December 22, 2020: The Day the Terrorists Won

Humza Mehdi Khan | February 9th, 2021

Content warning: violence and death

The day is September 16, 2003. Ahmed Haithem Al Rubia’y is driving to a hospital in Baghdad to pick up his father who works there. His mother is in the car with him. He is shot in the head by a sniper round and killed. So starts one of the worst terrorist attacks committed against Iraqi civilians in recent history. Nearby civilians rush into the line of fire to try and remove Ahmed and his mother from the car but can’t as it is still moving. Ahmed’s mother cradles him in her arms and calls for help: "My son, my son. Help me, help me." But, help will not arrive, as every civilian in Nisour Square is at the mercy of the assailants now. Perhaps Ahmed’s mother, Mohassin, could’ve tried to leave the car and saved herself, but she doesn’t leave her son’s side. She, too, is shot and killed, still cradling her son. Ahmed’s father will later count that there were over 40 bullet holes in the car where his wife and son were murdered. At some point a grenade launcher is also used on the car, setting it on fire. The car is so thoroughly destroyed that initial reports described Mohassin was cradling an infant because Ahmed’s remains were so thoroughly charred that they were misidentified as that of a child.(1)

This is only the start of the attack. From there, the armed men start raining bullets upon the square seemingly at random. The men are yelling in a foreign language. Cars are blocked in the square, Iraqi civilians are attempting to flee. The shooting doesn’t stop. Several victims state that they tried to drive away from the shooting, but were shot while driving away.

Mohammed Kinani was in the square with his sister and nine-year-old son, Ali. He saw the armed men start firing at Ahmed’s car. He also saw other aspects of the massacre. One of the shooters was perched on an armored vehicle with an automatic weapon, continually exhausting and loading new clips. Kinani sees a civilian get out of his car and start to run away before he is gunned down by the shooter in the vehicle. The shooter keeps shooting his dead body, pausing to fire at other civilians, before turning his attention back to shooting the man's dead body with a fully automatic gun.

“The guy is dead in a pool of blood. Why would you continue shooting him?” – Kinani (2)

Kinani and his family took shelter in his SUV as bullets continued to rain down on the square. By the end of the shooting, his nine-year-old son was dead.

In total, 17 innocent people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack. When the shooting stopped, the questions started. What could have motivated this horrific act? How would the world community respond? What terrorist group was responsible?

If you are familiar with this event, then you already know the answers. That foreign language the shooters were yelling? English. These were not the actions of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or even Saddam Hussein; these were US government military contractors.

Blackwater was a private security firm contracted by the United States which privately trained and sent soldiers into war zones in the war on terror. This Blackwater convoy was simply in the square for traffic control as another convoy was arriving shortly. There was no threat in Nisour square. Prosecutors and the jury in the case agreed that nobody had fired upon the Blackwater soldiers. The first individuals shot, Ahmed and his mother, did not represent any threat to the convoy, and their car only started to roll towards the convoy once Ahmed was shot and lost control of the car. Prosecutors said in trial that Nicholas Slatten, one of the guards, viewed killing the civilians as "payback for 9/11”(3). At least one Blackwater guard yelled several times for a ceasefire, asking his colleagues to stop, even pulling a handgun on the other guards.(4)

Victims of the massacre flew into the United States to testify at the trial of four of the guards responsible for the violence. The guards were convicted in October of 2014, eleven years after the massacre. Slatten was sentenced to life in prison while Evan Liberty, Paul Slough and Dustin Heard were sentenced to 15 years. However none would serve those full sentences as they were pardoned by President Trump on December 22, 2020.

This isn’t a call to action, there aren’t any recommendations that I can make for readers to act on this. The power of presidential pardon is far-reaching and can’t really be undone. So this piece, then, simply serves the purpose of making sure we remember the victims and remember what was done even if justice wasn’t served. Now, I could end this article with a discussion of the Geneva conventions or how the US has repeatedly resisted the prosecution of Americans for war crimes at the international criminal code. But, to be honest, I don’t care. This goes beyond a mere legal curiosity where we can learn about the legal principles at work here. This is a moral and ethical travesty, an evisceration of the rule of law and something which shouldn’t be allowed in any civilised nation. If any terrorists gunned down 17 innocent Americans and were then pardoned and allowed to walk free by their home nation, people would be talking about an invasion or an American military mission to kill those responsible.

Mohammed Kinani, the man who lost his nine year old son in the massacre, said, “I’m a true believer in the justness and fairness of American law” in 2008 when the trial was still happening (5). Unfortunately, it appears that faith was unfounded. I am not a believer in the justness and fairness of the American legal system. There are too many articles I could write just like this one: the Mukradeeb wedding party massacre, the Haditha killings, the Mahmudiyah incident, the Hamdania incident, the Kunduz hospital airstrike, I could go on. There is little any of us can do in response to what happened at the Nisour square except get mad about it. But, we can remember the 17 victims, and we can vow that if we ever have the power to hold those who perpetrate incidents like it responsible, we will do so regardless of the consequences.

This is as much an advocacy piece as it is a self- serving rant. I am angry and have been the entire time I’ve been researching and writing this article. I think part of it is that so many of the victims and the witnesses have names that are the same as family and friends, that these people are “like me.” That may be absurd considering that we don't even share the same ethnicity but there is something harrowing knowing that people with my skin tone and religion can be gunned down like animals and nobody cares. They say misery enjoys company, well, I think outrage does as well. The more people learn about these events and are outraged, the less likely that the perpetrators of these crimes will go unpunished.

When interviewed, Haithem Ahmed, the father of the first victim, looked at a picture of Ahmed and said: “I am waiting to see you in heaven.”(6) Mr Ahmed may find solace in that prospect. Personally, I find more solace in the prospect of divine retribution for the men responsible for killing his son and wife.

To listen to Mohamed Kinani's interview and read about his son: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/blackwaters-youngest-victim/

For a more detailed account of the massacre: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/world/middleeast/03firefight.html

Endnotes

1. "From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths (Published 2007)," The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, last modified October 3, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/world/middleeast/03firefight.html.

2. "Blackwater's Youngest Victim," The Nation, last modified June 29, 2015, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/blackwaters-youngest-victim/.

3. "Former Blackwater Guards Sentenced for Massacre of Unarmed Iraqi Civilians," The Guardian, last modified November 29, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/13/former-blackwater-guards-sentencing-baghdad-massacre.

4. "Blackwater Shooting Scene Was Chaotic (Published 2007)," The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, last modified September 28, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/world/middleeast/28blackwater.html.

5. "Blackwater's Youngest Victim," The Nation

6. "From Errand to 17 Deaths" The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos