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January 7, 2009

Five Blackwater Guards Plead Not Guilty in Nisoor Square Massacre Case
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Five former Blackwater armed contractors pleaded not guilty Tuesday to
federal manslaughter and gun charges stemming from the 2007 Nisoor
Square massacre in Baghdad, when Blackwater guards killed seventeen
Iraqi civilians and injured dozens of others. The five are charged with
fourteen counts of manslaughter, twenty counts of attempted manslaughter
and one count of using a machine gun to commit a crime of violence. A
sixth former Blackwater contractor has already pleaded guilty and is
cooperating with prosecutors. Meanwhile, in a separate case, a
Blackwater contractor who fatally shot a body guard of Iraqi Vice
President Adil Abdul-Mahdi will reportedly soon be charged in the
killing. The shooting occurred on Christmas Eve in 2006 in the Green
Zone.



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