Simon Mann, the freed mercenary, has flown out of Equatorial Guinea in a private jet heading for Britain.
The 57-year-old former SAS officer, who was pardoned after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the Government in a "dogs of war" coup, left at around 7am destined for Luton airport with his sister Sarah and brother Edward.
Once settled back in Britain, Mann will be questioned by Scotland Yard.
The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command will quiz Mann about the possible involvement of London-based millionaire Ely Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mann, an Old Etonian, implicated them as organisers and financiers of the failed plot during his trial. Mr Calil and Sir Mark may also be questioned by the British police.
Jose Olo Obono, who was the chief prosecutor in Equitorial Guinea at Mann's trial and is now President of the Supreme Court, confirmed: "Simon Mann has left the country. He left on a private jet bound directly for Britain with his brother and sister."
Mr Obono said he was confident Mann would assist Scotland Yard detectives investigating the failed coup.
CNN) -- A group of independent U.N. experts expressed concern Friday over the increased use of mercenaries in Honduras, where a de facto president has been in power since a military-led coup in June.
The U.N. panel said it received reports that 40 former Colombian paramilitaries had been hired to protect properties and individuals in Honduras since the June 28 coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. The panel also heard reports that 120 mercenaries from various Latin American countries had been contracted to support the government of Roberto Micheletti, who was installed as president hours after Zelaya's removal.
"We urge the Honduran authorities to take all practical measures to prevent the use of mercenaries within its territory and to fully investigate allegations concerning their presence and activities," the U.N. panel said in a news release.
The U.N. experts accused the Honduran government of indiscriminately using sound-generating devices against Zelaya and his supporters at the embassy.
The experts noted that the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries is prohibited under the International Convention on the issue, which Honduras has signed. The panel was established in 2005 by the Commission on Human Rights, which has since been succeeded by the Human Rights Council.
...More...CNN) -- A group of independent U.N. experts expressed concern Friday over the... more
100 years of congressional efforts to limit corporate spending in elections going down the drain !
This is a pretty depressing saga unfolding right before our eyes and it's another reason why we need cameras in the Supreme Court so we can view the mockery Roberts is making out of the Third Branch of government. They are about to grant corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to attack political candidates right up until an election, which would make destroy the very fabric of our voting structure. Did you know that a corporation is an individual in Scalia's mind? http://thirdbranch.crooksandliars.com/john-amato/roberts-court-about-do-unthinkable
The Supreme Court is returning early from its summer recess to consider a potential watermark case that couldoverturn a century of campaign finance restrictions and clear the way for unregulated spending by corporations on political campaigns. The case, Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission, has grown from a limited question about a political documentary to a broad challenge to the government's right to restrict corporations from spending money to support or oppose political candidates.
Encompassing questions on First Amendment rights, the power of corporations and the influence of money on political elections, it's no wonder the case has created an assortment of strange bedfellows. Conservatives and liberals appear on both sides, either to defend the government's right to restrict corporate political advocacy or, on the other side, to argue that such regulations are a violation of the First Amendment.
To help sort through the complicated background and ramifications of the case, Bill Moyers talks with two prominent lawyers: Trevor Potter, president and general counsel of The Campaign Legal Center, who has submitted a brief to the court in support of the F.E.C.; and Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment attorney, who will be arguing before the court on behalf of Citizens United. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09042009/profile.html
“It’s here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die.“ - Warren EllisTHIS IS NO DRILL !
100 years of congressional efforts to limit corporate spending... more
"ArmorGroup North America, the contracting firm at the center of a recent scandal over inappropriate behavior by security guards at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, is facing new charges that it lied about its capabilities in order to get the State Department contract.
And as the stories and photographs of lewd behavior by embassy guards continue to mount, two former employees of the company are claiming that the State Department and high-ranking company officials have known about allegations of sexual deviance, inadequate training and poor contract management since 2007.
The latest charges were contained in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by James Gordon, the company’s former director of operations, against ArmorGroup North America and ArmorGroup International. Another former employee elaborated on the allegations at a news conference.
The charges come on top of a report and pictures released last week by a Washington watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, that portrayed some embassy guards as wild partiers and misfits who drank vodka from the cracks of colleagues’ buttocks and performed other unsavory acts.
Gordon, who left the company in February 2008 after bring stripped of his duties, claims in the lawsuit that ArmorGroup employees in Kabul and their managers hired prostitutes, with one trainee bragging that he “could buy girl for $20,000 and turn a profit in a month,” according to his complaint.
Neither ArmorGroup nor the State Department investigated those claims, Gordan’s lawsuit says. Instead, it alleges, ArmorGroup officials were enraged by Gordon’s reports and stripped him of his duties; in February 2008, he resigned from the company.
ArmorGroup’s parent company, Wackenhut Services, said in a statement there is no merit to Gordon’s allegations of whistleblowing or retaliation."
Think these people want to get out of Afghanistan? There's too much heroin, cheap women and government contracts. Oh, and by the way, immunity from war crimes is part of the deal.
Who gets shot in retaliation after these mercenaries rape and kill innocent Afghanis? American sons and daughters!
ArmorGroup North America...Creating terrorists every day."ArmorGroup North America, the contracting firm at the center of a recent scandal over... more
Washington - In Afghanistan, the US military is relying on private contractors to an extent unprecedented in American history.
Contractors have a long history with US units: In the Revolutionary War, George Washington leaned on them for everything from transportation to the provision of clothing and weapons. In recent conflicts, private workers typically have made up about half of the Department of Defense's total workforce
But in the Afghanistan conflict their use has climbed yet higher, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. As of March, contractors made up 57 percent of the Pentagon's Afghanistan personnel....
CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE....Washington - In Afghanistan, the US military is relying on private contractors to an... more
How is ArmorGroup North America responding to the allegations that its Kabul embassy guards were engaging in a range of unbecoming conduct? The firm (and its parent company, Wackenhut) has so far declined to issue any comment. Behind the scenes, however, swift action has been taken, though not against ArmorGroup employees who engaged in or approved of lewd behavior, humiliating hazing rituals, and other practices that put the embassy at risk. Rather, says the Project on Government Oversight, one of the whistleblowers who brought these explosive allegations to the watchdog group's attention has been retaliated against by his employer, an ArmorGroup client:
CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE......How is ArmorGroup North America responding to the allegations that its Kabul embassy... more
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of private guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan - including booze, hookers and other "deviant behavior."
"These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said of photo and e-mail evidence of the "climate of fear and coercion" at the living quarters of ArmorGroup guards.
The investigation by the State Department's inspector general follows a shocking report to Clinton by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight detailing a "Lord of the Flies environment" at the Camp Sullivan compound a few miles from the embassy in Kabul. Prostitutes allegedly were brought in for birthday parties, drunken guards engaged in brawls and boozy lawn parties turned into naked affairs where guests urinated on one another, according to photos and videos obtained by the nonprofit group.
Clinton has "zero tolerance" for the behavior described and has directed a "review of the whole system" for farming out security to private contractors that may have threatened the safety of embassy personnel, Kelly said.
The report found sleep-deprived guards regularly logging 14-hour days, language barriers that impair critical communications and a failure by the State Department to hold the contractor accountable.
Why go to college when there's Spring Break in Kabul? Plus, you can kill people. Once we control the Heroin, it'll be a real party. And after you graduate the military in 4 years, you can look forward to plenty of job security in the mercenary...or should I say "contractor" business.WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the... more
In Iraq, armed contractors are increasing as US troops “drawdown.” In Afghanistan, the increases are across the board.In Iraq, armed contractors are increasing as US troops “drawdown.” In Afghanistan,... more
Jeremy Scahill sparred with NBC political director Chuck Todd on Friday, forcefully criticizing journalists and lawmakers for treading lightly on Blackwater's recently-revealed misdeeds.
Newly declassified memos this week showed that the CIA hired Blackwater, a private military security company, years ago as part of an effort to kill senior Al-Qaeda officials and other designated terrorists.
Scahill, who has written a popular book about Blackwater, had scathing comments about the organization, calling it "Erik Prince's Christian supremacist fighting force to eliminate Muslims and destroy Islam globally, and then they bill taxpayers again for this killing that they're doing and they're not held to the same standard as soldiers."
"There are Iraqi and Afghan forces that are forced to face down against them, when, I'm sorry, the US Congress does nothing to stop it," he continued, "and journalists have done nothing to hold the White House accountable now, Chuck, or under Bush. This has not been an issue and yet it constitutes more than half of the fighting force in Afghanistan."
Scahill singled out Todd, a fellow panelist on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher", for not taking the issue more seriously. "Chuck, you called it political cat-nip to talk about the CIA and Cheney's role in this, because it distracts from the important issues," he said. "This is a central issue and you called it cable cat-nip."
Here is video of Scahill singling out Todd:Jeremy Scahill sparred with NBC political director Chuck Todd on Friday, forcefully... more
There are more than 2 million “private security” officers and guards on the streets of America and this number is growing by the day in Oakland and other cities.
The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons, and certainly with the US military/national security/intelligence apparatus. There are almost 200,000 “private contractors” in Iraq (more than US soldiers) and Obama is continuing to use mercenaries there and in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. At present, 70 percent of the US intelligence budget is going to private companies.
This privatization trend is hardly new, but it is accelerating. While events such as the Nisour Square massacre committed in September 2007 by Blackwater operatives in Baghdad show the lethal danger of unleashing mercenary forces on foreign soil, one area with the potential for extreme abuses resulting from this privatization is in domestic law enforcement in the US. Many people may not be aware of this, but since the 1980s, private security guards have outnumbered police officers. “The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,” according to The Washington Post. Some estimate that private security actually operate inside the US at a 5-to-1 ratio with police.There are more than 2 million “private security” officers and guards on the... more
Over the past couple of weeks, the Obama administration has clearly attempted to shift the US foreign policy focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, seemingly intent on leaving the public with the impression that Iraq is under control and US withdrawal has been set in full motion; that the end of the "war" is within sight. This fantasy has been reinforced by some so-called anti-war groups, like MoveOn, which have praised Obama's Iraq plan without confronting the cold fact that Obama's vision for the country includes a sustained presence of tens of thousands of US troops, a monstrous US embassy the size of Vatican City and the continued--and likely increased-- use of corporate mercenary forces. Also, consider this fact: by September of this year, Obama will have actually sent more troops into combat than Bush.
There is great reason to suspect that the timeline for withdrawal--all troops out by 2011-- announced in February by the Obama administration will prove to be a fallacy. Military officials have told journalists of plans for "a significant number of American troops to remain in Iraq beyond that 2011 deadline," with one senior military commander saying "he expects large numbers of American troops to be in Iraq for the next 15 to 20 years." Moreover, Obama has made clear he views the Status of Forces Agreement as malleable.
Then there is the issue of the residual force of up to 50,000 troops whose mission has been loosely described as counter-terrorism, training and protection for US civilians. Obama has made clear that he will adjust the timeline and the size of the US occupation force according to circumstances on the ground.
I have been saying for some time that I think that if the stability or predominance of the US-backed Iraqi government was threatened, that would result in a major adjustment to Obama's announced intentions for Iraq. While the "surge" has been praised by Democrats and Republicans alike as having reduced violence in Iraq, this has always been a dishonest simplification of reality. Part of the "success" (their term, not mine) is due to the fact that the US supported, encouraged and armed a Shiite campaign of ethnic and religious cleansing in Baghdad, which, after a horrifying and sustained period of death squad operations, largely from 2005-2007, resulted in a drop in violence (after most of the non-Shiites were expelled from the Iraqi capital). Secondly, the US co-opted the Sunni resistance forces through the so-called Awakening Councils, essentially paying off 100,000 or so Sunnis to stop killing US soldiers and to stop fighting the Shiite-led government. This combined with Moqtada al Sadr's restraint over the past year created circumstances for what is portrayed in the US corporate media as a "success" in US strategy. What has not happened is that the US somehow "got it right" and stabilized Iraq in a lasting way for sustained peace. Washington basically backed one faction and paid the other not to fight it.
The point here is that, with just a few definitive events, all of this could unravel very swiftly and Obama could find himself facing a renewed guerrilla insurgency against his occupation--from both Sunni fighters and Shiite forces opposed to Maliki-- and a destabilization of the puppet regime Obama is now backing.
In fact, the early stages of such an unraveling may already be in swing, according to a new analysis of the situation in Iraq by veteran military correspondent Thomas Ricks, author of Fiasco and formerly of the Washington Post. "I thought some of the surge-era deals in Iraq would unravel but I didn't think that would begin happening this quickly," says Ricks. "It's only March 2009, and already Awakening fighters are fighting U.S. soldiers in the streets of Baghdad."Over the past couple of weeks, the Obama administration has clearly attempted to shift... more
The company formerly known as Blackwater continues its mission to bury its tarnished reputation and soldier on. Early this morning, Blackwater founder Erik Prince released a brief statement announcing he is stepping down as CEO of the infamous mercenary firm he started in 1997. A press release from the company -- which last month renamed itself "Xe" -- said Prince "will now focus his efforts on a private equity venture unrelated to the company."
Prince's resignation could be seen as a public formality in what has been a dramatic attempt to scrub all public vestiges of Blackwater, given that he remains chairman and sole owner of the network of companies now operating under the Xe umbrella. But it's clear the firm has been thrown into turmoil in recent months. As the Xe statement says, "These appointments follow the addition and departures of several other key personnel. Recent departures from the company include its former Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer, President, and Executive Vice President." Joseph Yorio, an ex-Army Special Forces officer and former Vice President of the international shipping company DHL was announced as the new Xe president -- a somewhat humorous development, given Prince's fondness for describing Blackwater as the "FedEx of the U.S. national security apparatus." Meanwhile, Danielle Esposito, a longtime Blackwater employee, was named Xe's new Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.
The rebranding of Blackwater and its attempts to hide its former self have been downright crude. The company's domestic training centers, which some refer to as private military bases, are now simply labeled "U.S. Training Center." Gone is the sexy black-and-red logo featuring a bear paw in a sniper-scope; it has been replaced by a nondescript, rather amateurish sketch of an American Eagle. The company website has been revamped and scaled down.
One thing that does remain is the Blackwater ProShop, where you can still purchase items ranging from all the ammunition and tactical gear you would need for your own private war, to the ever-popular Blackwater teddy bear. There is currently a blow-out sale in Blackwater baby onesies, which have been reduced from $18 to $10. Toddler polos have also had their ticket price slashed.
Still, the company clearly remains concerned with activist campaigns against the "new" company and is taking the necessary precautions. In April 2008, almost a year before "Xe" was officially launched, Blackwater bought the URLs xewatch.com, .org and .net. But activists who have mobilized against Blackwater have launched a rebranding campaign of their own. While Blackwater beat them in the URL game, the folks at BlackwaterWatch.net -- whose homepage currently reads: "DON'T BE FOOLED -- XE IS Blackwater!" -- recently reaffirmed their activism, sending out an e-mail saying:
"Xe Watch (formerly Blackwater Watch) was formed in 2007 as a spin-off of North Carolina Stop Torture Now. Headquartered in Blackwater's home state of North Carolina, Xe Watch seeks to shine a light on Blackwater USA specifically, and private armies/mercenaries generally, with respect to their human rights violations, absence of accountability and their profiteering at the expense of, and lobbying for, war and conflict. Xe Watch represents a growing contingent of concerned individuals and groups including, but not limited to, human rights and peace activists, people of faith, civil libertarians, and veterans. We are in solidarity with the people in San Diego, California, Mount Carroll, Illinois and Coeur d' Alene, Idaho who are fighting Xe's mercurial growth and expansion."The company formerly known as Blackwater continues its mission to bury its tarnished... more
Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company's new name is pronounced like the letter z.
Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre — the subsidiary that conducts much of the company's overseas operations and domestic training — has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.
- A rose by any other name is still a secret army of facists pigs that operate above international law and below the US Code of Military Conduct. They get ppaid five times what our enlisted soldiers receive to do the same jobs. Bush and the Republican controlled Congress gave Eric Prince(CEO) billions in "No-bid" contracts that were paid for by you and me and everyother tax payer. If you check your history, it's right out of the Hilter playbook. The SS was exactly the same entity 60 years ago.Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a... more
Iraq's government says it won't give Blackwater a license to operate in the country. So does that mean the firm's cadre of tattooed gunslingers will be gone from Iraq, forever? Not exactly.
Sure, Blackwater as a corporate entity probably won't be roaming the streets of Baghdad or Mosul for much longer. But the individual mercenaries who've been working for years in Iraq, serving as a Praetorian Guard for the State Department's diplomats — those guys likely will be able to stay.
The State Department has a contract for "worldwide personal protective services" with three firms: Blackwater, DynCorp, and Triple Canopy. If Blackwater is no longer allowed to operate in Iraq, a lawyer steeped in the field tells Danger Room, there's no legal reason why the other two firms can't scoop up Blackwater's employees. "State simply issues a new task order to DynCorp or Triple Canopy, who turn around and hire some or all of Blackwater's employees," he says.Iraq's government says it won't give Blackwater a license to operate in the country.... more
Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks about how the private mercenary firm Blackwater USA is expanding its projects to include domestic services, which could be disastrous if they act as they've acted in Iraq.
“Most people know the basic facts behind the Blackwater story. They may have read a few facts about how that mercenary organization was started by a phenomenally rich multimillionaire inheritance baby named Erik Prince. For decades, Prince’s daddy wooed all of his political friends by spreading millions of dollars around to conservative think-tanks and ultra-right religious infrastructures that helped shape the now floundering neo-con revolution.
Today, the Prince family’s private army numbers about 25,000 strong. They have their own inventory of aircraft, tanks, helicopter gunships, amphibious assault crafts and ammunition stashes that rival the armies of many Third World countries.
Soldiers enlisted in the US military get paid about $70 a day to put themselves in harm’s way while Mr. Prince’s private family soldier is paid around $1,500 a day for the same risks.
The numbers of Prince family mercenaries have mushroomed in these last eight years. Each of the mercenaries know they cannot be court-martialed when they break the law. And to this day, the lawyers for the Prince family soldiers are still arguing that these mercenaries can’t be prosecuted under traditional criminal and civil US Statutes.
Dwight Eisenhower made it clear on numerous occasions that no military machine should ever be allowed to gain independent unchecked power in America. Eisenhower developed his fears of unchecked military power at a time that he could not even visualize an entity as creepy and unregulated as this Prince private army.
Private armies were rare in the US during Eisenhower’s service as a soldier. And that was at a time when America’s public military had shown that it was capable of winning two World Wars without the help of American mercenaries.
As you might expect, the congressmen and advocacy groups that are trying to shut Blackwater down are being branded as un-American, unpatriotic liberals by the Prince family loyalists. But they would need to roll Eisenhower into that list of unpatriotic objectors.
They would also need to add the names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to their list of un-American types. Both of them also warned us about the unchecked expansion of a military of any kind, public or private.
Washington put it this way: “Overgrown military establishments under any form of government are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”
As I write this column, Blackwater is using part of the billion plus dollars they have been paid in mostly no-bid contracts to expand what they call their domestic operations division. That part of Prince’s private army will be able to defy the 130-year old policy of posse comitatus that says that a standing military may not carry out active operations on US soil.
More than a few of those so called un-American congresspeople have voiced concerns that Blackwater has reached a level of overgrown and unchecked power that make them capable of overpowering the military of many of the world’s governments. Blackwater spokesmen tell us that their mercenaries operate under a pledge of strict loyalty and patriotism. But take time to follow the story about this mercenary group and you will wonder who or what entity actually benefits from that loyalty pledge.”Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks about how the private mercenary... more
Blackwater should be dropped as the main private security contractor for US diplomats in Iraq, a US State Department panel has recommended.
Its report, commissioned by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, says the company's contract should not be renewed when it expires next year.
Ms Rice ordered the review after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007.
Five guards have been charged with manslaughter over the shootings.
The incident triggered outrage in Iraq and led to a debate about the role there of private security companies - upon which the US relies heavily.
A decision on the recommendation will be left to the incoming Obama administration, which will be in office when Blackwater's contract comes up for renewal.
Scrutiny
Based in North Carolina, Blackwater was one of the first private security firms to work in Iraq following the US-led takeover.
It provides guards and security for American and other diplomats in the country.
But the company has been under intense scrutiny since its guards opened fire at a busy Baghdad intersection in September 2007, killing 17 Iraqi civilians.
Blackwater says the guards' convoy came under attack from insurgents.
Five of its employees have now been charged in the US with manslaughter and other offences, but the company itself has not faced charges.
It is not clear how the US might replace Blackwater.
But the report recommended that the State Department increased the presence of its Diplomatic Security Service in Iraq, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing an unidentified US official.Blackwater should be dropped as the main private security contractor for US diplomats... more
Thousands of private soldiers operate in Iraq alone... and many more around the world. These individuals, known as private security contractors, are changing the face of modern warfare everyday while their world has remained mystery to those at home. Shadow Company is the groundbreaking investigative feature-length documentary that seeks out and reveals the origins and destinations of these modern-day mercenaries.
Who are these security contractors?
What do they do?
Why do they do it?
.Thousands of private soldiers operate in Iraq alone... and many more around the world.... more
Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted in Washington for the 2007 shooting of Iraqi civilians plan to surrender to the federal authorities Monday in Utah, people close to the case said, setting up a court fight over the trial site.
The case already is shaping up to be a series of contentious legal battles before the guards can even go to trial. By surrendering in Utah, the home state of one of the guards, the men could argue the case should be heard in a far more conservative, pro-gun venue than Washington, some 2,000 miles away.
The five guards, all military veterans, were indicted on manslaughter charges Thursday for their roles in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A sixth guard reached a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid a mandatory 30-year prison sentence.
All the people who discussed details of the case spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the indictment and plea documents remain sealed. They are expected to be made public Monday.
The shooting strained U.S. diplomacy and fueled anti-American sentiment abroad. The Iraqi government has urged the U.S. to prosecute the guards and cheered news of the indictments.
Steven McCool, a lawyer for Blackwater guard and former Marine Donald Ball, confirmed Sunday that his client would surrender in Utah. Ball, a veteran of three tours in Iraq before joining Blackwater, is from West Valley, Utah.
"Donald Ball committed no crime," McCool said. "We are confident that any jury will see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution to appease the Iraqi government."
The other guards indicted are Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.; and Paul Slough, an Army veteran from Keller, Texas.
It's not uncommon for lawyers to try to get their cases in front of favorable juries, but often it is difficult in criminal cases. GOP Sen. Ted Stevens unsuccessfully tried to move his recent corruption trial to his home state Alaska from the District of Columbia.
The five men were scheduled to surrender to federal marshals in Utah, where they were expected to ask a federal judge to keep the case from moving to Washington.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that crimes committed overseas are normally charged in Washington. They can also argue that documents related to the sixth guard's plea deal have already been filed in Washington.
The Justice Department has not commented on the case.
In addition to manslaughter charges, prosecutors also plan to use an aggressive law calling for mandatory 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes.
"It would be outrageous to charge Mr. Ball with firearms offenses relating to guns issued by the State Department," McCool said.
The Blackwater guards, hired by the U.S. to guard State Department diplomats in Iraq, carry automatic weapons and drive heavily armored vehicles equipped with turret guns.
The shooting at the heart of the case involved a convoy of those vehicles responding to a car bombing in downtown Baghdad. Entering a busy traffic circle, the convoy opened fire. Witnesses said Blackwater was unprovoked. The company says its guards were ambushed.Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted in Washington for the 2007 shooting... more
Send a message about how crucial it is to reduce harmful carbon dioxide pollution and stop global warming.Send a message about how crucial it is to reduce harmful carbon dioxide pollution and... more
The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so."RIVETING, POWERFUL" "BLEW MY MIND"
The story of what happens to everyday Americans... more
