Blackwater defense team seeks security (for defense/Baghdad)

Politico ^ | 10-21-09 | Josh Gerstein

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Lawyers for five former Blackwater contractors facing manslaughter charges over an alleged massacre in Iraq are demanding that the U.S. government arrange armed security for the defense team as it heads into the dangerous streets of Baghdad to gather evidence and interview witnesses.

The Obama administration could soon face a stark choice:

Order U.S. commanders in Iraq to give the defense attorneys a military escort for their trip, or throw into jeopardy the prosecution of one of the worst alleged atrocities of the Iraq war.

The defense lawyers complain that U.S. prosecutors and FBI agents had military help to gather evidence to bring the charges and that the government initially blew off the defense’s request for protection by sending over a list of security contractors derived in large part from Internet searches.

“Working through the phone book seems like it is fraught with uncertainty,” defense attorney Mark Hulkower argued at a court hearing last month. “If they [prosecutors] got a military escort or Department of State security ... What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. My family would also like me to be safe in Iraq.”

The defense argues that their clients are being denied the right to a fair trial and that the issue goes to the heart of due process requirements in the Constitution. The outcome of the dispute could complicate the government’s ability to use civilian courts to prosecute crimes which occur in overseas war zones.

The request for armed security comes from lawyers representing five Americans indicted for manslaughter and weapons charges stemming from the deaths of at least 14 Iraqis in a 2007 incident in Baghdad’s Al-Nisur Square. Prosecutors allege that the five Blackwater guards used wildly excessive force as they fired automatic weapons and a grenade launcher in an area crowded with civilians.

The episode, which prosecutors contend was unprovoked, triggered rage among Iraqis, fueled anti-American sentiment in the country and led to the revocation of Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq. The defense asserts that the men, who were en route to the scene of a car bombing of another Blackwater convoy, were reacting to what they perceived to be the threat posed by an oncoming vehicle.

The attorneys’ request for security assistance was initially referred to the State Department, which responded with an seemingly formulaic letter warning that Iraq is “extremely dangerous.” The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also sent along a five-page list of security contractors working in Iraq. Many of the entries said: “No contact information listed in google.com.”

At the September hearing, Judge Ricardo Urbina asked Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson to consider the plea for help.

“They’re concerned they may not be the most popular group of people to visit Iraq in the immediate future,” Urbina explained about the defense attorneys. “This really is a matter of safety.”

One of Johnson’s aides wrote back recently, attaching a list of 29 security contractors who work for the U.S. government, but offering no other assistance.

“It would be a fundamental violation of equal justice if the U.S. government — the strongest provider of on-the-ground security in a U.S.-occupied war zone — can provide security for federal prosecutors and investigators to conduct their prosecution of these defendant[s], but at the same time say to the defendants, who are viewed with particularly hostility in Iraq, ‘You’re on your own,’” the defense team wrote.

Rest @ link

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Blackwater hearing closed to press, public

A Washington federal judge has barred the news media and public from a pre-trial hearing for five Blackwater employees charged with killing Iraqi civilians.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina Wednesday said he was closing the hearing to help the defendants get a fair trial, The Washington Post reported. He also said grand jury testimony was likely to be revealed at the hearing and he wanted to ensure that potential witnesses and jurors would not be influenced by pretrial publicity.

The defendants are charged with gunning down 14 unarmed Iraqis in a Baghdad square Sept. 16, 2007. At the time, they were employed by Blackwater Worldwide, which has since changed its name to Xe, to provide security for the U.S. State Department in Iraq.

The hearing, expected to last through the end of next week, involves the government's use of statements given by Blackwater guards under guarantees of immunity immediately after the shootings.

The Post wrote the judge Tuesday, asking him to open the hearing. James McLaughlin, the newspaper's lawyer, said the judge's worries about the effect of pretrial publicity were "highly speculative."

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Sounds like a prudent judicial decision, given the anti-American news vultures and their compulsion to tear down the military and military contractors.