Harrison Thorp 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, December 26, 2020 10:33 am
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For anyone who thinks Evan Liberty of Rochester willfully murdered innocent Iraqis civilians including women and children and was wrongly pardoned by President Trump on Tuesday, read on.
Below are many of the facts uncovered in court filings by defense attorneys and amicus briefs written on behalf of Liberty and three other former Blackwater guards who spent more than six years in federal prisons.
But first, a quick recap of what happened in Nisour Square in Baghdad.
The events leading to the incident began the afternoon of Sept. 16, 2007, when a powerful bomb went off outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, and a Blackwater team escorting a diplomat had to get them to safety as fast as it could. Liberty's tactical support team - named Raven 23 - raced to secure a traffic circle so the first Blackwater team could safely reach the Green Zone.
As what appeared to be civilian traffic mostly either slowed or turned back, a white Kia driving on the wrong side of the road continued toward the roadblock where Blackwater Team Raven 23 was securing the circle.
Earlier in the day a morning briefing had warned Blackwater teams about a white Kia suspected of being loaded with explosives driving around looking for targets, so when the car continued to drive erratically toward the Raven 23 positions, the vehicle's occupants were warned verbally then with warning shots before someone from the team killed the driver with a single bullet.
Liberty and the three others charged in the attack then say what appeared to be Iraqi police began firing at Raven 23, initiating a furious exchange that federal prosecutors said left at least 14 Iraqi civilians dead and many more wounded. It's important to note that using civilians as shields was a favorite Iraqi insurgent strategy during this time of the war and even dating back to the first Gulf War when Iraqi military under strongman Saddam Hussein used Kuwait civilians as human shields.
Prosecutors claimed the men of Raven 23 - all seasoned and highly decorated veterans - panicked and opened fire on innocent civilians, mowing them down with automatic weapons fire.
Defense lawyers said they were fired upon by insurgents, many of them costumed as Iraqi policemen.
Two years later on New Year's Eve 2009 a federal judge dismissed the case against Liberty and the three other defendants, citing evidence issues.
In summary, District Judge Richardo Urbina wote, "When a judge, upon close examination of the procedures that bring a criminal matter before the court, concludes that the process aimed at bringing the accused to trial has compromised the constitutional rights of the accused, it behooves the court to grant relief in the fashion prescribed by law. Such is the case here."
Two days later former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration began seeking ways to keep the case alive, fearing adverse repercussion in Iraq.
And that's when Lady Justice was thrown under the bus along with Liberty and his three Raven 23 colleagues.
"Fearing reprisals from these Iraqi politicians ... the State Department communicated concerns about the impact the decision was having on them diplomatically and politically to Attorney General (Eric) Holder directly," a recent Habeas Corpus motion to vacate charges authored by Maher Legal Services of Illinois reads. "These discussions included an exchange of messages conveyed by the State Department between Holder and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. Even State Department legal advisors were applying pressure on the Department of Justice to appeal the decision, despite the overwhelming 90-page rebuke from Judge Urbina."
The previously undisclosed cables establish a political motivation to prosecuting Raven 23/Biden 4, the motion reasons.
The above statement proves blind justice was being overrun by political expediency.
Under any other normal circumstance, a stunning 90-page rebuke like Urbina's would have been the end of the government's pursuit of the case.
So the political bias that permeates this case is clear.
Raven 23 is often represented as the Biden 4, because it was Biden who a couple of weeks later went to Baghdad and promised the Iraqi government that just because the case was tossed didn't mean the end of it.
"Prosecutorial misconduct has run stem to stern in this case," the Maher motion asserts. "The impetus for the prosecution's zeal to 'secure justice for the Iraqi people,' as then Vice-President Joseph Biden publicly promised, overwhelmed prosecutorial discretion and resulted in a crabbed (shaky, labored) governmental mindset - not to follow the evidence proving justification and self-defense - but rather, to cobble together an inferential narrative to win at all costs and serve a foreign power, sacrificing protections provided to the (Biden 4) by the U.S. Constitution."
Other newly released information contained in the motion included:
That the Iraqi police colonel who investigated the incident regularly reported U.S. troop movements to Iranian proxis and was, himself, an Iraqi insurgent sympathizer.
"And state department cables at the time show they knew about this," Maher said.
That there is a missing gap of drone footage taken during the attack that might have been able to exonerate the actions of the Biden 4.
"A gap in drone footage discovered from the subsequent trial of Slatten is suspected to reveal the truth of what happened at the Square ... the United States (government) does not have the drone footage helpful to the defense, only drone footage deemed by prosecutors helpful to their narrative," the motion states.
That no witnesses ever testified they saw Liberty fire at civilians in the square.
"After (another Raven 23 member) ordered Liberty to open his door a second time, he saw Liberty fire out the door toward the southeast tree line, where (the member) believed incoming fire was originating. No alleged victim was in that area. No other witness saw Liberty fire his weapon," the motion argues.
There was no chain of evidence. FBI didn't get to Nisour Square to examine the scene till two weeks after the incident and relied on reports from Iraqi police, including the colonel who was an Iran proxy.
In a letter to federal prosecutors thought to have spared the indictment of a fifth Blackwater guard, his attorney refers to many statements from members of the Raven 23/Biden 4 convoy that indicated they were under attack while in the square, statements they didn't share at trial or with the defense.
A few of the many exculpatory Raven 23 statements culled from his letter are listed below.
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Jeremy Skinner of Blackwater: He looked down the road and saw "two distinct separate muzzle flashes."
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Daniel Childers of Blackwater: He heard incoming gunfire and he identified the source of the gunfire for the first grand jury.
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Thomas Vargas of Blackwater: In a sworn statement, he stated that, approximately 5 seconds after pulling into the circle, the convoy started receiving AK-47 gun fire. See May 8, 2009 USAO Letter. Mr. Vargas said that he saw two insurgents, one dressed in an IP (Iraqi Police) uniform and the other dressed in an IA (Iraqi Army) uniform, standing next to each other on the center median south of the circle firing AK-47s at the convoy. (AK-47s were known to be used by Iraqi insurgents)
Mr. Vargas described seeing the white Kia weaving through traffic, seeing a water bottle thrown at that car, and the car continuing to approach the convoy at approximately 10 miles per hour.
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Edward Randall of Blackwater: He told government agents that, after the shooting had started, he said he saw rounds hitting the left side of the command vehicle. In a sworn statement, he stated that, as the convoy departed the circle, he heard small arms gun fire from the vicinity of the circle.
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Mr. Randall said that he heard Thomas Vargas "calling out contact spots, positions that ... he's seeing people that are firing at us, I believe."
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Adam Frost of Blackwater: He told government agents that he heard a team member say: "There is an IP (Iraqi Police) in the bushes shooting at us!" Id He also stated, in sworn statements, that after the gun fire had already begun, he heard Thomas Vargas say over the radio, "there's an IP in the bushes shooting at us. He's over there. He's over there."
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Dustin Hill of Blackwater: He told government agents that he heard a team member from another vehicle say on the radio that the convoy was taking gun fire from sandbags and a wooden shack just off of the southbound lane near the PUK.
So if you see Evan Liberty walking into Walmart or getting a bite to eat at Granite Steak and Grill, walk up to him, and say, "Thank you for your service. I'm sorry it took you so long to see justice."