国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Asia-Pacific

Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-24 11:07
Large Medium Small

BAGHDAD - The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday.

Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani (R) receives U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during Biden's visit to Baghdad January 23, 2010.??[Photo/Agencies]

Biden's announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later. A lawyer for one guard, noting that word of the intended appeal came in Iraq, accused the Obama administration of political expediency and said the U.S. was pursuing an innocent man, rather than justice.

Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a crowded Baghdad intersection, on September 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.

Related readings:
Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case US Marines' Iraq command ends; Biden in Baghdad
Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case US Vice President Biden hits nerve in Russia
Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case Iraq tells Biden: Reconciliation pure internal affair
Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case Biden salutes Romania-US ties

Biden expressed his "personal regret" for the shooting and said the Obama administration was disappointed by the dismissal. "A dismissal is not an acquittal," he said.

The U.S. rebuffed Iraqi demands that the U.S. contractors face trial in Iraqi courts. After a lengthy investigation, U.S. prosecutors charged five of the contractors with manslaughter and took a guilty plea from a sixth.

But the case fell apart when a federal trial judge in Washington, Ricardo Urbina, said in a December 31 ruling that the Justice Department mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. Prosecutors now face difficult odds getting an appeals court to reinstate the case.

The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed the Americans considered themselves above the law. The Iraqi government began collecting signatures for a class-action lawsuit from and abetting. It's unclear what Urbina's ruling means for him.

Blackwater has said the guards were innocent, contending there were ambushed by insurgents. Prosecutors said the shooting was unprovoked.

Court documents paint a murky picture of a case rife with conflicting evidence. Some witnesses say the Blackwater convoy was under fire; others say it wasn't. Some said the entire convoy fired into the intersection; others said only a few men opened fire.

Even the government's key witnesses, three members of the Blackwater convoy, at times seemed to undercut the government's case.

Since the shooting, the Myock, North Carolina-based Blackwater has renamed itself Xe Services and overhauled its management. Iraq has pulled the company's license to operate in the country.

盐津县| 虹口区| 南木林县| 大埔县| 顺平县| 陕西省| 东明县| 城市| 常德市| 巢湖市| 桃园市| 威海市| 湾仔区| 灌云县| 调兵山市| 绥江县| 陈巴尔虎旗| 和龙市| 望谟县| 平乡县| 长汀县| 永仁县| 侯马市| 青阳县| 治县。| 马龙县| 清苑县| 汾西县| 德清县| 博爱县| 东丽区| 宁晋县| 桦甸市| 汪清县| 凌海市| 海盐县| 台州市| 柘荣县| 揭阳市| 安陆市| 荥阳市|