THE BIDEN FOUR
http://www.supportraven23.com/blog/2020/1/3/the-real-story-behind-the-biden-four-prosecution
Who Are The Biden Four?
Four decorated United States military veterans:
Nicholas (Nick) Slatten (Sparta, TN) – served four years in the U.S. Army (Sergeant); deployed twice to Iraq
Dustin Heard (Maryville, TN) – served four years in U.S. Marine Corps (Corporal); deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bahrain
Evan Liberty (Rochester, NH) – served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps (Sergeant); U.S. Embassy guard in Egypt and Guatemala
Paul Slough (Sanger, TX) – served four years in the U.S. Army and National Guard (Sergeant); deployed to Bosnia and Iraq
How Did Men Like This Wind Up In Prison?
Experienced veterans, who were no strangers to combat, made split-second decisions in an Iraqi war zone during an emergency. After being honorably discharged from their respective military branches, all four veterans deployed to Iraq, serving under Blackwater’s contract to protect State Department officials who came under attack. In September 2007, insurgents detonated a car bomb near the venue where a U.S. diplomat was conducting government business. The Blackwater emergency response team (call sign Raven 23) deployed to secure the diplomat’s safe return. After the team created a checkpoint in a traffic circle in Nisur Square, a white Kia drove toward their convoy and refused to stop. Raven 23 disabled the vehicle, but came under fire, which they returned, killing several Iraqis. A team vehicle was disabled by the incoming arms fire and had to be towed back to safety. A U.S. Army Captain and West Point graduate who responded immediately to the scene interviewed Iraqi witnesses who confirmed that the vehicle had driven toward the Raven 23 convoy like a car bomb. Real-time radio logs and photographs of the disabled vehicle confirm that the team came under small arms fire during the attack. There was evidence that people were throwing Iraqi Police uniforms over embankments around the Square, suggesting that insurgents disguised themselves as police and used the embankments as cover to shoot at the convoy.
How Did Self-Defense In A War-Zone Turn Into A Prosecution?
The United States government allowed the Iraqi Police to conduct a corrupt investigation. The FBI largely outsourced the investigation to the Iraqi Police, an organization infiltrated with anti-American insurgents. According to U.S. intelligence files, which were hidden from the defense for a decade, the man who led the Iraqi investigation, Col. Faris Karim, may have collaborated with Iranian terrorist organizations. The Iraqi Police collected almost all of the physical evidence, most of which disappeared. Advertisements on Iraqi television promised compensation for persons who identified themselves to be victims of the incident. The Iraqi Police identified the witnesses and claimed victims and coordinated their stories so that they would all claim that Raven 23 shot without provocation, contrary to what untainted Iraqi witnesses told the U.S. Army Captain at the scene. FBI investigators did not visit the site until several weeks after the incident.
Left-leaning media and politicians relied on the corrupt investigation to urge prosecution. The New York Times and the Washington Post (along with other left leaning outlets) injected politics into the incident by labeling the men as mercenaries and killers and using it as an indictment of Blackwater generally. Similarly, then-candidate Barack Obama made the incident a campaign issue, creating pressure on the Department of Justice to criminally charge the men here in the United States.
How Did A U.S. Court Not Immediately Dismiss Such A Case?
Actually, it did. The federal district court in Washington, D.C., originally dismissed all charges based on constitutional rights violations by federal prosecutors. The District Court dismissed the case for what it found to be “egregious” constitutional violations, including improper use of compelled statements and the intentional withholding of exculpatory evidence and testimony from the grand jury.
How Did The Case Keep Going?
Iraq, Hillary Clinton, and then-Vice President Joe Biden pushed further prosecution. Following heavy political pressure from Hillary Clinton and the Iraqi government, prosecutors appealed the case. Succumbing to that pressure, then-Vice President Joe Biden even inserted himself into the prosecution, announcing the government’s intention to appeal, and to seek “justice” as long as it took, effectively declaring four decorated veterans guilty before the first witness ever took the stand. Biden overstepped his role and jettisoned the presumption of innocence during a press conference in Iraq. And this is how the four veterans of Raven 23 became known as the “Biden Four.”
Cont.