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.

Lawyers for al Qaeda and other terrorists sue Blackwater

A group of trial lawyers that includes a representative of an al Qaeda front group and a longtime advocate of terrorists has filed suit against Blackwater in US district court.

The suit claims to be on behalf of victims of the September 16 shooting incident at Nisoor Square.

But why the lawyers' terrorist connections? And why didn't AP and other news organizations report those connections, which are on the public record?

The Associated Press and other news organizations don't report it that way, of course, citing only the lead attorney who is not known to be tied to terrorists. But as this blog has reported several times, the cooperating attorneys are well known for their terrorist connections.

Lead attorney Susan L. Burke is the only member of the legal team quoted. Not quoted are Shereef Hadi Akeel, who represents a group that the US says is an al Qaeda organization, and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who has devoted his legal career to advocating on behalf of terrorists, cop-killers, and other enemies of society.

The terrorist lawyer connection adds a new twist to the September 16 issue. See the posting below about parallels between the Nisoor Square incident and the 2005 Haditha incident.

Waxman abusing his power to help trial lawyers value Blackwater suits?

Congressman Waxman appears to be abusing his authority as chairman of House oversight committee, demanding to know the profits of a private company as part of his "accountability" crusade.

Congress has no legitimate reason to know the profits of a private company. Yet, at the behest of a trial lawyer who stands to make millions by suing Blackwater, Waxman is using his committee to try to do just that.

Using data furnished by the State Department, Waxman has already shown that Blackwater saves the taxpayer an estimated $100,000,000 a year or more as a private sector alternative to diplomatic security in Iraq.

The only reason why Waxman would need to know Blackwater's total

profits is if he was colluding with the trial lawyer who is suing the company. If he can get Blackwater to divulge its profits in dollar terms, he will will help the trial lawyers establish exactly how much they can hope to steal from Blackwater in a litigation maneuver.

The trial lawyers currently suing Blackwater include Daniel Callahan of Callahan & Blaine, terrorist attorney Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and al Qaeda fundraising attorney Shereef Hadi Akeel of Akeel & Valentine.

'Lawyers for Terror' - New York Post looks at anti-Blackwater attorneys

"A legal group with a four-decade record of aiding and abetting terrorists, spies and cop-killers is suing" Blackwater for the September 16 Nisoor Square tragedy in Baghdad, accoding to an op-ed in the New York Post. "Joining it is an Egyptian attorney who has been representing what the US Treasury Department calls a fund-raising operation for al Qaeda."

The column, by Center for Security Policy Vice President Michael Waller, exhumes the skeletons from the closets of the Center for Constitutional Rights and its president, Michael Ratner, to show their decades-long legal and propaganda efforts on behalf of terrorists, murderers of FBI agents and police officers, and Soviet spies.

The column also links pro-terrorist attorney Ratner to Jeremy Scahill, author of an inflammatory if partially accurate book about Blackwater, showing how the lawyer and writer worked together in opposition to ousting Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.

This blog covered part of the group's record, and that of lawyer Shereef Hadi Akeel, when the suit was announced last week. The New York Post is the first newspaper known to have published that record since Ratner announced the suit.