Four former Blackwater security contractors proclaimed their innocence as they were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the killings of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s crowded Nisour Square back in 2007.  Prosecutors, and many others, called the killings during the US occupation of Iraq an “atrocity”.

Using machine guns and grenade launchers, the four opened fire into the square to make room for a Blackwater convoy carrying US diplomats.  They claimed they were returning fire from insurgents, but dozens of Iraqis and even some fellow mercenaries say the shootings were unprovoked.

30-year old American sniper Nicholas A. Slatten was sentenced to life in prison for starting the carnage with a precision shot to the head of a young man who stopped in an intersection adjacent to Nisour Square. 

“The verdict is wrong,” said Slatten, “You know I am innocent, sir.”  The judge disagreed.

Three other men – Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, and Paul Slough – were each sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Federal judge in a courtroom in Washington, DC.  A fifth former guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway of California, had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testified against his former colleagues.  He has not been sentenced but testified that he hoped to avoid any prison time.

Blackwater was the highest profile of the private contractors hired to run the Iraq for America’s neo-conservative government of the time.  It’s founder – Erik Prince, a major republican party donor – was eventually driven out of the company, which changed its name twice to crawl out from under the stench of its Iraq War excesses.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed in the US "war on terror".  George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumseld, Richard Perle, Condoleeza Rice, and Paul Wolfowitz have not been charged with any crimes and remain free.