By Kenneth J. Theisen
Imagine what would occur if several Arab men armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers unleashed the firepower of their weapons on the streets of Washington, D.C. killing and wounding innocent civilians, including women and children. Our nation’s leaders would be calling for the execution of not only the assailants, but also of the leaders of these “terrorists.” The president would probably go on the air and announce that the persons responsible for the outrage would be hunted down no matter where they were hiding. The nation would be put on a war footing.
By Kenneth J. Theisen
Imagine what would occur if several Arab men armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers unleashed the firepower of their weapons on the streets of Washington, D.C. killing and wounding innocent civilians, including women and children. Our nation’s leaders would be calling for the execution of not only the assailants, but also of the leaders of these “terrorists.” The president would probably go on the air and announce that the persons responsible for the outrage would be hunted down no matter where they were hiding. The nation would be put on a war footing.
Now think of the same event occurring in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Imagine that the heavily armed men are former American troops now under contract with the U.S. State Department run by Condi Rice, and that the leaders responsible for their presence in the streets of Iraq’s capital were George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. war criminals. The second scenario should be easy to imagine because it actually happened.
On September 16, 2007, guards of a Blackwater Worldwide convoy, under the employ of the State Department, opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers on a busy Baghdad traffic circle. When the shooting stopped, fourteen Iraqi civilians lay dead and dying on the street. Still more civilians were wounded by the unprovoked massacre. While the Blackwater employees made up a cover story that they were only responding to an attack, investigators found no evidence whatsoever to support the guards’ version. These Blackwater guards were just some of the more than 100,000 contractors employed by the U.S. in its war against the Iraqi people. Thousands of these contractors are armed mercenaries and many are former U.S. troops.
This week the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the indictment of five of the security guards on 35 separate counts each, including charges of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and using a machine gun in a crime of violence. On one level this may appear to represent a form of justice with perpetrators being held accountable for their crimes. But if this had been the first scenario described above would the charges have been manslaughter rather than first degree murder? And would we believe that justice had been served just because the shooters were arrested? Would not the American public want those responsible for the shooters also to be held accountable and indicted? Would we not want those who employed the shooters to be arrested, too?
But the actions of the U.S. government and DOJ have nothing to do with justice. They are really an attempt to pretend that this massacre was just the action of a few bad apples, just like in Abu Ghraib, where the systematic abuses of detainees were blamed on a few soldiers rather than on the top officials of the Bush regime who have authorized and condoned torture and death. Only low ranking soldiers were prosecuted for the prison abuses. Now that it is clear that torture was regularly discussed by top administration officials in meetings held at the White House and then authorized by the president, do we feel that justice was served in the Abu Ghraib cases?
At a press conference announcing the indictments, the government’s true purpose in this case was revealed. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey Taylor, stated, “We honor the brave service of the many U.S. contractors who are employed to support the mission of our armed forces in extremely difficult circumstances. Today, we honor that service by holding accountable the very few individuals who abused that employment by committing some very serious crimes against dozens of innocent civilians.” Taylor also said the U.S. government “takes no pleasure” in the prosecution of those defending other Americans. Translation: Look! We need a few fall guys to take the blame for this massacre so we can exonerate the president and his cronies. This caused an international incident and we need to pretend we are doing something about it. The few bad apples story has worked before and we think we can get away with it again. If the American people can put up with a million Iraqi deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation, we should be able to pull this cover-up off with ease.
And the fact that the five mercenaries were indicted does not mean they will be convicted by DOJ. All the defendants are decorated veterans who had previously served in the U.S. military and the defense will remind the jury of this repeatedly. The defendants also surrendered to authorities in Utah. Their lawyers explained that Utah is a conservative, pro-military area, and that they wanted to find a jury pool where “people are more sympathetic to the experiences of coming under enemy fire.” Of course, the lawyers failed to mention that the massacre in September 2007 was unprovoked and that all those killed or wounded were unarmed. There was no “enemy fire.”
Taylor, the U.S. attorney, stated at the press conference revealing the indictments, “None of the victims of this shooting was armed. None of them was an insurgent. Many were shot while inside civilian vehicles that were attempting to flee from the convoy. One victim was shot in the chest while standing in the street with his hands up. Another was injured from a grenade fired into a nearby girls’ school.”
The law under which the mercenaries were charged is also unclear in this case. The charges were brought under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). The law was intended to allow the prosecution of U.S. military personnel for crimes committed overseas, but it is unclear whether civilian contractors can be prosecuted under this law. In 2004, MEJA was amended to cover personnel employed to support the U.S. military overseas. These Blackwater employees were actually under contract with the U.S. State Department, rather than the Department of Defense. The defense will undoubtedly argue that the law does not apply in this case since the mercenaries were supporting the State Department rather than the military. The prosecution case could implode even before it is presented to a jury if a court accepts this defense argument.
Still another problem in prosecution is that during the investigation of the massacre, U.S. investigators offered immunity to some Blackwater guards for their cooperation in the investigation. It is not clear whether any of the five defendants were granted any immunity or the extent of that immunity, if it was offered. It is also not clear why only these five defendants were charged in the recent indictments. There were other Blackwater employees at the scene of the massacre.
It was revealed this week that on December 5, 2008 Jeremy P. Ridgeway, a sixth Blackwater security guard, pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter for his role in the massacre.
Will others be charged for their roles in the massacre? It is not clear at this time. But we can be certain that DOJ will not be bringing any indictments before a grand jury for those most responsible for this massacre and the countless other deaths in Iraq unless millions of us demand it. I am talking about those at the very top of the U.S. government, those who planned the invasion and the occupation of Iraq. Will we allow our government to claim that justice was served because DOJ went after six mercenaries for just one of the massacres perpetrated in this war? Will the few bad apples gambit work once again? It will, unless all of us demand real justice and accountability. Join with World Can’t Wait to see how you can make a difference.