12-21-2020
Some of the men pardoned by President Donald Trump
Tuesday evening were involved in a horrific act
against innocent civilians in Iraq during the war.
Former President George W. Bush took the U.S.
into a war in Iraq based on false intelligence,
saying that the country was developing nuclear weapons.
Among the people who served in the war
were paid mercenaries of the Defense Contract firm
owned by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos'
brother Erik Prince.
Blackwater, which changed its name to Academi
after a slew of scandals, hired men who
opened fire on hundreds of Iraqi men, women and children.
In one case, one of the men was told "ceasefire"
multiple times but ignored it.
He refused to stop shooting people until someone
pulled their weapon on him and threatened to kill him.
The case in the Washington, D.C. federal court
was part of a major case in the Justice Department
where prosecutors brought Iraqis to the United States
to testify against the men.
The men killed 17 total people,
including one mother who was trying to
escape with her infant child.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner was furious,
specifically mentioning those he knew in
the Justice Department who fought to ensure
the war criminals from Academi were put in jail.
"It seems like there is no line Donald Trump won't cross."
"I will say, to this old prosecutor, it feels like what he
just did was like an indiscriminate drive-by on
the rule of law. I mean, he pardons people who
are lying to the FBI. As part of the Russia probe.
He pardons Republicans who were either
stealing from their donors, committing campaign
finance violations
or engaged in insider training."
What "galls" him the most, he said,
was the war criminals because it hits home
with him personally.
"The Blackwater/Academi pardons of these
four Blackwater contractors who slaughtered innocent,
unarmed, Iraqi men, women, and children.
"That was prosecuted -- that case, three times,
by my former office, the U.S. Attorney's Office
for the District of Columbia.
The lead prosecuteor, a gentleman named Pat Martin
is somebody I tried murder cases with.
He poured his heart and soul into fighting for justice
for those Iraqi victims.
My office would bring the victims over from Iraq
and their surviving family members of the 17
who were murdered over and over and over again
for these three trials.
I can tell you that those Iraqi citizens were equal parts heartened
that the American criminal justice system cared
about their victimization and shocked at all of
the time, energy, and effort,
we poured into holding those Blackwater killers accountable
for what they did."
He closed by saying that it was his proudest achievement in his office
while working as a U.S. attorney. He said it was important to__
"hold the men accountable for the way that they
ravaged, murdered, victimized, those Iraqi citizens."
"Now Donald Trump has killed that justice we achieved i
n a very real sense," he lamented.
"This is perhaps the single greatest affront to victims' rights
I saw in my 30 years as a prosecutor."
(( Today; Trump Pardoned those War Criminals))
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