Wed 23 December 2020:
Donald Trump has caused further outrage in the dying days of his presidency by granting pardons to four former government contractors who were convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad.
The others pardoned by Trump on Tuesday include George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide who pleaded guilty as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and two former Republican legislators.
Supporters of the former contractors had lobbied for the pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished in an investigation and prosecution they said was tainted.
The Blackwater firm was founded by Erik Prince, an ally of Trump and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It has since been renamed.
The Blackwater case has taken a complicated path since the killings at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in September 2007, when the men, former veterans working as contractors for the State Department, opened fire at the crowded traffic circle.
The pardons reflect Trump’s apparent willingness to give the benefit of the doubt to American service members and contractors when it comes to acts of violence in war zones against civilians.
Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security project, decried the pardons.
She said in a statement that the shootings caused “devastation in Iraq, shame and horror in the United States, and a worldwide scandal. President Trump insults the memory of the Iraqi victims and further degrades his office with this action”.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald, also criticised the “grotesque” pardon.
“Meanwhile, 2 people who exposed war crimes rather than committied them – Snowden & Assange – wait to see if Trump can find the courage,” Greenwald said in a tweet.
Blackwater contractors were notorious in Baghdad at the time and were frequently accused of firing shots at the slightest pretext, including to clear their way in traffic.
The shooting in the traffic circle stood out for the number killed, but was far from an isolated event.
Trump pardoned 15 people on Tuesday, including a pair of congressional Republicans who were strong and early supporters, and a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe.
Photo: Blackwater guards (from top left) Slough, Slatten, Liberty and Heard were a part of an armoured convoy of vehicles escorting US embassy officials that opened fire on a crowd of unarmed Iraqi civilians
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