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Published Date: January 02, 2010

WASHINGTON: In a rebuke to government prosecutors, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of fatally shooting 14 people in Baghdad in Sept 2007. Judge Ricardo Urbina said prosecutors violated the defendants' rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department probe to build their case. But Iraq expressed astonishment yesterday over the dropping of charges. The decision also sparked outrage among Iraq
is and Baghdad's government spokesman vowed that it would "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute the Blackwater criminals".

The government used the defendants' compelled statements to guide its charging decisions, to formulate its theory of the case, to develop investigatory leads, and ultimately to obtain the indictment in the case," Urbina ruled. "In short, the government had utterly failed to prove that it made no impermissible use of the defendants' statements, or that such use was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

The security guards had been "compelled" to provide the incriminating evidence during a Justice Department probe, the court said, but the US Constitution bars the prosecutors from using "statements compelled under threat of a job loss" in any subsequent criminal prosecution. The case was among the most sensational that sought to hold Blackwater employees accountable for what was seen as a culture of lawlessness and a lack of accountability as it carried out its duties in Iraq.

The five guards, who had been part of a convoy of armored vehicles, had been charged with killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others during an unprovoked attack at a busy Baghdad traffic circle using gunfire and grenades. The men had faced firearms charges, and up to 10 years in jail on each of 14 manslaughter counts.

US prosecutors had alleged that the guards "specifically intended to kill or seriously injure Iraqi civilians", and according to court documents alleged that one of the guards told another that he wanted to kill Iraqis as "payback for 9/11", bragging about the number of Iraqis he had shot. Urbina explained in his opinion that federal prosecutors were offered an opportunity during a three-week hearing that began in mid-Oct 2009 to prove that they had not made use of the defendants' statements in building th
eir case and were unable to do so.

The explanations offered by the prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions... were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility," Urbina wrote. He added: "The court must dismiss the indictments against all of the defendants." Urbina added that in "reckless violation of the defendants' constitutional rights," investigators, prosecutors and government witnesses inappropriately relied on statements that guards were compelled to make in debriefings by the Stat
e Department shortly after the shootings. The State Department hired the guards to protect its officials.

The five defendants were security guards employed by Blackwater Worldwide, which since has been renamed a Xe Corporation. Attorneys for the guards have said they did not fire their weapons with criminal intent but thought they were under attack. But critics repeatedly have accused the company of a Rambo-style "shoot first, ask questions later" approach when carrying out security duties in Iraq. A State Department review panel in 2007 concluded that there had been insufficient US government oversight of pri
vate security firms hired in Iraq to protect diplomats and to guard facilities. The panel found that as a result there was an "undermined confidence" in those contractors, both among Iraqis and US military commanders.

I was astonished by this decision," Iraqi Human Rights Minister Wejdan Mikhail told AFP. "There was so much work done to prosecute these people and to take this case into court and I don't understand why the judge took this decision. One of them has said what happened in Nisur Square, how they killed innocent Iraqi people that were just in their cars without any weapons. I am very astonished and I am waiting for the US embassy to give me the judge's decision (in full)," the Iraqi human rights minister sai
d. "What happened was very bad, because so many innocent Iraqi people - young, students - were shot by someone who liked to shoot unarmed people." Mikhail added that she had requested a meeting with US embassy officials in Baghdad. The embassy did not immediately confirm that the meeting would take place or, if it did, who it would involve.

The judge's decision was welcomed, however, by the company's chief executive Joseph Yorio, who said: "The company supports the judge's decision to dismiss the charges." "From the beginning, Xe has stood behind the hundreds of brave men who put themselves in harm's way to protect American diplomats working in Baghdad and other combat zones in Iraq.

Government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said Iraq would "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute the Blackwater criminals." He added that an Iraqi investigation had shown that the five guards were unquestionably responsible for the deaths of the civilians. According to Iraq, 17 civilians were killed in the shooting, but the guards were charged with 14 deaths. Foreign security teams in Iraq long operated in a legal grey area, but under a military accord signed with Washington last November, Baghdad won a con
cession to lift the immunity to prosecution previously extended to US security contractors.

Ordinary Iraqis expressed anger at Urbina's decision to dismiss the charges. "Dropping the charges against those guards disrespects the lives of the innocents who were killed," said Abu Uday, a university professor who did not want to give his given name. "The rights of the families of the victims must be guaranteed, those who lost their sons because of the rashness of guards who tried to show off their abilities with no respect for people's lives.

The top US commander in Iraq General Ray Odierno said he feared a backlash against private security firms working here. "We all know that it was not US soldiers, sailors or marines who did this, it was a private security company," Odierno told a press conference. "What I worry about is there will be backlash against private security companies that continue to operate (in Iraq). I wouldn't like to see that.

Blackwater ended its operations in Iraq in May, after the US State Department refused to renew annual contracts for the company. Headquartered in North Carolina, Blackwater was one of the largest security firms operating in Iraq with about 1,000 staff, and had been employed to protect US government personnel since the 2003 invasion. - Agencies