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Judge closes Blackwater trial to public

Prosecution of five Blackwater employees could be thrown out over immunized statements



A US District Court judge has barred the public from attending -- or the media from reporting on -- hearings in the trial of five Blackwater employees charged over the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in 2007.

A breaking story at the Washington Post reports that hearings to determine whether evidence against the accused was properly collected will be kept under wraps.

At issue are statements the State Department collected from Blackwater immediately after the incident. In exchange for the employees' co-operation, the State Department, then under the control of the Bush administration, granted the Blackwater guards immunity from prosecution over their statements.

The current case being pursued by the Justice Department is being crafted so as to avoid using the immunized statements. But Judge Urbina ordered hearings into whether those statements were used to gather evidence after all. If it turns out they were, the judge will likely throw out the case against the five Blackwater employees, the Post reports.

The Nisoor Square massacre took place on September 17, 2007, when Blackwater guards escorting a State Department convoy through Baghdad opened fire on civilians in Nisoor Square, in what is largely considered an unprovoked act. Evidently the Blackwater guards started firing when a civilian vehicle was spotted driving down the wrong side of the road near the convoy.

rest of the story:
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/judge-closes-blackwater-trial-to-public/

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
When you say "Obama Judge...", do you mean to imply that Obama appointed this judge to the bench?

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"Obama" controls promotion of all fed judges.*

"Obama" controls investigation and punishment of all fed judges.*

Fed magistrates are not appointed for life, and can be fired at will by "Obama". That's probably who's deciding the Blackwater case.*

If any judge gets too far out of line, "Obama" will wack em.*

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