I also understand that now a days, some of the companies are using video cams, similar to what law enforcement use, to record actions during missions. Any record of actions taken, especially in this phase of the Iraq war, will be vital to protect a team in a court of law(Iraqi or US).
Although, most companies do not put the money into these kinds of systems because of cost. Even a simple recording machine back at the TOC is too much to ask for. I personally think that the Raven 23 example might change some minds about keeping records or purchasing recording equipment. –Matt
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Blackwater radio log key in guards’ defense: Rochester man among those charged
Article published Jan 11, 2009
The call came in at 11:59 a.m.: A car bomb exploded 25 yards from a female U.S. Department of State official as she attended a meeting in a dangerous section of Baghdad. The blast left a crater in the ground.
Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards, part of a 19-man team known by the call sign “Raven 23,” grabbed their M-4 carbines and loaded into their heavily armored BearCat assault vehicle. One manned the M-240 machine gun turret.
The remaining guards rode in three other vehicles.
It took them 12 minutes to drive from the city’s protected “Green Zone” to the busy traffic circle in Nisoor Square, a mile from where the car bomb exploded.
The four-vehicle convoy set up a road block, the guards wary of another car bomb going off — as was typically the pattern in Iraq during that time in September 2007.
One minute after they positioned their vehicles, they reported that insurgents began shooting at them.
A minute later, Iraqi police officers, for unknown reasons, began shooting at them, too, they reported.
Two minutes later, one of the vehicles became disabled. Still under small-arms fire, another vehicle towed it out of the square.
The shooting continued for 13 minutes.
When it stopped, 17 Iraqis were dead, and another 20 were wounded. All 19 of the Raven 23 guards made it out alive.
That timeline of events — depicted in a transcript of authenticated radio transmissions — contradicts claims by U.S. prosecutors that the guards’ actions that day were unprovoked and targeted unarmed civilians.
Five of the guards, including Evan Liberty, a 26-year-old Rochester native and decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran, each have been charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter, and one count of using a firearm to commit violence — a charge that carries a mandatory 30-year jail sentence. Each pleaded not guilty during their arraignments in Washington, D.C., last week.
A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, of California, is cooperating with the government and has pleaded guilty to one count each of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
Pictures of the BearCat vehicle the five guards traveled in that day, obtained by Foster’s on Friday along with the transcript, show multiple bullet indentations in the vehicle’s side.
Blackwater has confirmed the authenticity of the transcript to media organizations. The pictures could not be authenticated, though a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman said he is “well aware” of them.
Based on accounts of the incident from Ridgeway and Iraqi witnesses, prosecutors argue the guards who are facing charges acted illegally when they set up the roadblock in Nisoor Square. The team ignored an order to return to base, according to court documents, and a guard shot at a slow-moving white Kia sedan that approached them, even though it posed no threat. The driver, an unarmed medical student, was killed.
The five guards then turned their weapons on the crowded square, prosecutors said. They fired at fleeing cars, shot a man through the chest as he stood with his hands in the air, and fired a grenade at a girls’ school, prosecutors said.
The radio transcript tells a different story. The communications were between an unidentified Blackwater guard and the State Department’s regional security office tactical operations center, located in the “Green Zone.”
At 12:12 p.m., one minute after the Raven 23 convoy finished “locking down” Nisoor Square — known as “Grey 87” in the transcript — the unidentified guard reported the team received small-arms fire from multiple Iraqi insurgents.
“MULT INSUIRG SAF R23,” the transcript reads.
A minute later, the guard reported the team was being shot at by Iraqi police: “R23 RPTS IP’S SHOOTING R23.”
At 12:14, the team was advised to “break contact” and return to base. It is not clear if this is the order prosecutor said the guards ignored.
At 12:15, the lead vehicle was reported “down.”
At 12:18, the vehicle was towed out of the area, as the team was “still being engaged.”
At 12:20, the team reported it was in traffic, still receiving small-arms fire.
At 12:31, the team left the square.
There is no mention of the team coming under fire or the vehicle being disabled in court documents based on the accounts by Ridgeway and the Iraqi witnesses. The documents indicate the shooting occurred “around noon,” but do not give an exact time frame.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said he couldn’t comment on the radio transcript or photos because the case is pending.
“We are fully prepared to address in court arguments made by the defense concerning the documents,” he said. “We are well aware of the photos and are fully prepared to address arguments by (the) defense relating to the photos.”
“We look forward to proving our case at trial,” he added.
The trial is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2010.
Liberty’s lawyer, William Coffield, said he and the four other defense lawyers soon will file two motions — one to dismiss the case, and another to change the venue of the trial.
Last month the guards were arrested in Utah, where one, Donald Ball, lives and where they have a better chance of drawing a more “sympathetic” jury, one of the lawyers has said.
A hearing on the motions is scheduled for Feb. 17.
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