Iraq takes steps to 'bring Blackwater to justice'

WASHINGTON - A US judge Thursday dismissed all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in the 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.
US District Judge Ricardo Urbina found prosecutors wrongly used statements the guards had given under duress, according to media reports.
The September 2007 shootings in a Baghdad square provoked increased tension between the United States and Iraq, and resulted in restrictions on contractors hired by the powerful Blackwater, now known as XE, and other firms.
Urbina said the governments case relied mainly on statements compelled under a threat of job loss in a subsequent criminal prosecution in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Justice Department, which had not responded, can appeal Thursdays ruling or seek new indictments against the men, CNN said.
During the Baghdad shootings, Blackwater said its contractors were being attacked, but Iraq officials claimed their gunfire erupted unprovoked.
The five guards had been indicted in Washington a year ago on manslaughter and weapons charges. Prosecutors had asked last month that charges be dropped against one of the men. Thursdays ruling throws out all the charges.
A sixth guard pleaded guilty last year to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
AFP adds: Iraq said on Friday it had begun taking steps to bring Blackwater to justice over the deaths of 14 civilians in 2007, one of the bloodiest incidents involving a private security firm here.
A decision Thursday by a US court to drop the charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of the deaths has unleashed anger in Baghdad, where a cabinet minister expressed astonishment.
The Iraqi government has started to take the necessary measures to bring Blackwater to justice for the killing of 17 Iraqi citizens, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
He did not detail on what specific measures were being taken but he had earlier said an Iraqi investigation had shown that the five guards were responsible for the deaths of the civilians.
Human Rights Minister Wejdan Mikhail told AFP she was astonished by the decision to dismiss the criminal charges against the five.
There was so much work done to prosecute these people and to take this case into court and I dont understand why the judge took this decision, she said.
US federal judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the charges against the five, saying prosecutors violated their rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department probe.
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 guards, who had been part of a convoy of armoured vehicles, had been charged with killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others during an unprovoked attack at a busy Baghdad roundabout using guns and grenades.
But Iraq says 17 people were killed.
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 judges decision (in full), Mikhail said.
What happened was very bad, because so many innocent Iraqi people young, students were shot by someone who liked to shoot unarmed people.
Mikhail said she 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 judges decision was welcomed, however, by the companys chief executive Joseph Yorio, who said: The company supports the judges decision to dismiss the charges.
From the beginning, Xe has stood behind the hundreds of brave men who put themselves in harms way to protect American diplomats working in Baghdad and other combat zones in Iraq.
The firm renamed itself Xe after the Iraqi government banned it last January over the killings.
Ordinary Iraqis expressed anger at Urbinas ruling.
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 peoples lives.
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.