"Lawyers for ex-Blackwater guards challenge witness accounts; Man whose son died tells tale of money, contracts" by Pete Yost | Associated Press June 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — Defense lawyers for the former Blackwater security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqis in Baghdad nearly seven years ago are raising the possibility that prosecution witnesses, with direction from Iraqi law enforcement investigators, orchestrated their stories.
Then it was a U.S. propaganda campaign all along?
The defense has been bedeviled by the fact that no one has come forward to support its self-defense theory — that the guards acted because they were under attack.
The most prevalent explanation since the shootings on Sept. 16, 2007, is that there were no incoming shots.
The carnage at Nisoor Square turned out to be the darkest episode of contractor violence during the war and inflamed anti-American feelings around the world. The trial, which began June 11 and is expected to last months, could feature the largest group of foreign witnesses ever to travel to the United States to participate in a criminal trial, according to the Justice Department.
The first witness to testify, a man whose 9-year-old son was killed at the square, told an intriguing tale this past week about money and contacts between the victims’ families and a top Iraqi investigator who looked into the shootings.
Mohammad Kinani Al-Razzaq broke down and sobbed uncontrollably about the loss of his son, leaving the jury with an indelible picture of grief.
Under cross-examination the following day, Kinani recounted how Iraqi law enforcement officials ran a TV ad for anyone with information about the shootings to get in touch. Kinani said he did so, meeting with Colonel Faris Karim of Iraq’s national police.
They do that here.
When the two met shortly after the shootings, there were other people there who said they also had been at Nisoor Square. An American Army officer instructed those gathered not to share information about what they had seen, Kinani testified.
‘‘We did tell each other, for example, I would say, ‘My son got killed.’ The other one says, ‘My brother got injured,’ or so on,’’ Kinani said.
‘‘And everyone agreed that this convoy’’ of four armored Blackwater vehicles ‘‘did not take any incoming fire, correct?’’ Kinani was asked.
‘‘Yes, of course,’’ he said.
So ‘‘the lead police officer investigating this case . . . tells you and others, none of my men shot out there, correct?’’ Kinani was asked.
‘‘Yes,’’ Kinani said.
‘‘Colonel Faris told you and other witnesses at Nisoor Square that the police officers that were on the scene did not shoot at the convoy, correct?’’ Kinani was asked.
‘‘He said the Iraqi police did not shoot,’’ Kinani replied.
Are they trying to imply Iraqi police opened fire first?
In a number of conversations between Kinani and the colonel, Faris told Kinani that Blackwater Worldwide was telling people lies. According to Kinani, the lies included a car bomb going off, precipitating the shootings, and that Iraqi police had been shooting at the Blackwater vehicles at Nisoor Square.
‘‘One of the things that he told you was a lie was the claim that the Iraqi police were shooting at Blackwater, correct?’’ Kinani was asked.
‘‘Yes,’’ Kinani said.
Years later, the colonel made a phone call to Kinani’s home in Michigan in December 2012. Faris said he thought Blackwater would offer Kinani money not to testify.
‘‘Colonel Faris asked you to tell him how much money it would take you — how much money you would want from Blackwater not to testify in this case, didn’t he?’’ Kinani was asked.
‘‘Yes, yes. As I said previously, he did not come with an offer and he wasn’t talking seriously,’’ Kinani replied. ‘‘He was just throwing questions at me and wanted to see what would my reaction be.’’
Kinani reported the conversation to the FBI. ‘‘I was worried that Blackwater had tricks up its sleeves,’’ said Kinani. ‘‘And that’s why I alerted the FBI so they would be on notice and they’d be careful.’’
‘‘Colonel Faris also told you that he had spoken to other witnesses to these events about taking money from Blackwater, didn’t he?’’ one of the defense lawyers asked Kinani.
‘‘Yes,’’ he answered.
Kinani said no one from Blackwater ever contacted him to offer him money.
The defense lawyers who questioned Kinani were Brian Heberlig, representing Paul Slough, and Thomas Connolly, representing Nicholas Slatten. The other defendants are former Blackwater security guards Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard.
All four defendants, members of a Blackwater team called Raven 23, have pleaded not guilty in the killings and the wounding of 18 others.
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FLASHBACK:
"Trial of four in Iraqi deaths begins" Associated Press June 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards went on
trial Wednesday in the killings of 14 Iraqis and the wounding of at
least 18 others.
Over the next few days, a jury of 12 Washington residents will be chosen
from a pool of 111 people to decide the guards’ fate. The trial is
expected to last months.
The judge overseeing the trial, Royce Lamberth, has been a US district
judge for over 25 years and he has a military background. He served as a
captain in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 1968 to 1974,
including three years at the Pentagon.
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Related: Cursed Blackwater
Actually, they are still ble$$ed under a different name.
