Dismissal of case for guard in Iraq

11/21/09: The New York Times reports that the Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the security guards from the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide who were involved in deadly Baghdad shootings in September 2007, prosecutors said Friday in court documents.

11/17/09: Politico reports that Judge Ricardo Urbina has turned down a request from defense lawyers that they receive US military protection for a trip to Baghdad to investigate charges that their clients, five former Blackwater guards, massacred Iraqi civilians in 2007, because the defense had not shown that US military assistance was essential for a safe visit to Iraq.

10/29/09: Politico reports that defense lawyers for five former Blackwater contractors accused of carrying out a massacre in Iraq in 2007 are warning that the legal team could well be killed if they travel to Iraq without US government assistance.

10/19/09: Under the Radar reports that lawyers for five former Blackwater contractors facing manslaughter charges over an alleged massacre in Iraq are demanding that the US government provide the defense team armed security as it heads out into the deadly streets of Baghdad to gather evidence and interview witnesses.

10/14/09: The Washington Post reports that a federal judge Wednesday blocked the public from attending a critical set of pretrial hearings in the prosecution of five US security contractors accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a 2007 shooting. The five guards -- Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Donald Ball -- are charged with voluntary manslaughter and weapons violations in the killing of 14 civilians and the wounding 20 others.

09/10/09: The Intelligence Daily reports that federal prosecutors filed a notice of intention to introduce evidence in the criminal case against five unnamed Blackwater operatives for their alleged role in the 2007 Nisour Square shooting in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others. The government claims the evidence indicates that Blackwater forces “fired at innocent Iraqis not because they actually believed that they were in imminent danger of serious bodily injury and actually believed that they had no alternative to the use of deadly force, but rather that they fired at innocent Iraqi civilians because of their hostility toward Iraqis and their grave indifference to the harm that their actions would cause.”

Thread: Blackwater guards manslaughter case; Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Libert, Dustin Heard, Donald Ball.