Blackwater Cowboys get 3 Years for Murdering Iraqi Civilian

[Marburgkiss Profile]

Apparently, life is cheap in Iraq:

A contractor in Afghanistan for the former Blackwater security firm was sentenced Tuesday in Norfolk, Va., to more than three years in prison for shooting an Afghan civilian in Kabul in May 2009.

The decision by District Judge Robert G. Doumar was swiftly hailed by U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for showing that “no one is above the law — even in a combat zone — and the reckless use of force will be punished.”

The contractor, Christopher Drotleff, 31, worked as a firearms instructor for Paravant LLC, a subsidiary of Blackwater’s successor firm Xe Services. He and a colleague, Justin Cannon, who is to be sentenced later this month, were convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter.

Drotleff’s attorneys emphasized that the contractors’ convoy had just experienced a crash and that both men feared they were being attacked. They emptied 30 rounds from an AK-47 and a handgun into a passing car driven by Sayed Kamal Fareed, injuring him and killing his passenger, Romal Mohammed Naiem.

Neither of the contractors had been authorized to leave the military base where they were housed, and witnesses at the trial said Drotleff had been drinking, which he denied.

According to the Justice Department’s pre-sentencing memo, Drotleff had a highly troubled record, including a military discharge for other than honorable conditions, and convictions for disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, assault and battery, and driving while intoxicated.

His attorney Trey Kelleter said: “We think he will be vindicated on appeal” in this case. Xe Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the decision to employ a firearms trainer with a criminal record.

And, of course the corporate criminals who hired such an unqualified thug to be a mercenary get off scott-free.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ ... l?hpid=z10

[Epicfailure Profile]

It's a good start, but not good enough if you ask me....

those hired assassins (not mercs) do whatever they want because they are paid well to do it, so they think they are above the rules of engagement.

NOPE!

[Marburgkiss Profile]

More News on Iraq:

Over $6 Billiion dollars in Bu**sh** aid to Iraq vanished into thin air, due to mismanagement and/or theft.

The Iraqi and U.S. governments have been unable to account for a substantial chunk of the billions of dollars in reconstruction aid the Bush administration literally airlifted into the country. If the cash proves to have been stolen, the heist could represent "the largest theft of funds in national history," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Iraqi officials say it was the U.S. government's job to keep track of the funds, which were brought in as an emergency measure to keep basic infrastructure going after Saddam Hussein's ouster. House Government Reform Committee investigators found in 2005 evidence of "substantial waste, fraud and abuse in the actual spending and disbursement of the Iraqi funds."

Witnesses testified that millions of dollars were shoved into "gunnysacks" and disbursed to Iraqi contractors on pick-up trucks, with what seemed to be little financial controls or accounting on the part of the U.S. government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... funds-lost

[E6722maj Profile]

"the reckless use of force will be punished"

...not always

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[Thedude69 Profile]

3 years is nothing. Xe needs to be brought to justice and our military should not be privatized.

[Theoracle Profile]

marburgkiss were is the justice 3 years for murder
should of got 25 years

peace and love theoracle