors are now on the defensive and won't talk about the issue: "Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to discuss the contents of the logs."

Federal Prosecutors Are Silent About Radio Logs

Federal officials prosecuting five former Blackwater security guards had plenty to say to reporters when spinning public allegations of premeditated homicide - but they're silent about the radio logs that show the security teams under enemy fire at Nisoor Square.

A Justice Department official did tell the Associated Press that prosecutors are "fully aware" of the documents, but they'll wait to answer them in court.

"We cannot comment on evidence related to a pending case, but we are fully prepared to address in court arguments made by the defense concerning the documents you reference," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd tells AP.

This is the same Justice Department that had no problem scripting carefully worded accusations against the five military veterans of "unprovoked and illegal attacks on civilians." Now it won't comment on evidence that the attacks might have been provoked and therefore legal.

'Justice Department Began Presentation to American People with a Lie'

"The Justice Department began their presentation to the American people with a lie" when prosecutors accused five former Blackwater guards of premeditated manslaughter in an unprovoked "massacre." So says the defense for one of the accused, former Army Sergeant Nick Slatten. AP has the story.

That's why the defense team released the Blackwater radio logs of September 16, 2007, concerning the Nisoor Square shootout.

Federal Prosecutor Says Nisoor Incident Should Not Reflect Negatively on Blackwater

The federal government's prosecution of five former Blackwater guards over the Nisoor Square incident should not reflect negatively on Blackwater or its contractors overall, a top federal prosecutor says.

Jeffrey A. Taylor (pictured), United States Attorney for the District of Columbia said, "It bears emphasis that today's indictment is very narrow in its allegations. Six individual Blackwater guards have been charged with unjustified shootings on September 16, 2007, not the entire Blackwater organization in Baghdad. There were 19 Blackwater guards on the Raven 23 team that day at Nisour Square. Most acted professionally, responsibly, and honorably. Indeed this indictment should not be read as an accusation against any of those brave men and women who risk their lives as Blackwater security contractors."

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince cites Taylor's comment in an op-ed he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.

US Prosecutors Briefing Iraqis are Identified

CNN has identified the three US federal prosecutors in Baghdad to advise relatives and survivors of the Nisoor Square shootout. They are: Assistant US Attorney Kenneth C. Kohl (pictured), Assistant US Attorney Jonathan M. Malis, and trial attorney Barry Jonas of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

An Iraqi official has said that one or more of the US officials would advise Iraqis how to use the American legal system to sue Blackwater for financial damages, even though a federal grand jury has found no reason to investigate the company for wrongdoing. The Justice Department has not publicly commented on the report, which appeared in the New York Times.

Prosecutor Sounds Like He Knows He's On Shaky Ground

The chief federal prosecutor leading the charge against the five former Blackwater men sounded pretty un-confident during his December 8 news conference at which he outlined the case.

Assistant Attorney General Patrick Rowan (pictured) stumbled when a reporter asked how sure he was that the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) applies to the defendants. Here's the section from the full transcript:

QUESTION: If I could just follow up on your answer on MEJA, your contention is then that the State Department was in Iraq supporting the Department of Defense?

MR. ROWAN: Well, our contention is that, well first of all let me make it clear. Our evidence on this point is something we will present to the judge and the jury, and they will have the opportunity to determine whether or not we've provided sufficient evidence of this point. What we are saying is that the defendants who we've charged were supporting the mission of the Department of Defense and that's the charging language we use, that's the predicate for the use of MEJA in this case.

QUESTION: So any U.S. personnel in Iraq at the time were supporting the Department of Defense, is that the theory here?

MR. ROWAN: I wouldn't go so far as to say that's so. We believe -- and again I'm obviously avoiding getting into the evidence. But we believe the evidence in this case is sufficient to establish that these individuals were supporting the mission in the Department of Defense.

That doesn't sound like a very confident prosecutor. The prosecutors are building this case on a technicality, and a weak one, at that. Small wonder the defense team sounds so relaxed.

Legal Analyst: Government Might Not Have the Law On Its Side

The federal case built against the five former Blackwater men rests on a thin reed that has no legal precedent. That's according to yet another legal analyst who has blown holes in the credibility of the Justice Department's prosecution.

The prosecutors' choice to rest the case heavily on the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) provides "special opportunities for the defense, and headaches for the prosecution," says Charles Putnam, co-director of the Justiceworks program at the University of New Hampshire.

"It is fair to say one of the things the defense attorneys will do is to hold the government's feet to the fire and make sure the law works the way it was supposed to work," Putnam says.

One of the accused, former Marine Evan Liberty, is from New Hampshire, and he's getting a lot of public support from the people who know him personally. Liberty's hometown newspaper, Foster's Daily Democrat, has run a series of supportive articles about him and the case.

Curious Timing: Is US Using Prosecutions to Curry Favor with Iraqi Factions?

Defense counsel for the three retired Marines and two former soldiers - the Blackwater guards being put on trial for the Nisoor Square incident - say that the US Justice Department is acting more like it wants to curry favor with certain Iraqi factions than to ensure justice.

"We are . . . very concerned about the political considerations that appear to have motivated this indictment," the defense team says in a court document posted on Raven23.com. "It is unusual to say the least for the DOJ to bring high profile criminal charges in a case with international political overtones during the transition of presidential administrations and Justice Department officials.

"However, in the past weeks and months the U.S. Government has been negotiating a Status of Force Agreement with the Iraqi Government that will govern the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq and has been anxious to see it ratified by the Iraqi Parliament. During this same period the Department of Justice has been conducting its investigation and has also sent agents to Iraq to provide briefings on this case.

"The filing of these charges at this time gives every appearance that these young men are being prosecuted to curry favor with factions in the Iraqi government that have been hostile to the U.S. presence and highly critical of the conduct of U.S. forces. More simply put, the DOJ indictment at this delicate time creates an overwhelming appearance of political influence in an effort to win support in Iraq. This is intolerable."

Is Justice Department Advising Iraqis How to Sue Blackwater?

Is a Justice Department bureaucrat in Iraq right now advising Iraqis how they can sue Blackwater?

That's what the New York Times is reporting. In a December 7 story headlined, "US Prosecutor Goes to Iraq to Work on Blackwater Case," the Times says that the Justice Department official will meet with families of those shot in the September 16, 2007 Nisoor Square incident and help them "make claims."

The source is an anonymous Iraqi official. The Times does not identify the US prosecutor.

The place of the meeting looks like someone purposely planned to inflame sentiments. According to the Times, the Justice Department bureaucrat will meet with families at "a large dining center in Iraq’s National Police Headquarters, just a stone’s throw from Nisour Square."

"'The prosecutor is coming on Saturday to tell people what is going to happen, and especially how to make claims,' said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation. “He will speak in front of all of them. The families of the victims deserve to know what comes next.”

If the report is true, the unnamed bureaucrat will put the Justice Department in the awkward position of helping professional terrorist defense lawyers and lawyers for cop-killers, including a lawyer for an identified al Qaeda front group. The lawyers have banded together to sue Blackwater on behalf of Nisoor families.

Justice Department 'Reckless' in Assault on Blackwater Men

"Lawyers for the five Blackwater guards indicted by the Justice Department in connection with a 2007 shooting in Baghdad accused the government of overstepping its authority and recklessly staining the reputations of five decorated veterans who had honorably served their country," the New York Times reports today.

"Justice officials have faced trouble with the case nearly from the start," adds the Wall Street Journal. "Investigators from the State Department, which had jurisdiction over the guards, gave the men immunity in exchange for providing statements immediately following the incident. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived to take over the probe weeks later, having to reconstruct a crime scene on public streets, and tracking down witnesses. The men said they fired in response to shooting from insurgents; some Iraqi witnesses disputed that there was any firing other than that by the Blackwater guards."

"These battlefield incident prosecutions are notoriously difficult to win no matter what the forum," says former Navy lawyer Tara Lee.

"Plaintiff attorneys also plan to argue that the men's work for the State Department doesn't fall under the authority of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, the law originally written to cover Pentagon contractors and now being used to prosecute the men," according to the Journal.

Indictment by 'Bureaucrats' to 'Second-Guess Split-Second Decisions Made by Honorable Men'

Headlines too hot for the bureaucrats? That's what the federal government's indictment of five decorated military veterans looks like. The vets were guarding a US diplomat on contract for Blackwater last year when they got into a firefight at Nisoor Square in Baghdad.

Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, and it has not been established who killed them. Blackwater provided evidence that its armored vehicles had been hit by gunfire; one was disabled from hostile shots during the September 16, 2007 incident.

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior publicly accused the Blackwater men of murder, even though it presented no evidence. Most reporting and commentary is based on the ministry's unsubstantiated allegations.

The military veterans can't speak for themselves, so their defense lawyers are fighting back on their behalf.

"The indictment is an effort by bureaucrats in Washington to second-guess split-second decisions made by honorable men during a firefight in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world," says Tom Connolly, who represents Nick Slatten, a former sergeant in the Army's 82nd Airborne who served two combat tours in Iraq prior to working for Blackwater to protect US diplomats.

"Once the jury understands the events of Sept. 16, they are not going to do what the Department of Justice is doing - which is second-guessing honorable men in a firefight," Connolly adds in a Washington Post report. "Even if they have jurisdiction, we will prevail when we meet them on the facts."

The US Attorney's office and the Justice Department won't comment. A year ago, a former US Attorney said the government would have to "shoehorn the facts" in order to make a case against the men.

A lawyer for Dustin Heard, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq prior to joining Blackwater, says the men committed no crime but "were defending themselves and their comrades who were . . . receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents."

The US is prosecuting the veterans as individuals. Blackwater is not a defendant in the case, but has been standing by its men. (In cases of clear wrongdoing Blackwater has not hesitated to hand over its personnel to federal authorities and to assist prosecutors.)

Blackwater Unlikely to Face Charges

The Associated Press reports that Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor, is not expected to face criminal charges stemming from the firefight at Nisoor Square last September.

The seven-month-old Justice Department investigation is focused on as few as three or four Blackwater guards who could be indicted in the... shootings, according to interviews with a half-dozen people close to the investigation.... Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said, "If it is determined that there are any individuals who need to be held accountable, we support that."

However, it appears unlikely that Blackwater, as a corporation, will be charged. "Companies are sometimes charged for the wrongdoing of their employees, but the standard is high. Prosecutors must prove that the corporation — not just the employees — intended to break the law."

In any case, "the final decision on any charges will not be made until late summer at the earliest, a law enforcement official said." So don't get too bent out of shape about rumors you hear between now and then.