Posted on 12/04/2008 4:50:29 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting of Iraqi civilians could face mandatory 30-year prison sentences under an aggressive anti-drug law being considered as the Justice Department readies indictments, people close to the case said.
Charges could be announced as early as Monday for the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. Prosecutors have been reviewing a draft indictment and considering manslaughter and assault charges for weeks. A team of prosecutors returned to the grand jury room Thursday and called no witnesses.
Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
For God’s sake! How many military and civilians did the Blackwater guys protect? that isn’t part of this I am sure.
Another reason to end the oh-so-successful War on Drugs!
Politicians are just disgusting. Making endless stupid laws and then twisting them to prosecute those who would protect us.
I guess you have to be smarter than me to appreciate the wisdom of stupid laws used in stupid ways? Because I don’t get it.
Sounds like an illegal use of the law.
Its not in their jurisdiction in any case. So, who will prosecute it? Nifong? Sutton? Fitzgerald?
Isn’t it amazing the contortions our leaders will go through to convict our citizens, then snooze on as people enter our nation and slaughter our citizens. Murder, rape, pedophelia... the level of crime doesn’t matter.
We’ll convict our border patrol agents and Blackwater’s crew, but don’t expect justice to apply to anyone other than U.S. Citizens.
We don’t live in the nation I grew up in any longer. We have a foreign government in charge now. It certainly doesn’t adhere to our Constitution.
Wow! Just Wow! Talk about prosecutorial misconduct!
I wonder why we didn't use this law in Fallujah? Any baddies using machine guns, we arrest them and charge them under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.
Of course, if our guys were in Fallujah without warrants from an Iraqi judge, and proper visas from Iraqi immigration authorities, and permit to carry from Iraqi security authorities, maybe they might be charged under the same law.
Maybe Somali pirates can be arrested under this law. We've evidently had trouble coming up with legal justification for stopping them; if they use a handgun for which they have a permit, we're stuck. Or a rocket launcher, thats probably not covered under the law, so they're fine. But use a machine gun, and we can pop'em and put'em away for a really long time. Unless they scoot back into Somali waters, and our troops don't have visas again.
Dang it!
Clintonista holdovers?
If this is the case then I'm sure we can charge appropriate members of the State Department with conspiracy for helping them get the weapons in the country.
This might stem from a case in California where charges were brought against a Marine by a U.S. court for something that happened in Iraq. The charges included aggravating counts of using a weapon.
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