Community | August 29, 2009 | 32 comments

Blackwater in court for War Crimes hearing

source: http://rebelreports.com/post/174064024/blackwater-in-court-today-in-war-crimes-hearing

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Lawyers for Blackwater and its owner Erik Prince are in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia today where they are arguing that the five lawsuits against them should be thrown out. The judge in the case, TS Ellis III, is a Reagan appointee with an interesting recent history. He presided over the plea agreement of John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban;” he sentenced Lawrence Franklin to 12 years in the AIPAC/Israel espionage scandal and he also tossed out a case brought by German citizen Khalid El-Masri against private companies allegedly involved with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. Judge Ellis said that to allow the case to proceed would “present a grave risk of injury to national security.” Blackwater has made a similar argument in this case, essentially that it was involved with sensitive operations on behalf of the government and cannot be sued.

Since the first case was filed by Iraqi civilians against Prince and Blackwater over the killing of seventeen Iraqis at Baghdad’s Nisour Square on September 16, 2007, the company’s high-powered lawyers have fought feverishly to have that and four other cases dismissed. Now, facing a crucial August 28 hearing in federal court in Virginia, they are putting forward a new argument: instead of Prince and Blackwater standing trial, the US government should be the defendant.

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    News,  War,  Crime,  War Crimes,  4 more
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