Blackwater Worldwide

Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge's decision as proof of what they'd long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law."There is no...Read Full Story

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights experts called on Iraq and the United States on Thursday to ensure that the 2007 killing of at least 14 Iraqi civilians, which has been blamed on Blackwater security guards, be prosecuted.Iraq said on Monday it would launch lawsuits in U.S. and Iraqi courts against the U.S. security firm for the Baghdad killings, rejecting a U.S. judge's decision last week to throw out the charges.In a statement, the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries...Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge erred in dismissing all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007, an appeals court ruled on Friday.The unanimous three-judge panel reinstated the charges and sent the case back to the judge for more proceedings, handing a victory to the U.S. Justice Department in a high-profile prosecution dating to 2008.The five guards were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempt to...Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge threw out all charges on Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007, saying the U.S. government had recklessly violated the defendants' constitutional rights.U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said prosecutors had wrongly used statements the guards made to State Department investigators under a threat of job loss.The five guards were charged a year ago with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts...Read Full Story

Part of the company once known as Blackwater Worldwide has been awarded a more than $120 million contract to protect new U.S. consulates in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.The United States Training Center, a business unit of the former Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.The company won the contract over two other American firms — Triple Canopy and DynCorps International...Read Full Story

Two former Blackwater security guards were convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter for a deadly shooting in Afghanistan but were acquitted of more serious charges, US officials said.Christopher Drotleff, 29, and Justin Cannon, 27, face a maximum of eight years in prison after a jury in federal court found them guilty of involuntary manslaughter but acquitted them of other charges, including second-degree murder.The first trial against Drotleff and Cannon -- who were employed by Paravant...Read Full Story

The Justice Department has told a federal appeals court that there was more than enough untainted evidence to justify a trial for five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.In court papers seeking to reinstate criminal charges, the department asserts that some of the evidence tainted by immunized statements in the case was harmless and did not justify scuttling the manslaughter charges against the guards.In December, a federal judge dismissed the case...Read Full Story

A lawyer for two self-described whistle-blowers at the former Blackwater Worldwide security firm says she has taken a deposition from the company's founder Erik Prince.Susan Burke says she met Monday with Prince in Abu Dhabi, where he moved earlier this month.Prince was deposed as part of a civil lawsuit alleging Blackwater repeatedly billed the U.S. government for excessive or inappropriate expenses.Two former Blackwater employees, Brad and Melan Davis, allege the company — now known as Xe...Read Full Story

The security firm formerly known as Blackwater told a federal judge Thursday that the U.S. government — and not the company — should be held accountable for a 2007 shooting by its contractors that killed 17 Iraqis.The Moyock, N.C.-based company and several of its contractors are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed on behalf of three people killed in the shooting — Ali Kinani, Abrahem Abed Al Mafraje and Mahde Sahab Naser Shamake. It accuses the parties of wrongful death and...Read Full Story

Two former Blackwater contractors have been arrested on murder charges in the killings of two Afghans last year.An indictment obtained by The Associated Press charges 27-year-old Justin Cannon and 29-year-old Chris Drotleff with second-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. Both of them are in custody.Both Cannon, of Corpus Christi, Texas., and Drotleff, of Virginia Beach, Va., have said in recent interviews with the AP that they were justified when they opened fire on a...Read Full Story