Hearts and Minds

“Iraq said Friday that it will file a lawsuit against five Blackwater security guards cleared of manslaughter charges in the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians, an act a government official called murder. The Iraqi government also will ask the U.S. Justice Department to appeal a federal judge’s ‘unfair and unacceptable’ dismissal of the charges Thursday, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. An Iraqi man wounded in the 2007 incident also voiced his anger Friday, saying U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina’s dismissal of the charges showed ‘disregard for Iraqi blood.’ Urbina found Thursday that prosecutors wrongly used the guards’ own statements against them. ‘We were expecting that American justice system is fair and independent,’ said Hassan Jaber Salman, a lawyer. ‘It’s clear that the justice system in America is unjust and unfair.’”