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KIRAN
CHETRY: Also this morning, attorneys for five former
Blackwater security guards charged with manslaughter
are planning an aggressive counter attack. The men
are accused of using machine guns and grenade
launchers to kill 14 unarmed -- or rather, 17 unarmed
Iraqi civilians. A sixth man who cut a deal will
testify against them when they're tried in
Washington. Defense lawyers say that the case is
politically motivated to appease the Iraqi
government.
CNN's Michael Ware is in Baghdad.
Is there anything to this argument that this case is
an attempt to appease the Iraqis who were infuriated
by this case?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well,
certainly, Kiran, something had to be done to assuage
the Iraqi population, who were livid at this --
there's on other word for it -- an atrocity.
But let's bear this in mind first. There's been
multiple investigations into this incident a year
ago, where our numbers say at least 17 innocent Iraqi
lives were ended as they were going about their
morning business in the morning congestion of the
traffic. Now, of these investigations, there was one
by the Iraqi government, one by the U.S. military,
and one by the FBI.
And as the assistant attorney general who was
announcing the indictments said yesterday that in the
course of all of this, there's been found that there
was absolutely no provocation or justification for
the death blossom or just the spewing of machine guns
and grenades at the civilians that happened in that
convoy.
Now, we can't speak about the guilt or innocence of
any of the five defendants. However, what's clear is
that a lot of people died, more than 20 were wounded.
They were all innocent and no one was shooting at
their convoy.
Now also, there is a message to be sent here to the
other security firms still operating in Iraq and
elsewhere that this won't be tolerated, and secondly,
as the attorney for the District of Columbia said,
the message here is that no one, even in war, is
above the law.
And that's what the Iraqis needed to hear. They need
to see this trial take place to help mend some of the
fences on an already fragile relationship between the
U.S. and the people who had been occupied here in
Iraq - Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. And of course, as we said, their
defense attorneys are maintaining their innocence and
say that they are going to try to fight this.
Michael Ware for us in Baghdad. Thank you.