Federal Court of Appeals reinstates Blackwater murder trials.

From the Blog of the Legal Times:

A federal appeals court today reinstated the prosecution of a group of Blackwater security guards charged in Washington with manslaughter and weapons violations for their alleged roles in a shooting in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen civilians. 

In December 2009, Judge Ricardo Urbina of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the Justice Department prosecution of five guards, saying the prosecution was tainted through the improper use of compelled statements the defendants made to investigators following the shooting in September 2007. DOJ appealed the ruling. 

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed Urbina’s decision, sending the case back to the trial court for further hearings. The appeals court’s 17-page redacted opinion is here. (The court simultaneously filed a confidential opinion under seal. The court heard oral argument in a closed session in February.)

Eat shit, you worthless fuckers..I hope you lose and pay the price for killing unarmed civilians, once and for all. This case has been going on for-fucking-ever. Click the Blackwater label or start here for this blog's coverage of the fuckery. 

From our Dept of WTF?

War Profiteer Blackwater, now known as XE, gets a new contract from the Obama administration. From WaPo:

When hearings on war-zone security contractors continue Monday, representatives of the best known -- or most notorious -- firm in the business will not be at the witness table.

The firm's controversial track record in Iraq, from where it was recently evicted, won't be on the official docket either.

But the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting is going to be talking about Blackwater Worldwide (now known as XE Services) nevertheless, given word late Friday that the State Department had just awarded it a $120 million contract for work in Afghanistan.

Officials of the companies that lost out to Blackwater/XE are all scheduled to testify Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill. The commission is also going to take up new problems with private security guards in Iraq.

The Afghanistan contract, to provide “protective security services” at new U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, comes only four months after the Iraqi government expelled Blackwater/XE. Individuals from the firm are being prosecuted by the Justice Department for allegedly shooting unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

The company won the contract over two other American firms — Triple Canopy and DynCorp International, the Associated Press reported from Kabul, quoting U.S. embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. The one-year contract can be extended twice, for three months each, for a maximum of 18 months, the A.P. said.

Ain't that some shit?  Raping and pillaging the american taxpayer, not to mention killing civilians at the drop of a hat for no friggin reason...

Blackwater indicted: Federal firearms violations.

Couldn't happen to a better bunch o' fuckwits! From McClatchy:

Five former employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater violated a series of federal firearms laws to give the company a leg up in the military contracting and training business, a federal indictment charged Friday.

Blackwater officials falsified federal paperwork to conceal a gift of firearms to Jordan's King Abdullah II, whom Blackwater was courting as a client, the indictment charges.

Former company president Gary Jackson used the tiny Camden County, N.C., sheriff's office as a front to buy AK-47 automatic rifles that Blackwater wanted for its training facility in Moyock, N.C., and the company illegally possessed short-barreled rifles that Blackwater officials thought were useful for winning security contracts.

The indictment also charges former Blackwater vice-president William W. Mathews Jr.; former general counsel Andrew Howell; former vice-president Ana Bundy; and Ronald Slezak, who handled federal paperwork for firearms.

Mark Corallo, a company spokesman, said the company wouldn't comment on the indictment beyond saying that it cooperated fully with federal investigators.

Oh please, oh please..get these fuckers..let's see them in prison orange for the love of christ!

I know...they will never see the inside of a prison cell. Damn it.