“The Nisour Square Massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Academi), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad,” the Wikipedia entry says (read it here), adding, “In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges.”
Those four men, from left to right, were Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. Heard was sentenced to life; the other three got 30 years each.
On December 22, 2020, Trump pardoned all four, sending a message to troops and military contractors that it’s okay to murder foreign civilians. It also sends a message to foreign governments that we’ll protect, not punish, Americans who commit criminal acts in their countries. But it’s no surprise; Trump had already pardoned other war criminals (read about them here, here, and here).
Trump also pardoned two corrupt GOP congressmen, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and two people who lied to Robert Mueller’s investigators, even as he incessantly calls for locking up Hillary Clinton (who committed no crimes) and doggedly pursues investigations against Hunter Biden, exposing the nakedly partisan way Trump misuses power that belongs to the American people, not him personally, to take care of his friends and harass his opponents and critics. And don’t forget that Trump also wanted the Central Park Five executed even after they were exonerated. His mercy is, shall we say, selective.
