SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Former Blackwater security guard Nick Slatten and his lawyer Thomas Connolly leave an arraignment hearing at U.S. district court on January 6, 2009 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)
Leaving Out Assange, Who Exposed US War Crimes, Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Jailed for Massacring Iraqi Civilians
"While U.S. Army contractors convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian Assange, rots in Britain's Guantanamo."
Dec 22, 2020
President Donald Trump late Tuesday unveiled a slate of pardons and commutations that includes four Blackwater military contractors jailed for massacring more than a dozen Iraqi civilians--including two children--in Baghdad in 2007.
Absent from Trump's wave of 15 pardons was Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who helped bring to light war crimes committed by the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians. Disgusting."
-- Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Observers decried as "grotesque" Trump's full pardon of Blackwater guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, and Nicholas Slatten and failure to pardon Assange as the publisher struggles to survive in a notorious British jail ahead of an expected extradition ruling on January 4. If extradited to the U.S., Assange could spend the rest of his life in prison for the "crime" of obtaining and publishing classified documents--an act of journalism.
In a statement accompanying the new pardons and commutations--a list that also included former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)--the White House described the former Blackwater mercenaries as veterans with "a long history of service to the nation."
The president could still pardon Assange before leaving office next month, and he is being urged to do so by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the U.N.'s top anti-torture official, and many others.
"While U.S. Army contractors convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian Assange, rots in Britain's Guantanamo," tweeted Yanis Varoufakis, a Greek economist and parliamentarian.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald also weighed in on Twitter:
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, Slough, Liberty, Heard, and Slatten "were part of an armored convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launcher, and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital."
"The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq," The Guardian noted. "Slough, Liberty, and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of anti-war group CodePink, tweeted Tuesday that "Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden."
"Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians, including two boys [aged] eight and 11, in an unprovoked attack on a crowd of unarmed people," Benjamin wrote. "Disgusting."
In a statement Wednesday morning, CodePink said Trump's pardons continue "a long tradition of Americans evading accountability for their crimes in Iraq, from policymakers in the Bush administration who gave the orders to invade that country on the basis of lies to politicians like then-Senator Joe Biden who supported this decision to U.S. soldiers, bombers, and private mercenaries who committed reprehensible acts against the Iraqi people and paved the way for the creation of ISIS."
"This pardon gives the world just one more example of the disregard that the U.S. government has towards the lives of the Iraq people, whose country we destroyed," the group added.
This story has been updated to include a statement from CodePink.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
President Donald Trump late Tuesday unveiled a slate of pardons and commutations that includes four Blackwater military contractors jailed for massacring more than a dozen Iraqi civilians--including two children--in Baghdad in 2007.
Absent from Trump's wave of 15 pardons was Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who helped bring to light war crimes committed by the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians. Disgusting."
-- Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Observers decried as "grotesque" Trump's full pardon of Blackwater guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, and Nicholas Slatten and failure to pardon Assange as the publisher struggles to survive in a notorious British jail ahead of an expected extradition ruling on January 4. If extradited to the U.S., Assange could spend the rest of his life in prison for the "crime" of obtaining and publishing classified documents--an act of journalism.
In a statement accompanying the new pardons and commutations--a list that also included former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)--the White House described the former Blackwater mercenaries as veterans with "a long history of service to the nation."
The president could still pardon Assange before leaving office next month, and he is being urged to do so by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the U.N.'s top anti-torture official, and many others.
"While U.S. Army contractors convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian Assange, rots in Britain's Guantanamo," tweeted Yanis Varoufakis, a Greek economist and parliamentarian.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald also weighed in on Twitter:
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, Slough, Liberty, Heard, and Slatten "were part of an armored convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launcher, and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital."
"The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq," The Guardian noted. "Slough, Liberty, and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of anti-war group CodePink, tweeted Tuesday that "Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden."
"Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians, including two boys [aged] eight and 11, in an unprovoked attack on a crowd of unarmed people," Benjamin wrote. "Disgusting."
In a statement Wednesday morning, CodePink said Trump's pardons continue "a long tradition of Americans evading accountability for their crimes in Iraq, from policymakers in the Bush administration who gave the orders to invade that country on the basis of lies to politicians like then-Senator Joe Biden who supported this decision to U.S. soldiers, bombers, and private mercenaries who committed reprehensible acts against the Iraqi people and paved the way for the creation of ISIS."
"This pardon gives the world just one more example of the disregard that the U.S. government has towards the lives of the Iraq people, whose country we destroyed," the group added.
This story has been updated to include a statement from CodePink.
President Donald Trump late Tuesday unveiled a slate of pardons and commutations that includes four Blackwater military contractors jailed for massacring more than a dozen Iraqi civilians--including two children--in Baghdad in 2007.
Absent from Trump's wave of 15 pardons was Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who helped bring to light war crimes committed by the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians. Disgusting."
-- Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Observers decried as "grotesque" Trump's full pardon of Blackwater guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, and Nicholas Slatten and failure to pardon Assange as the publisher struggles to survive in a notorious British jail ahead of an expected extradition ruling on January 4. If extradited to the U.S., Assange could spend the rest of his life in prison for the "crime" of obtaining and publishing classified documents--an act of journalism.
In a statement accompanying the new pardons and commutations--a list that also included former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)--the White House described the former Blackwater mercenaries as veterans with "a long history of service to the nation."
The president could still pardon Assange before leaving office next month, and he is being urged to do so by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the U.N.'s top anti-torture official, and many others.
"While U.S. Army contractors convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian Assange, rots in Britain's Guantanamo," tweeted Yanis Varoufakis, a Greek economist and parliamentarian.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald also weighed in on Twitter:
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, Slough, Liberty, Heard, and Slatten "were part of an armored convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launcher, and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital."
"The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq," The Guardian noted. "Slough, Liberty, and Heard were convicted on multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of anti-war group CodePink, tweeted Tuesday that "Trump could have pardoned whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden."
"Instead he chose to pardon four Blackwater mercenaries who murdered 17 Iraqi civilians, including two boys [aged] eight and 11, in an unprovoked attack on a crowd of unarmed people," Benjamin wrote. "Disgusting."
In a statement Wednesday morning, CodePink said Trump's pardons continue "a long tradition of Americans evading accountability for their crimes in Iraq, from policymakers in the Bush administration who gave the orders to invade that country on the basis of lies to politicians like then-Senator Joe Biden who supported this decision to U.S. soldiers, bombers, and private mercenaries who committed reprehensible acts against the Iraqi people and paved the way for the creation of ISIS."
"This pardon gives the world just one more example of the disregard that the U.S. government has towards the lives of the Iraq people, whose country we destroyed," the group added.
This story has been updated to include a statement from CodePink.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.