Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration’s favorite mercenary company. Lest you think you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The “criminals” in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad’s Nisour Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater’s 7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the actions of mercenaries acting with impunity — and apparent immunity — in their names and those of every American.
The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians. “The courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly and peaceable world,” said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest organizers. “In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed, brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.”
A month after the Nisour Square massacre, on Oct. 20, a group of about 50 activists gathered outside Blackwater’s gates in Moyock, N.C. There, they reenacted the Nisour Square shooting and staged a “die-in,” involving a vehicle painted with bullet marks and blood. The activists stained their clothing with fake blood and dramatized the deadly shooting spree. Some of the demonstrators marked Blackwater’s large welcome sign — with the company’s bear claw in a sniper scope logo — with red hand prints. The demonstrators believed these “would be a much more appropriate logo for Blackwater,” according to Baggarly. “We’re all responsible for what is happening in Iraq. We all have bloody hands.” It took only moments for the local police to respond to the protest, the first ever at Blackwater’s headquarters. In the end, seven were arrested.
The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail. Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail. All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of injury to real property. “We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in Iraq,” Baggarly later said. “And as for injuring property, they injure men, women and children every day.” The activists were jailed for five days and eventually released pending trial.
When their day in court arrived, on Dec. 5, the activists intended to put Blackwater on trial, something the Justice Department, the military and the courts have systematically failed to do. Their action at Blackwater, the activists said, was in response to war crimes, the killing of civilians and the fact that no legal system — civilian or military — was holding Blackwater responsible. The Nisour Square massacre, they said, “is the Iraq war in microcosm.”
But District Court Judge Edgar Barnes would have none of it. So outraged was he at Baggarly, the first of the defendants to appear before him that day, that the judge cleared the court following his conviction. No spectators, no family members, no journalists, no defense witnesses remained. The other six activists were tried in total secrecy — well, secret to everyone except the prosecutors, sheriffs, government witnesses and one Blackwater official. Judge Barnes swiftly tried the remaining six activists behind closed doors and convicted them all. It was as though Currituck, N.C., became Gitmo for a day.
It’s not unusual for a judge to clear a courtroom when there is a disruption by the public. Nor is it rare for judges to try to prevent activists from turning the tables and attempting to put the government — or in this case a mercenary company — on trial. But witnesses that day report that there was no disruption — and the defendants say they were immediately cut off when they strayed from the narrow scope of the trespass charge to discuss Blackwater’s actions or the war. So why clear the courtroom? That may be a question for Judge Barnes in the end, but it’s hard not to view his conduct through the same veil of secrecy that shrouds all of Blackwater’s actions — and the seemingly endless lengths to which the Bush administration will go to protect Blackwater.
That was certainly how the activists saw it. “He didn’t want people influenced by our message,” Baggarly said. “There have been hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq. If we’re going to speak about that, nobody is allowed to hear it.”
The North Carolina chapter of the ACLU quickly stepped in, saying it knew of no similar action in any previous criminal trials in the state. “It’s a clear violation of constitutional rights, not only of the defendants but the press and public,” said Katy Parker, the group’s legal director. “They have a right to a public trial, so any trial that goes on behind closed doors is a farce.” She added, “We are very concerned about this reported disrespect for the laws of our land by a member of the judiciary, especially in a controversial and politically laden case such as this.” The ACLU filed a complaint against Barnes with the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission, asking it to investigate him.
The activists appealed their convictions and were back in court last week, on Jan. 24, in front of Superior Court Judge Russell Duke. Unlike Judge Barnes, Duke allowed the defendants some freedom of speech and graciously decided to let the public witness the daylong trial. In his statement before the court, Baggarly recalled the story of one of the Nisour Square victims he and his fellow activists attempted to dramatize in their protest: “Mohammed Hafiz was driving four children when Blackwater mercenaries riddled the car with bullets. His ten-year-old son Ali was shot in the head. Mohammed had to gather up pieces of the child’s skull and brains for the burial. During one point in the massacre, Blackwater operatives concentrated fire on a passenger bus. A small boy fled the bus in terror and was shot down as was his mother who ran after him.”
The defendents said that they believed no court would hold Blackwater responsible for these killings and that, by committing civil disobedience on the company’s private military base that day, they were guided by higher principles, citing the U.S. Constitution and the Bible. “U.S. law has immunized Blackwater, both in Iraq and at home, allowing it unrestricted license to kill and a five-year reign of terror,” said Baggarly. The activists invoked the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and the conveners of the Boston Tea Party. “‘Made in the U.S.A.’ is written all over those bullets that are flying all over Baghdad,” one of the activists, Bill Streit, told the judge. “We’re sick at heart about that.”
Rather than ignore or dismiss their motivations, Judge Duke engaged the defendents in a theological discussion, challenging their Biblical interpretation and, at one point, admonishing the activists, many of whom are members of the Catholic Worker movement. “I’ve always thought that if you’re going to be a follower of Jesus or someone who appreciates the Constitution, you can’t select the portions that you like and disregard the rest,” he said. The fact that the hearing was held at the same moment that the country was remembering the legacy of MLK, who called on his supporters to break unjust laws that violated the rights of others, seemed to be lost on Judge Duke. Perhaps he should have read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in which he wrote to other clergy accusing him of political extremism:
“[T]here are two types of laws: just and unjust … One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’ … We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ … Any law that degrades human personality is unjust … I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”
It was in this tradition that those seven Americans found themselves engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at Blackwater’s gates last October and the very reason they were before Judge Duke last week.
Whether this mattered to him or not, Judge Duke’s words were interesting, given the religious fanaticism and avowed patriotism of Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince. Like the “Blackwater 7,” Prince considers himself a dedicated Christian and professes his love of country. How would Prince answer the judge if faced with a trial for the actions of his Blackwater killers in Iraq? How would he reconcile the killing of innocents by his men with the teachings of Jesus? What would his moral defense sound like?
The sad reality in this country right now — as it was in Dr. King’s day — is that those who really belong before judges are not. Prosecutions are sought and secured for activists standing against killing and injustice and not for those meting it out. In the end, Judge Duke sentenced the activists to time served. It was the lightest sentence he could have issued — but a far greater one than any Blackwater mercenary has faced for killing an Iraqi.
For its part, Blackwater issued a statement that would be funny if it wasn’t so lethally ironic. “Many of the extraordinary professionals currently working for Blackwater are veterans who served their country in support of — among other things — the right to free speech and to peacefully protest in accordance with the law,” said Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell. “We respect every person’s right to speak out in support of his or her beliefs, but if laws are violated, it is the court system’s responsibility to hold them accountable.”
Tyrrell is right about one thing: The courts should hold the violators of laws accountable. But is that Blackwater’s true position on its own conduct? Is that the Bush administration’s position? No. Time and again, Blackwater and the White House have fought against having meaningful sanctions applied to mercenary forces. In fact, while the trial of the “Blackwater 7″ was under way, last week the Bush administration was fighting once again to ensure continued immunity for Blackwater and other mercenary firms in Iraq. If we really were a nation of laws, there would be a lot of Blackwater mercenaries behind bars right now facing stiffer penalties than five days in jail. And these men would hardly be prisoners of conscience like the activists who protested Blackwater’s lethal actions in Iraq.
In the end, before Judge Duke sent the activists home, he told them, “We’re not here about what’s happening in Iraq.” Tragically for the U.S. Constitution and deadly for Iraqi civilians, when it comes to Blackwater and other merchants of death, this has been true of the American justice system for five years too long.
Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
The star chamber hearings previously reserved for “enemy combatants” are now being used to silence critics of the state. No surprises, given the inability of the so-called party of opposition to hold the sitting national administration responsible for its war crimes, and its inability to review critically the votes of people within its own ranks. The United States has gone completely over to gangster empire, and in the most egregious manner of any U.S. government since the First World War.
And where is the much ballyhooed Ron Paul on this fine morning? Off defending his propertarian ethos, which, in the libertarian party, masquerades as the real thing. The libertarians remain as blind to the dictatorship of the commodity as any stalinist is to the tyranny of the state.
Revolutionary democracy will out, but not without much pain, as the above cited circumstance makes abundantly clear. It’s going to be a long, bloody uphill climb.
I’m glad this is making the news here.
Yeah swell news huh?
Any questions why we want to keep blackwater out of California?
If there is any doubt in anyone’s minds that we are presently living in a fascist state, I should hope this would remove it. Just like any of our other thugs our government supports anywhere else in the world, opposition is squashed. Guess too many people watching the Stupid Bowl to care.
Why do we put up with this illegal government? When’s the next Constitutional Convention?
The images of the mercenaries shooting at citizens are fixed in my mind. Jesus knows who is guilty and who is innocent.
As gruesome and illegal as the actions of Blackwater may be, they have killed far fewer Iraqis than the American military.
Everyone in an American uniform signed up for the job and are being paid to kill for the corporations and the economic elite.
We can only hope the rise of private mercenary armies is a sign that the American “house of cards” is in decline as the volunteer military is inadequate.
Thus far, our mighty military has been unable to subdue and control either Afghanistan or Iraq despite being armed with more outrageously expensive high-tech weapons than any nation on earth.
Meanwhile the dollar and the American economy are in decline and war inflation is on the rise.
The Congress and our court systems are ill equipped to handle the speed of change. The operational architecture is ancient and failing. Problems are accumulating and the foundations are cracking under the weight. We are now in societal breakdown. Blackwater is intended to protect the rich on American soil as the country slowly fails. That is their primary role.
Once the breakdown occurs people will be submerged in a cauldron of insecurity and hardship. Blackwater will be front and center during the insurrection and the deaths in Iraq represent a vision of what is to come in America. While peoples attitudes and beliefs are being torn apart and reformed in new ways that accurately reflect their new reality, the neo-cons and others will be hell bent on securing power and control in the emerging new vision for America. The Fascist window dressing will disappear and the naked truth will emerge. If the Fascists gain control America will be racked with government torture and terror. Foreign terrorists will gain support and unleash nuclear terrorism on America. The American experiment will be consumed in the heat and flames of nuclear exchange. If this train is to be stopped every person must become engaged now.
No offense but it’s almost suicidal to demonstrate in front of a criminal organization’s headquarters because they gunned down innocent civilians.
Blackwater isn’t the problem. The government that endorses these criminals is the real issue. When the people finally take back the government and decency and ethics get a foothold, Erik Prince will be put behind bars where he belongs and agencies like Blackwater will fade away.
Doom n Gloom
“The American experiment will be consumed in the heat and flames of nuclear exchange. If this train is to be stopped every person must become engaged now.”
Like, how?
Please advise
“When the people finally take back the government and decency and ethics get a foothold, Erik Prince will be put behind bars where he belongs and agencies like Blackwater will fade away.”
Before that, they may be used to round us up. These kind of payed thugs have been used against us throughout US history and Blackwater is tied to the most reactionary and evangelic segments of our ruling class. The portesters acted heroicly in trying to bring attention to this reality.
Our legal system, like our values come from the barrel of a gun, not from the Constitution and certainly not that conglomeration of flat-earth tribal ‘wisdom’ that knuckle walkers love to quote when they’ve been caught with human intestines under their fingernails.
Always convenient to throw some Bibilicious quote allowing/commanding everything from fucking children to genocide. And no, that red on their hands wasn’t a Henna decoration - it was the blood of children. And yes, Mr. Judge, everything Hitler did was LEGAl. Just like torture here. I recall some of those Judges later made a mandatory appearance at Nuremberg. How’s your passport?
My country tis of thee…
Pieces of 8.
I get very angry whenever I read or hear the false claim that anyone in the military has fought for my freedom. There may be a few still living vets from WWII from whom I would tolerate that claim. I would also tolerate the claim from Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War and from those who fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War, but not from anyone else.
It is people like Watada and these protestors who are fighting for our freedom.
I was in the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam era.
A bit off track here, but anyhow…
I think there are many other possibile outcomes besides nuclear exchange particularly as “mother nature” asserts herself more and more thus becoming the dominant consideration. Take for example the snowstorm pummeling China as I write this — most reputable scientist would say this sort of thing is only going to get worse (more severe and more frequent).
One possibile outcome of this that comes to mind is the gradual dissolution of current organizations premised upon centralized control as local communities “hunker down” and strive to maintain a sense of order while centralized authority is overwhelmed and becomes ineffective and unhelpful (some would argue this is already the case). Individuals’ focus would shift to their local community (be it rural or urban). “Mutual Aid” within and amongst nearby communities would become a necessity for survival and individual’s allegiances would become more local. In many communities this could transpire without major violence occuring thus setting a precedent for others. The times of one country sending military forces to another would become a thing of the past as all labor would be needed at home.
Obviously there are many other possibilities….
It is murder for oil, and the blood is on your hands. There are three broad kinds of non-ruling classes for the rulers of the US of I. One is foreigners who are animals to be massacred and robbed, or otherwise controlled , corralled and silenced. US nationals are classified chiefly on whether they support or deny this major ruling principle of the US of I. The supporting nationals class is those who connive and carry out the interests of the ruling class, and therefore have all payments, immunities and privileges for all results of such actions. The rest are the ignored and ignorant, as desired by the ruling class. Protesters fall immediately into the first category. This classification is crude and instrumental, just like the policies. The world is a tool for the cravings of the ruling class. The policy differential is driven by enormous wealth inequality, which it strives to maintain. Its the Power Occupation Wealth Empire Retaliation syndrome (POWER). The US of I has it really bad. I tried R for Relationship here, but I realized that this could be considered only in the negative. The Lucifer Effect guarantees the continuity of the none-relationships.
Thank heaven for the ACLU, or this would have stayed buried. Who knows what the sentence from that fascist Barnes would have been?
What is wrong with Americans that in our name women and small children are being shot in the back as they try to run to safety? Oh, I forgot, we’re all just a bunch of “good Germans”. If we keep our eyes closed, we’re not responsible.
I think it’s time for me to become a card carrying member of the ACLU.
kathyocat
we must keep in mind that German resistance to the Nazis relied on legal means of resistance.
What a travesty…nothing at all about this has made the MSM (why am I surprised)…let’s all send whatever $$$ we can to the ACLU. Good use for the upcoming handout….
hedology - that is some dismal stuff….ughhh.
Its a quandary.
The privatization of warfare through the creation of warfare companies should be of great concern to the global community. War becomes a commodity in the process, an activity engaged in for the realization of profit. Western nations such as the USA employing private warfare companies assume that they will not be held accountable for the actions of such mercenaries. Such companies have existed since the creation of the CIA and the attempts by countless US administrations to reverse the Cuban revolution.
Such companies also act as sponges for soaking up all kinds of fascist war criminals. Evidence of this are the thousands of racist war criminals from notorious apartheid military units such as Koevoet, the Recces and 32 Battalion currently working for outfits such as Blackwater. These corporations are not soldiers and should not be hidden behind the smokescreen of mercenary - they are terrorists.
When will US citizens demand accountability from their government for what happened at 9/11. Those who attacked New York on that fateful day were people who had been trained in Afghanistan by the CIA when the USA destablized that country in its quest for cold war supremacy. In 9/11 the CIA reaped what it sowed. It is a great pity that ordinary US citizens had to suffer the consequences. What will be the long term consequences of the US military contracting private warfare companies?
This latest outrage concerning Blackwater only reinforces my prior statements to the effect that they are the American equivalent of the Congo Free State’s Force Publique. Just as that late unlamented corporate state gave their mercenaries free reign, so are we on that the same not-so-primrose path.
They who have the gold enforce the rules.
The good news is Blackwater’s entire force is
being recalled. The really really bad news is
They’re being recalled to protect D.C. from
protesters who will descend on D.C. when Bu$h
and his puppeteers suspend the Constitution and cancel the election.
Bottom line, a whole lot of people are going to die before “WE THE PEOPLE” take back this
country.
Brilliantly and coherently argued, hedology.
When I see this story carried by the NYT or McClatchy News Service, I will then consider it covered - otherwise……
SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!
blackwater = hitlers brownshirts
TheLorax
This point is plain to see though often not spoken. If an individual is acting criminally by conscription of a 3rd party and aided and protected by that 3rd party, then the 3rd party shares in the guilt.
The US gov. has been using subversive clandestine tactics for years. They Nazis helped write the book after WWI and WWII. (Indirectly of course)
Were the drugs just better in the 60’s that caused an entire generation of people to grow some legs and walk against injustice taking place in Nam and the rest of the world?
Not only is this a master criminal leading the US right now. He was voted by the “majority” twice. The US and all of Bush’s supporters share in the same guilt as Blackwater.
The author of this article is good at the craft. This is a great step bringing in MLK. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’”, nor should we forget the years of trials after the fact trying to bring these people to justice. Most of whom said they were just following orders. Only those who acted against these ‘legal’ orders in disobedience escaped judgment.
At this point, only action can wipe away guilt. Good job Blackwater 7. Hold YOUR heads up high. Put the criminal record on your resume. Preach it from the hilltops.
re: the above comment. Unless Kehler is being funny,every
body has to know that Bu$h and his puppeteers stole both
elections
They want this to be hush-hush because they fear what they do not understand: nonviolence.
The British Empire was afraid of Gandhi!
judge Edgar Barnes
159 Fearing Place North
Manteo, N. C. 27954
(252) 331-4750
Alt Phone:(252) 331-4750
This info is listed publicly at:
http://www.nccourts.org/County/Gates/Staff/District.asp
The constitution favors Blackwater. The purpose of the constitution is to protect the owners from the rabble. Blackwater protects the assets of the rich. The protestors are the rabble trying to limit the power of the government, and by extension, the owners. The constitution will protect Blackwater under the right to bear arms in a well regulated militia such as…. Blackwater!!! The rabble is not a regulated militia, they go to prison.
Orwellian US government in action: After a massacre in Nisour Square in which US mercenary company Blackwater kills and wounds dozens of innocent, unarmed civilians the protesters are arrested and put on trial in order to uphold the law. This is called New Speak. 1984.
Free Leonard Peltier!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier
Don’t these people have the latest video games? Or is this some sick scene from Sin City with all the heads on the wall?
Living here in NC, near the Winston-Salem area, none of the local or even the Winston-Salem Journal carried any mention of either of the trials. The protest was covered but unless you searched the paper, it was all but hidden. I find that it’s not only the government that’s trying to sweep this under the rug, but also the MSM.
andrew.herman: “The British Empire was afraid of Gandhi!”
I think you’ve got it.
So let’s all of us likeminded types meet up at Blackwater HQ, the White House, the Congress and Sentate bldgs. in the tens of thousands and not leave until we get what we want. That’s what it’s coming down to..
Once most of us are unemployed or homeless due the the crashed economy we’ll have all the free time we need.
I don’t know Twister22 - working in the garden takes time. But I suppose you are correct, when conditions get dismal, individuals will be more willing to put their lifes on the line. Whats there to lose?
Plus we should never forget - there is unimaginable power in sheer numbers. The PEOPLE choose - one way or the other. Not the elite. Unless of course, the choose to get on board.
Time will tell.
I don’t know if my last edit made it thru, but this was what I wanted to know. Who are these so-called elite? Who the f*** do they think they are?
If you think you are not connected with all others, you will disover otherwise. If you think you have nothing left to learn, then you are heading down the path of pain.
In the end the People choose, and in the end, all empires meet their doom.
Time will tell.
The people in this current administration need a good, swift, boot in the arse. A good, solid, boot in the arse can really straighten a person right out, in my book.
“They” have all the power, guns, and money. When times get tough and people are out of work and many homeless with all this time on their hands remember roughly 1/3rd will be more than willing to take the money and carry the guns to project/protect “their” power. Blackwater will have a hell of a time keeping up with the applications.
Perhaps gin, but never forget about “homefield” advantage. The People of Vietnam and Iraq have shown its capabilities.
Plus, there is no honor in being a mercenary.
Old Hippie:
I understand your sentiment, and I can’t say I doubt it, however, if the 301,139,947 US citizens accepted this illegal election, then there is no hope.
It is more painful for me to accept absolute apathy and laziness then to accept political game playing and general ignorance from the electorate.
Besides, the Kennedy’s get killed in the United States for standing for exactly what the US says they stand for and the President should stand for; the people and real concerns of the people. How many of them were shot?
Bush (Hittler#2) steels an election, perpetuates hatred for Americans around the world and kills many US citizens and innocent civilians through political game play and power moves, and yet he is still left walking the streets?!??!! I thought Americans had the right to bare arms in order to protect the security of the Nation and their persons. I thought the job would have been done long ago.
God bless the peace keepers. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in passive resistance, but sometimes I wish those who disagreed with me would do something crazy…. lol
Scahill is the author of Blackwater:
The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
……..
You want to protest and feel like you can’t??? BUY this book!!! Put it number #1 on the seller’s list. If enough people know what is in this book it will terrify the “King” and the “Prinz”. Knowledge of what they do scares them the most. Learn , prepare yourself by investigating it yourselves.
BUY this book!!! Protest. BUY this book!!!
.
The dangerous part is not that the protesters were on trial, that has been going on for generations. What is ominous is that it was a secret trial. I want to know how the Supreme Court would rule on that.
kathyodat
Sickeningly obscene NAZI tactics are the norm for America’s illegal government ,so who could wonder why the rest of the world disapproves so strongly of anything American.
If the American public does not stop their illegal government’s illegal actions all U.S. citizens will be held responsible anywhere they dare to travel outside of their fascist HOMELAND.
America is showing signs of becoming more Third World every day ,corruption is rampant,blatant and goes unpunished and actually rewarded by the rotten to the core administration.
I really feel so badly for the actual decent aware Americans not being able to stop the fetidly diseased corporate government, I advise my American friends to get out while they are still allowed .