Blackwater Guards Indicted For Iraq Shootings

A grand jury in Washington, D.C., has indicted at least five people who worked for security contractor Blackwater Worldwide for their role in a shooting incident in Baghdad in 2007.

A sixth employee is still in plea negotiations with prosecutors, and those are expected to continue through the weekend. The indictments are expected to be unsealed as early as Monday, when the first five — and possibly the sixth — are expected to be charged with manslaughter or assault.

The grand jury had been investigating the details of the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead, for more than a year. The Justice Department sent a draft indictment to a grand jury a couple of weeks ago. That grand jury approved the indictments on Thursday.

Gunfire In A Traffic Circle

On Sept. 16, 2007, a convoy of Blackwater SUVs entered a traffic circle. A short time later, shooting started.

Blackwater has said its employees began firing into oncoming traffic in self-defense — that a car rolled forward after they ordered the driver to stop and they feared an attack from a suicide car bomber. A subsequent FBI inquiry came to the conclusion that the shooting was unprovoked.

A Difficult Investigation

The incident prompted concerns in Iraq and elsewhere that no one would be held accountable. A gray area in Iraqi law raised the possibility that Blackwater might have immunity from prosecution.

Investigating the crime was also troublesome. The FBI eventually went to Iraq, bought some of the burned-out cars in the traffic circle from their Iraqi owners, and shipped them back to the U.S. for analysis.

Because there was no real legal system in Iraq set up to take care of this kind of problem, it was unclear how to hold people accountable and which courts had jurisdiction.

New Rules For Contractors

In the wake of the shooting, with Blackwater in mind, new standards of behavior for contractors are being put into place in Iraq.

Starting Jan. 1, 2009, the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq says U.S. citizens who are contractors in Iraq will be subject to the jurisdiction of Iraqi criminal courts and civil courts.