Blackwater Guards Plead Not Guilty

Jan. 6, 2008— -- Five Blackwater security contractors charged last month in a 35 count indictment on manslaughter and federal firearms charges pleaded not guilty Tuesday at their arraignment.

The men were charged for shooting as many as 34 Iraqi civilians in a September 2007 incident in Nisoor Square which has been portrayed by prosecutors as being a massacre. At the hearing U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina acknowledged that the trial will be complex with many witnesses coming from overseas and set a trial date for January 29, 2010.

The 5 Blackwater guards Paul Slough, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Donald Ball were part of a Blackwater security unit called Raven 23 which consisted of 19 Blackwater guards.

During the September 16, 2007 incident the convoy was responding to a car bomb explosion near a separate Blackwater security team who was guarding a State Department protectee. The Raven 23 team entered the Nisoor Square area and set up roadblocks, when a white Kia sedan entered the square. The government alleges that the Blackwater guards opened fire on the vehicle and then turned their weapons on the Iraqi civilians and even fired grenades into a nearby girls school. In all 17 Iraqis were killed, the guards have been charged with killing 14 individuals.

The 5 defendants all stood before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina when the not guilty pleas were entered. After the arraignment defense attorney David Schertler said outside the courthouse, "We want to make it clear to everyone that these men committed no crime. They were defending themselves on a battlefield in a war zone when this occurred. We are looking forward to the opportunity to go to trial."

Click here to read the full indictment.