Petraeus: Trump’s pardons to war criminals undermine rule of law and endanger U.S. tr

[Boats]

Petraeus: Trump’s pardons to war criminals undermine rule of law and endanger U.S. troops
By: Trudy Rubin - The Philadelphia Inquirer - 12-27-20
Re: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/tru...-20201227.html

The most grotesque Christmas gift from President Trump, amongst his raft of pardons to criminals, were the ones bestowed on four Blackwater security guards convicted of a notorious massacre at Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

The unprovoked murder of 17 unarmed civilians in 2007 -- men, women, and children-- was a horror show that enraged Iraqis, even after years of violence following the U.S. invasion.

It took seven years for the surviving Nisour Square victims and their families to get justice in a U.S. federal court for 14 of the killings. Yet Trump set the Blackwater criminals free.

“This is so overwhelmingly wrong,” says Ryan Crocker, who was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq in 2007. “It is so morally repugnant.”

** The president’s dirty pardons dishonor the country and our rule of law system.**

But the damage is greater. As Crocker and retired Gen. David Petraeus - who was commander US and international forces in 2007 - made clear in a joint statement to me: “American prestige, credibility and security have all been seriously undermined.”

Perhaps Trump freed the Blackwater four as a belated gift to Erik Prince, the former Navy Seal who founded (and later sold) the security agency. He is a close Trump political ally, and his sister, Betsy DeVos is Trump’s Secretary of Education.

Never mind that Blackwater was the most notorious of the private U.S. security contractors hired by the State Dept. to supplement U.S. military forces. Heavily armed, operating with near-impunity, the security company’s black SUVs regularly barreled through Baghdad streets, forcing Iraqi cars off the road and firing if they moved too slowly. (I will never forget the day my Iraq translator burst into my Baghdad hotel in tears because contractors had shot into the car stuck in front of him in a traffic jam, killing the driver whose 2-year-old was sitting in the passenger seat.)

According to the FBI investigation and numerous witness accounts, on September 16, 2007, the Blackwater contractors “opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians”, even though no one fired at them first. They shot blindly into taxis, buses and private cars stuck in traffic and unable to escape the shooting.

The first victims were a young medical student, and his physician mother who burned to death when a grenade was tossed into their car. In the car behind, a father had to pick his 9-year-old son’s brains off the street. One of the Blackwater team, who pleaded guilty – and wasn’t pardoned - swore that “none of these victims was an insurgent and many were shot while…attempting to flee.”

Other members of the Blackwater team told the grand jury their colleagues were shooting “for nothing and for no reason” and “bragging about what a great job they had done.”

After Trump’s pardons, special FBI agent Thomas O’Connor, who was part of the forensic team that investigated in Baghdad, told CNN, “I’ve never been this mad or disturbed.”

Clearly, none of that bothered Trump.

Nor does the president seem disturbed bothered by the military implications of his pardons.

As Crocker and Petraeus. who was commander of U.S. and international forces in Iraq at the time of the Nisour Square massacre, write: “One of the biggest setbacks [to the 2007 “surge” that pushed back Iraqi Sunni insurgents] was the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater security guards…That tragic reprehensible event…resulted in increased attacks on our forces...The Blackwater incident was a tremendous blow…

“Ultimately, the incident was fully investigated and legal action followed. The fundamental American principle of …rule of law was upheld.

“The pardon of these individuals can only be seen as hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous of crimes with impunity. It places our military and civilian personnel at increased risk and it betrays our most fundamental values.

“American prestige, credibility and security have all been seriously undermined.”

Of course, all this is happening when Trump is withdrawing US troops from Iraq, leaving them vulnerable just as he stokes anger of the country’s public by showing them his disdain for Iraqis’ lives.

But, as we have repeatedly seen, this president who claims to love the military is eager to use U.S. military forces as a political prop - and to try to manipulate them for partisan purposes.

Trump loves to pose beside military tough guys, as he has done with Eddie Gallagher, a Navy Seal platoon leader accused of murdering a prisoner - and convicted of forcing his troops to pose for a photograph with a prisoner’s corpse.

Fellow platoon leaders called Gallagher “freaking evil” and claimed he was “OK with killing anything that moved.” But in November, Trump granted Gallagher clemency, a decision that infuriated military chiefs because it undermined military discipline and rule of law. And the president has lauded Gallagher as “a great fighter” at rallies.

As Crocker and Petraeus write, the military chiefs know that America’s already shaken credibility and reputation abroad have been dirtied by Trump’s praise for war criminals.

Survivors of Nisour Square, like lawyer Hassan Jaber Salman - who was shot three times by Blackwater team members -, travelled to Washington to testify at the trial. Salman expressed relief that “the American justice system …was a fair system.”

Now the Iraqi lawyer addressing Trump on CNN, says: “The blood of the dead and wounded is on your hands” for pardoning convicted murders.

Unhappily, our soldiers and civilian personnel abroad may be the ones who pay.

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Personal note: It seems crime pays evidentially. What Trump has done is to unleash the worse possible people with pardons. Why? Because he can! He's covering his ass so that they will cover his. This type of immoral and unpolitical injustice will destroy the values of the United States of America and its seen by all the Peoples Of The World. It seems nobody cares - especially the President - he's done this - only because he can - and they know more about his past involvement's - and they will walk - so they won't say anything about him in the future. This is corruptions at its very best. He has no values nor does he care about anyone - but himself.

The Pardon law needs to be revised so as to prevent such improper actions in the future.
The law needs to be updated to prevent such Presidential Pardon's in the future.

As so stated in the original post - “The blood of the dead and wounded is on your hands” for pardoning convicted murders. And it sends the wrong message to our Allia's as well.
That's if we have any of late. Unhappily, our soldiers and civilian personnel abroad may be the ones who pay.

Boats