US APNewsAlert: Judge dismisses all charges against Blackwater Guards

[CC27]

A federal judge has dismissed all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in a deadly Baghdad shooting.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Thursday the Justice Department overstepped its bounds and wrongly used evidence it was not allowed to see. He said the government's explanations have been contradictory, unbelievable and not credible.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/31/national/w124014S96.DTL

[DefiantSix]

At least one of the three branches of government still seems capable of occasional exercises of common sense.

[debk]

 

[thundley4]

DUmmie heads assploding in 3-2-1...........   

[cottondress]

  DITTO'S!!!!

[Oceander]

Pop, pop, pop!

Maybe a little something like this?:

[sully]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/31/national/w124014S96.DTL

I am glad that Four Eyed Buzzard Waxman finally got knocked down he has been trying to nail Blackwater for over 4 years.

[Lacarnut]

The jerks in the Justice Dept. are not happy. 

[DefiantSix]

The jerks in the Justice Dept. are not happy. 

Good.  If DoJ isn't happy, then liberty may be safe for another day.

[Thor]

'Tis a good way to close out a majorly messed up year!! Let's have a hip, hip, hooray for the Courts!!

[SilverOrchid]

Awesome!

[The Village Idiot]

What no DUmmie thread yet?

[thundley4]

What no DUmmie thread yet?

There's a few, and they aren't happy.

[Airwolf]

**** those America hating assholes. Sometimes keeping this country free comes with a high price and that includes etting those little shitlickers at DU have the same rights as tose that really love and understand the freedoms we have.

[crockspot]

Some DUmmys assplodin here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4206116

[SVPete]

Building a case on immunized testimony ... not smart. It's a "technicality," but: 1.) the government had no case without what it got from that testimony; 2.) the case the government had never had to withstand cross-examination or a jury. Their defense found and attacked the fatal flaw in the government's case and got their clients off; whether they might have won on the merits is unknown. By attacking this fatal flaw and getting it dismissed pretrial, their attorneys minimized cost to the guards, in $$ and in time.

This post on Volokh Conspiracy quotes a key part of the ruling. Not only did the prosecution improperly use the defendants immune/compelled statements to develop their case, but they also used the immune/compelled statements to coach witnesses in the proceeding to obtain indictments! A good way for "witnesses" to make sure their testimony isn't contradicted by that of others, and maybe enhance the incriminating content of their own testimony. The prosecutors who did this seriously corrupted and prejudiced the whole process, and should themselves be prosecuted!

[NHSparky]

OUTSTANDING.

And one of those accused is a local man...

LINK

Don't know him personally, but everyone who does says he's a standup guy and would NEVER have done what he was accused of doing.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

First Ted Stevens now this.

WTF is DoJ doing?

From the cited DU thread:

Alcibiades  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Thu Dec-31-09 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
3. Even murdr of civilians is OK
   
if you're a Republican.

Historically, Alcibiades was an Athenian who--in the 2nd Pelopennisian War--betrayed Athens and went over to Sparta then, when the Spartans got sick of his shit he defected to the Persian who in turn got tired of his posing. He eventually used political connections to weasel his way back into Athens where he finished out the war as a general of dubious ability.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Synicus Maximus  (269 posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Thu Dec-31-09 06:40 PM
Response to Reply #11
33. The judge was appointed by Clinton in n1994

 

paulsby is havin' a helluva time.

[thundley4]

First Ted Stevens now this.

WTF is DoJ doing?

Dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party members?

[Splashdown]

Some DUmmys assplodin here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4206116

paulsby is cruisin' for a tombstonin' over there...

paulsby  (1000+ posts)      Thu Dec-31-09 09:55 PM
Response to Reply #63
66. it's called rule of law
 of course if a criminal got off on a technicality, it would piss me off.

guess what? it happens a lot.

but IF (and maybe you don't believe in this) you believe in rule of law and constitutional rights, then you accept a fundamental proposition of our criminal justice system "it is better that 10 guilty men go free, than that an innocent man go to jail"

even scumbags, and god knows i've arrested scumbags deserve protection of law.

only on DU would a person criticize a cop for DEFENDING the constitution. lol

the US is unique amongst most nations, for example, in having an automatic exclusionary rule. in england, for instance, evidence illegally obtained often CAN be used against a suspect. a suspect also does NOT have the right to remain silent. if they do, it CAN be used against them.

do you believe in civil rights or not

it's actually pretty ironic.

most of the cop haters here think we routinely violate civil rights, and then i get criticized for defending them.

i could cut the irony with a ladle.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

BTW - HIS is why I wanted a Ammunition forum. So I can warehouse articles like this:

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection.

Five Blackwater guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians with machine guns and grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by insurgents.

The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.

Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck and around Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns.

The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.

Nobody disputes that Blackwater guards fired, but accounts vary on whether the convoy of armored trucks was attacked. Iraqi witnesses and some members of the Blackwater convoy told authorities they saw no insurgent gunfire. Radio logs show Blackwater guards repeatedly reporting incoming fire during a hectic eight minutes in which one truck was disabled.

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,26933.0/highlight,blackwater.html

In case anyone was worried this was strictly a matter of legal technicalities.

[SVPete]

Update on the Federal Judge's decision to throw out charges against Blackwater defendants
Clarice Feldman
American Thinker
1/1/10

The NY Times has more details on Judge Urbina's decision to drop charges against the Blackwater defendants, accused of murdering Iraqis in a 2007 ambush on a State Department convoy moving through downtown Baghdad:

The judge also blasted prosecutors for withholding "substantial exculpatory evidence" from the grand jury that indicted the defendants, as well as presenting "distorted versions" of witness testimony, and improperly telling the grand jury that some incriminating statements had been made by the defendants but were being withheld.
...
Early in the year, for example, at the request of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a federal judge threw out the conviction of former Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska ...

And last month, a federal judge threw out a major stock option back-dating case against top executives of the chip-maker Broadcom after finding that a prosecutor in that case had inappropriately pressured witnesses to testify in a manner favorable to prosecutors.

I used Feldman's AT article for a couple of reasons. First, the NYT, which she quotes, has a habit of making articles registered-only after being publicly available for a couple of days. Second, Feldman made the same point in a previous article about the number of Federal cases that came apart recently for prosecutorial misconduct. Add the cases of the Haditha Marines to the list, though those were in the military justice system.

The judge also blasted prosecutors for withholding "substantial exculpatory evidence" from the grand jury that indicted the defendants ...

The DU-folk, libs and progs whose heads are exploding at this dismissal of charges might find this part of the judge's ruling a bit hard to digest. And it's the NYT reporting it!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Apparently Kohl was also part of the Hatfill mis-prosecution over anthrax.

Someone needs a new job.

Busboy perhaps?

[DumbAss Tanker]

I'm not saying they were all guilty, but neither could I say that they were all entirely innocent either, fire discipline by contractors especially left a huge amount to be desired back then.
Like SVPete astutely points out, this was a disposition on reasons other than the merits of the case...and the same thing can happen just as easily with five other defendants formerly housed in luxury Caribbean accommodations who had been looking at military tribunal hearings.

[thundley4]

I'm not saying they were all guilty, but neither could I say that they were all entirely innocent either, fire discipline by contractors especially left a huge amount to be desired back then.
Like SVPete astutely points out, this was a disposition on reasons other than the merits of the case...and the same thing can happen just as easily with five other defendants formerly housed in luxury Caribbean accommodations who had been looking at military tribunal hearings.

If that happens then there will be heads assploding here, and cheers going up at the DUmp.