‘Wild’ bunch Trump freed
Unrepentant killers of Iraqi women, children pardoned
Evan Liberty was reading in the top bunk of his cell one evening late last month when a prison supervisor delivered news he had hoped for. “He says, ‘ Are you ready for this?”’ Liberty recalled. “I said, ‘ Uh, I’m not sure. What is going on?’ He said, ‘Presidential pardon. Pack your stuff.”’
Liberty was one of four former Blackwater contractors pardoned by President Donald Trump in one of Trump’s final acts in office, freeing them from prison after a 2007 shooting rampage in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians. Trump’s clemency was met with intense condemnation, both in the United States and the Middle East.
Historically, presidential pardons have been reserved for non-violent crimes, and the traditional process led by the Justice Department values acceptance of responsibility and remorse. The Blackwater contractors meet none of that criteria. They were convicted of killing unarmed women and children and have been defiant in their assertions of innocence.
In an interview with The Associated Press after being released, Liberty, 38, expressed little remorse.
“I feel like I acted correctly,” he said. “I regret any innocent loss of life, but I’m just confident in how I acted and I can basically feel peace with that.”
The Blackwater rampage marked one of the darkest chapters of the Iraq war, staining the US government reputation and prompting an international outcry about contractors in military zones. The guards have long maintained they were targeted by insurgent gunfire at the traffic circle where the shooting occurred. Prosecutors argued there was no evidence to support that, noting many victims were shot while in their cars or while taking shelter or fleeing.
After a months-long trial in 2014, a jury convicted the men in the deaths of 14 civilians and of injuring others. A judge called the shootings an “overall wild thing” that could not be condoned.
Liberty said he understood many saw him as undeserving of clemency but attributed it to a “misguided narrative” of the shooting. In the interview, he maintained he did not shoot in the direction of any victims.
“I didn’t shoot at anybody that wasn’t shooting at me.”
He said he and the others would “never take an innocent life. We responded to a threat accordingly”.
Liberty, whose 30-year sentence was cut by roughly half last year, isn’t certain how he came to be pardoned and said he has not spoken with Trump. But the group has supporters, some with ties to the White House. The Blackwater firm, whose name has since changed, was founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, a Trump ally whose sister, Betsy DeVos, is education secretary. Their cause also was championed by Fox News personality Pete Hegseth.
Trump’s approach to pardons has been influenced by appeals from allies. He’s wiped away punishments for political backers, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and two Republican congressmen. Trump has also shown a willingness to intervene on behalf of service members accused of war crimes.
In announcing the Blackwater pardons, the White House cited the men’s military service and the tangled history of a case that zigzagged for years in Washington’s federal court, turning on radically different interpretations of the event.
Criticism was swift. A Washington Post editorial suggested the guards had committed “astonishing acts of inhumanity”.
Soon after the announcement, a photo of a smiling 9-year-old victim circulated widely online. The boy’s father said that Trump “broke my life again”.
“They haven’t denied doing what they did,” said Paul Dickinson, who represented victims in a lawsuit over the shootings. “They haven’t apologised for what they did.”
Blackwater guards, who as State Department contractors were responsible for providing diplomatic security, were already seen as operating with impunity in Iraq.
On September 16, 2007, the guards were summoned to create an evacuation route for a diplomat after a carbomb explosion.
By prosecutors’ account, the shooting began after the guards’ fourvehicle convoy took up position at Baghdad’s crowded Nisour Square, where the contractors launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. Liberty says he fired only in the direction of an Iraqi police post; the guards had been concerned by insurgent infiltration of police ranks.
Defence lawyers say the shooting began only after a white Kia moved toward the convoy in a threatening way. In a narrative disputed by prosecutors, the guards say they fired in response to insurgent gunfire.
Liberty, Paul Slough and Dustin Heard were convicted of manslaughter. Another, Nicholas Slatten, was convicted of first-degree murder. A fifth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty and testified against the others. He admitted firing into the Kia — which actually contained a medical student and his mother — but denied having seen Iraqis pointing guns or that he felt threatened.
Defence lawyers challenged the verdict, citing newly discovered evidence. Slatten’s conviction was thrown out but he was retried and convicted.
The 30-year sentences for the others were cut after a federal appeals court said they were excessive even though what happened “defies civilised description”.
They haven’t apologised for what they did.
Paul Dickinson, victims’ lawyer