US judge dismisses charges on Blackwater security guards

A US federal judge today dismissed criminal charges against five guards of Blackwater security firm, who were accused of killing 17 civilians in Baghdad, in
an incident that sparked widespread criticism of the Army's use of private contractors.

US district judge Ricardo Urbina threw out the case, not on merit, but on the way the prosecutors had handled it by wrongly using defendants' "statements compelled under a threat of job loss".

The judge said using such "compelled statements" that were given with a promise of immunity, is a violation under US law of Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

"The burden fell to the government to prove that it made no use whatsoever of these immunised statements," Judge Urbina wrote in a 90-page opinion.

"Explanations offered by prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions and persuade the court that they did not use the defendants' compelled testimony were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility," he added.

Acting at the time under a contract from the state department, Blackwater, now called Xe, became infamous in September 2007, when its guards opened fire while escorting US diplomats through one of Baghdad's main markets, killing 17 Iraqis, in one of the most provocative incidents of the US invasion.