Quote:
Originally posted by andViolins
No relatives. Although I do know a Blackwater employee.
I wasn't the one who said that they murdered 14 people. You did. Yes, I know that you backed off on that, but why not presume innocence until proven guilty?
aV
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Read what I wrote. I said that the FBI report "essentially said they murdered 14 innocent people. The Army investigation says they murdered 17 innocents. [Then I went to manslaughter.]" (Or words to that effect because my post isn't in front of me.)
Where in that do I say they are guilty? But if those shootings were unjustified, the killings were criminal acts (though jurisdiction is a big problem).
Of course we should presume innocence in a criminal sense -- but I have a harder time with that when the casualty figure is 17 dead Iraqi civilians, including a number who were clearly non-combatants (e.g. middle-aged women) and not a single American needed a band-aid afterwards.
I also put a lot of stock in the reaction/assessment of the Army units who arrived on the scene to provide back-up -- which was not at all favorable to Blackwater.
It is of course possible that they were provoked by insurgents, but it smells like a free-fire fuck up to me where other guys started shooting because the first guy shot at that white car, and just kept going.
S_A_M
