# Former Blackwater guards found guilty. It's about time! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 22, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173 "2014-10-22T18:25:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/1 "2014-10-22T18:25:08Z")
[Story here. > [@](#): > > Four former Blackwater security guards were convicted Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, an incident that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe and was denounced by critics as an illustration of a war gone horribly wrong. > > The men claimed self-defense, but federal prosecutors argued that they had shown “a grave indifference” to the carnage their actions would cause. All four were ordered immediately to jail. ]([http://bigstory.ap.org/article/74859ff1adad4e36b2207c665ec1b2b2/jury-reaches-verdict-blackwater-guards-trial](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/74859ff1adad4e36b2207c665ec1b2b2/jury-reaches-verdict-blackwater-guards-trial)) Good. Now how do we hold their former boss accountable for their actions? I’d smile big if I heard that Erik Prince was going to jail! ---
**Author:** ![JesterX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JesterX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JesterX)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/2 "2014-10-22T18:33:00Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [Story here.](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/74859ff1adad4e36b2207c665ec1b2b2/jury-reaches-verdict-blackwater-guards-trial) > Good. Now how do we hold their former boss accountable for their actions? I’d smile big if I heard that Erik Prince was going to jail! Nice ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/3 "2014-10-22T18:40:12Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [Story here.](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/74859ff1adad4e36b2207c665ec1b2b2/jury-reaches-verdict-blackwater-guards-trial) > Good. Now how do we hold their former boss accountable for their actions? I’d smile big if I heard that Erik Prince was going to jail! Oh. For a second I thought you were talking about Darth Cheney. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/4 "2014-10-23T00:40:51Z")
They realy ought to be sent to Iraq to serve their sentences. Is abu Ghraib still open for business, and not in ISIL’s hands? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/5 "2014-10-23T13:26:52Z")
Abu Ghraib prison closed in April after a mass escape, and an ongoing threat of Sunni militias taking the city. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/6 "2014-10-23T18:03:32Z")
But its spirit lives on! Its bad enough we recruit patriotic young men to kill for an ignoble and stupid cause. But for money? As a profession? I respect a pimp more than a mercenary. Dear God, who have we become? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/7 "2015-04-14T01:28:33Z")
> [@](#): > > One by one, four former Blackwater security contractors wearing blue jumpsuits and leg irons stood before a federal judge on Monday and spoke publicly for the first time since a deadly 2007 shooting in Iraq. The men had been among several private American security guards who fired into Baghdad’s crowded Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007, and last October they were convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqis in what prosecutors called a wartime atrocity… > > The judge, Royce C. Lamberth, … sentencing Mr. Slatten to life in prison and handing 30-year sentences to the three others. A fifth former guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway of California, had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testified against his former colleagues. He has not been sentenced but testified that he hoped to avoid any prison time. > **[Ex-Blackwater Guards Given Long Terms for Killing Iraqis (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/us/ex-blackwater-guards-sentenced-to-prison-in-2007-killings-of-iraqi-civilians.html?_r=0)** > > One member of the private American security firm received a life term and three others 30 years after they were convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/8 "2015-04-14T01:37:02Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Good. Now how do we hold their former boss accountable for their actions? I’d smile big if I heard that Erik Prince was going to jail! And I want a pony. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/9 "2015-04-14T11:16:52Z")
Was that pony in charge of other ponies who were responsible for the deaths of several people? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/10 "2015-04-14T14:43:42Z")
> [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > Was that pony in charge of other ponies who were responsible for the deaths of several people? Yup, while under the employ of a Halliburton subsidiary. So…justice any day now, looks like. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-blackwater-guards-found-guilty-its-about-time/702173/11 "2015-04-14T14:49:22Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/us/ex-blackwater-guards-sentenced-to-prison-in-2007-killings-of-iraqi-civilians.html?\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/us/ex-blackwater-guards-sentenced-to-prison-in-2007-killings-of-iraqi-civilians.html?_r=0) They all loudly proclaimed their innocence. Not good. Either they just do not understand what they did was wrong or they were set up to take the fall.