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Lead FBI investigator in Blackwater case likens Iraq massacre to My Lai
John M Patarini says in letter to New York Times he is ‘disgusted with the president’s actions’ after Trump pardons
Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Sat 2 Jan 2021 09.41 EST
The mass shooting in Baghdad for which Donald Trump pardoned four American mercenaries was “a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam”, the lead FBI investigator in the case said, pronouncing himself “disgusted with the president’s actions”.
Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter over the 2007 shooting, which happened in heavy traffic in Nisour Square.
Fourteen unarmed Iraqi civilians, among them a nine-year-old child, were killed when the mercenaries opened fire with weapons including machine guns and grenade launchers.
The four men worked for the private security firm Blackwater, owned by Erik Prince, brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos. They were included in a wave of pre-Christmas pardons announced by the White House.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/02/blackwater-trump-pardons-john-m-patarini-fbi
