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| Healing time? Trauma from Gaza conflict is deep on both sides news.bbc.co.uk |
Iraq threatens action after Blackwater case collapses Officials and relatives of 17 Iraqis killed in Baghdad react with fury to US judge's decision to dismiss all chargesIraqi officials and relatives of 17 Iraqis who were killed in a crowded Baghdad square in September 2007 in an allegedly unprovoked shooting spree by Blackwater private security guards reacted with fury today to the decision by a US federal judge to dismiss all charges against five of the guards.A spokesman for the Iraqi government said the collapse of the case in the US courts would lead to an intensified criminal prosecution of Blackwater through the Iraqi legal system. Ali al-Dabbagh said the criminal suit was already well advanced against the firm, which would not be allowed to restart its private military work in the country."The government will monitor proceedings against Blackwater in Iraqi courts to prosecute the company and will preserve the rights of Iraqi citizens, of the victims and their families affected by this crime," he said.Abdul Wahab Abdul Kader, 35, who was shot in the arm, said he was bitterly disappointed. ""I call for the government to stop all foreign security companies working in Iraq. Their work here has been full of dangers for us and has caused real peril."Haitham Ahmed, whose wife and son were killed, said the dismissal of the case cast doubt on the integrity of the US justice system. He told Associated Press: "The whole thing has been a farce. The rights of our victims and the rights of the innocent people should not be wasted."The shooting, on 16 September 2007, caused outrage around the world and strained relations between the US and Iraq. A series of congressional hearings was held, and militant groups leapt on the bloodshed as evidence of US brutality.Blackwater was expelled from most of its key contracts in Iraq and forced into a major damage-limitation exercise that included rebranding itself Xe Ltd.The incident began when a heavily armed Blackwater convoy moved into a busy square in Baghdad, after breaking an order to stay in the US-controlled green zone of the city, prosecutors allege. The five were accused of opening fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians, killing children, women and men attempting to flee in their cars. One victim was alleged to have been shot in the chest while standing with his hands in the air. Defence lawyers said they had been responding to an earlier car bombing and were attacked by Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents.In his 90-page ruling, Judge Ricardo Urbina made no comment on the legality or otherwise of the shooting. He dismissed the case on the grounds that the five had had their constitutional rights violated by the way confession statements they had made had been used by the prosecution.The statements were made when the men were under threat of losing their jobs if they did not cooperate with investigators. The US government had promised that their statements would not be used against them in a criminal case.Urbina said that despite this immunity deal, the statements had been used, thus tainting the investigation. He said the government's case had been "contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility".If convicted, the five guards, all of whom were former US military personnel, would have faced a 30-year sentence."It feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders," said Steven McCool, a lawyer for one of the five, Donald Ball. "Here's a guy that's a decorated war hero who we maintain should never have been charged in the first place."The legal fate of a sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, is now unclear. He pleaded guilty to killing one Iraqi and wounding another, and gave evidence against his five former Blackwater colleagues.Xe said that the dismissal of the case meant "we can move forward and continue to assist the US in its mission to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan find a peaceful, democratic future".However, relatives have lodged civil charges against the five in the Virginian courts. Tareq Harb, an Iraqi lawyer, said of the US federal court: "They did not call local witnesses, or victims, or officials who responded to the scene. The guards were protected under Bremer's law [US administrator in Iraq before 2004]. There was no due process, or natural justice."IraqXe (Blackwater)US foreign policyUnited StatesMartin ChulovEd Pilkingtonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
This week: Geoff Hoon, Patricia Hewitt, Olafur Grimsson and Moira Stuart Lucy Mangan on the people making the headlines this weekLabour pains Geoff Hoon and Patricia HewittSo your leader's been making quite a good go of things. The opposition has been having a nicely wobbly week. The preparations for a general election have started. What to do? Why not send an email calling for a leadership contest? What a brilliant idea! I get so BORED when there's nobody around making a bad situation worse.Thus did the former chief whip and the former health secretary ensure that the Labour self-harm binge continued. Cabinet ministers ambled to Brown's defence, eager to show their lukewarm support. And none was luker than his potential successor, David Miliband. Gonk major issued a statement to say that he was issuing a statement supporting the PM who he said he was supporting and hoped he was clear on that.New Labour. Not so much a government, more a Monty Python sketch. That no one wants to memorise.Cold shoulderOlafur GrimssonYou know how a chill wind swept through European savings when it turned out that Iceland's banks couldn't substantiate all the fiscal promises they were making off the back of a country that is basically 13 people standing on an ice cube? And the British government had to refund everyone's lost moolah in the UK? Well, now Iceland's president is refusing to sign into law a $5bn (£3bn) package to compensate it and other governments before putting it to voters in a referendum.Opinion polls suggest that most of Iceland's citizens will greet the chance to stump up the £10,000 a person the package represents coldly. They will probably prefer to send ministers back to the negotiating table, despite the certain froideur with which they will be met by us, the Netherlands, the International Monetary Fund and the EU. And that's all the snow/ice/cold-related puns we have time for this week.Welcome newsMoira StuartOne piece of cheering news this week – Stuart's back! Allegedly released from her BBC contract for being female past a certain age, she is taking up a post reading the news on the Radio 2 morning show Chris Evans has taken over from Terry Wogan.Her gravitas will appease recalcitrant Togs (Terry's Old Geezers and Gals), while providing a perfect foil to Evans's exuberance, and we will all get to be enveloped in those luxurious chocolate-and-cashmere tones again. Ah, what bliss it is some days to be alive.What they said"I'd like to meet the actor who spent a year biting people to really know what that's like."Ethan Hawke when asked if he had done any special preparation for his upcoming role as a vampire in Daybreakers."I have never seen people just so frustrated and feeling coshed all the time." Stuart Fraser, chairman of policy at the Corporation of London, on bankers."The idea that they're going to come home and show me their jotters just makes me want to puke." Kirsty Young rounds on parents who don't let their children play at nursery.What we've learnedWolverhampton has been voted the fifth worst place in the world in a Lonely Planet surveyThe cold snap is costing the UK economy an estimated £600m a daySchoolchildren spend a total of one year sitting and revising for examsThere is no female G-spotShoplifting rose by a third last year, averaging out at a theft a minute... and what we haven'tHow many people Warren Beatty has really slept withGeoff HoonPatricia HewittIcelandLucy Manganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Turtles return home after a week's break from cold Endangered creatures released back into the Atlantic after temperatures in Florida rise to normalHundreds of endangered sea turtles were released back into the Atlantic ocean yesterday after the temperature in Florida rose back to its seasonal norms.Officials had rescued nearly 3,000 turtles from the sea, lagoons and rivers over the past week as air temperatures plunged to between 0C and 4C along the coast.The unseasonably chilly weather had left the turtles, which weigh up to 180kg, stunned and largely motionless – the perfect prey for predators.After a week of treatment – soakings in heated pools and oxygen therapy – they were released back into the wild by the truckload.AnimalsMarine lifeUnited StatesFloridaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Haiti at Tipping Point One Week After Earthquake Observers have been surprised that Haiti, which has descended into near universal chaos in the past, has remained relatively stable. Can it last? feedproxy.google.com |