Blackwater Prosecutorial and Media Misconduct

Driven by pressure from the Left, including the editors of the Virginian Pilot – a New York Times wanna be in Tidewater Virginia – the prosecutors of the Blackwater guards set their victims up for prosecution despite evidence that was exculpatory.

To get an idea of the kind of editorial pressure that was put on the prosecutors, go to the Virginian Pilot Online website and search for “Blackwater.” The headlines that pop up cover eight pages and virtually demand that this “evil” “private army” and “conservative Republican” organization be stamped out with the utmost prejudice.

Blackwater: Inside America's Private Army HamptonRoads.com ...

Blackwater's top brass HamptonRoads.com PilotOnline.com
The Virginian-Pilot ERIK PRINCE, 37, Blackwater's founder and chairman, has deep roots in conservative Republican politics in Michigan.

Using Blackwater as a campaign issue HamptonRoads.com ...

In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder ...

Blackwater HamptonRoads.com PilotOnline.com
From wire reports The founder of Blackwater Worldwide acknowledged in an interview published Wednesday that he had helped the CIA with secret programs ...

Suit: Blackwater operating illegally in Iraq after contract ...
Jun 11, 2009 ... The latest in a series of war-crimes lawsuits against Blackwater and its affiliated companies alleges that they continue to operate ...

Blackwater: On the Front Lines HamptonRoads.com PilotOnline.com
A Blackwater helicopter flies over Baghdad in April 2004. The growing presence of private security companies is stirring up questions over objectives, ...

Richard Nixon got better press during the Watergate scandal than Blackwater is receiving in the MSM. But that’s just an example of the local media going after a local company. They do that same thing to Pat Robertson even though Pat doesn’t use guns.

Clear your mind of the crap that’s thrown by the Times and the Pilot editors with their agenda and think about the Blackwater case for a moment. Here is what they are accused of doing: while escorting embassy personnel in Bagdad they enter a busy intersection and for absolutely no reason at all they begin firing wildly managing to kill and wound several dozen people. Their motive? I dunno; just animal spirits? Desire to kill innocents? Cleaning their weapons? Crazed psychopaths? Want to get their names in the papers? Even the random shooters and the Pantybomber have their motives examined in the press, but I have yet to read in the Pilot or any other MSM organ a rational or irrational motive for the Blackwater guards to open fire in a crowded intersection for no reason at all.

So what did the prosecutors do to get indictments? From Main Justice:

For example, several prosecution witnesses testified in the first grand jury that the Blackwater convoy had been fired upon by insurgents.

“Malis testified that he chose not to present the testimony of these witnesses to the second grand jury because the testimony indicated that the witnesses were ‘hostile’ to the prosecution,” the judge wrote.

In another example cited by the judge, prosecution witness Matthew Murphy, another member of the Blackwater convoy, gave testimony in the first grand jury that was exculpatory to defendant Donald Ball.

Murphy said that although he stood near Ball, he never saw him fire his weapon and that he “wasn’t just shooting wildly,” if at all, the opinion said.

“The prosecutors redacted this testimony from the transcripts presented to the second grand jury, even though Malis acknowledged it was exculpatory and had nothing whatsoever to do with the taint issue,” Urbina wrote.

The judge added in a footnote: “[T]he trial team chose to test the boundaries of permissible use of questionable testimony and ignore the warnings of fellow prosecutors tasked with advising them on precisely these issues. In doing so, it skated over the line.”

Urbina also faulted the prosecutors for informing the second grand jury that certain incriminating statements from the defendants were being withheld. “It is reasonable to believe that the purpose of these disclosures was to color the grand jury’s thinking,” the judge wrote.

If I were the Blackwater guards, I may have a case not just against the prosecutors but also against the defamatory and near-criminal conduct of the media including specifically the editors of the Virginian Pilot.