These are three relatively straight up accounts - McClatchy (at the end) is most useful for our purposes.
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=480738Blackwater charges: 14 counts of manslaughter
US unseals Blackwater indictment: 14 counts of manslaughter for deadly 2007 shooting in Iraq
LARA JAKES JORDAN and MATT APUZZO
AP News
Dec 08, 2008 12:09 EST
Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards surrendered on 14 counts of manslaughter and dozens of other charges Monday in connection with an investigation into a deadly 2007 shooting at a busy Baghdad intersection. .....
.....
Though the case has already been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina in Washington, attorneys want the case moved to Utah, where they would presumably find a more conservative jury pool and one more likely to support the Iraq war.
Judge Urbina, we have have met in the Uighurs cases ("War Crimes" thread). Seems a good judge (probably pro-defense), but I expect I would also be more comfortable with a Utah jury if I were defending these indictments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/wa...pagewanted=allNew York Times
Plea by Blackwater Guard Helps Indict Others
WASHINGTON — In the first public airing of an investigation that remains the source of fierce international outrage, the Justice Department on Monday unsealed its case against five private security guards, built largely around the chilling testimony of a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad traffic circle.
In pleading guilty to manslaughter, the sixth security guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway of California, described how he and the other guards used automatic rifles and grenade launchers to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls’ school. In addition to those killed, there were at least 20 people wounded. ....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/57350.htmlMcClatchy
Posted on Monday, December 8, 2008
Blackwater indictment details chaos at busy Baghdad circle
WASHINGTON — A 35-count indictment unsealed Monday of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards on manslaughter charges for the September 2007 shooting deaths of at least 14 Iraq civilians at al Nisoor Square in Baghdad, along with the guilty-plea agreement of a sixth Blackwater employee, provide the first official account of what took place that day. .....
Of the three, McClatchy provides four source documents:
Ridgeway's proffer [this is what he will say when he pleads guilty] - here
Indictment of Ridgeway for killing al Khazali [passenger in the KIA] - here
Indictment of 5 Blackwater guards [the meat of the case] - here
Justice Department news release on the indictments [for a DoJ release, this is pretty much straight up] - here
OK, all of us have some reading to do. Thought I'd post this first; see a client for a while; and get back to the case later today.
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