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A US appeal court on Friday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard sentenced to life in prison in the killings of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad roundabout in 2007. The killings aggravated resentment about the accountability of American security forces during one of the bloodiest periods of the Iraq war.
In this June 11, 2014 file photo, former Blackwater Worldwide guard Nicholas Slatten leaves federal court in Washington. A federal appeals court on Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a Slatten, ordering a new trial for the man prosecutors say fired the first shots in the 2007 slayings of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Friday ruled that Judge Royce Lamberth shouldn't have barred a statement during the 2014 trial from Nicholas Slatten's co-defendant, who claimed it was he, not Slatten, who fired the first shots on the day of the massacre. Lamberth also should have allowed Slatten to be tried separately from three other former guards, the appeals panel said.
President Donald Trump on Saturday attacked The New York Times and its "sick agenda," alleging that one of the paper's reports thwarted a US bid to take out Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "The failing New York Times foiled US attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi.
Iraqi special operations forces advance during a field training exercise in Baghdad in May. When the Iraqi government launched an online recruitment drive for its elite counterterrorism forces in May, a startling 300,000 men applied. Of those, 3,000 passed a preliminary screening.
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Oct. 17, 2017: US-backed forces fighting ISIS in Raqqa say "major military operations" in the city have ended and that the jihadists have lost control of their self-declared capital. The development marks a decisive victory in the fight against ISIS, though US officials said there were still pockets of resistance in the city.
The Iraqi government's next big problem is coming into view: The group of powerful Shiite Muslim militias loyal to Iran seem to want to keep the country enmeshed in regional turmoil. As the extremist group known as the Islamic State is driven out of the country, the Iraqi government is facing up to a new threat to its authority - this comes from the Shiite Muslim militias, once volunteers who came together to defend their towns against the Islamic State but who have since turned into a formidable, quasi-official fighting force.
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has called a referendum on independence to be held on September 25, an official said on Wednesday, moving ahead with a plan for full statehood that is likely to be opposed by Baghdad. Wednesday's announcement comes just two months after Iraqi Kurdistan released a roadmap for a referendum, with Kurdish leaders stating at the time that a vote is a " natural right of the nation of Kurdistan to decide on its political and administrative path in a referendum and an entity of an independent state ".
For anyone who remembers the Bush administration, when Ari Fleischer covered himself in glory as the lying face of the regime and earned the mocking nickname "Baghdad Bob ," it's fascinating to watch as he works himself into high dudgeon. Contrary to popular opinion, Fleischer is not stupid.
That hackers, most likely Russia-linked, were trying to throw the French election to Marine Le Pen this weekend by releasing thousands of emails from her opponent Emmanuel Macron, probably struck too late to achieve their goal. They were counting on the rule that candidates may not speak on election day, so Macron cannot defend himself from any controversies created by the emails.
An embattled U.S. contractor, accused of failing to promptly disclose sex trafficking, alcohol smuggling and security violations on a nearly $700 million contract to secure an Iraqi air base, is denying many of the charges. An attorney for investigators, who were fired by the company, says the explanations don't stand up.
Facts: At the end of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, the United Nations passed Security Council Resolution 687 setting the terms for the cease-fire between Iraq and the US-led coalition. Section C of the resolution called for the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and some ballistic missiles and established the United Nations Special Commission .
On March 10, 1848, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell's assistant, Thomas Watson, heard Bell say over his experimental telephone: "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you" from the next room of Bell's Boston laboratory.
Displaced Iraqis who fled their homes due to fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants wait to be transferred to camps for displaced people, on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, March 8, 20... Republicans on a pivotal House committee are nearing an initial triumph in their effort to scuttle former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Republicans on a pivotal House committee are nearing an initial triumph in their effort to scuttle former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
U.S. and Iraqi officials believe the leader of Isis, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has left operational commanders behind with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert, focusing mainly on his own survival. It is impossible to confirm the whereabouts of the Islamic State "Caliph", who declared himself the "ruler of all Muslims" from Mosul's Great Mosque after his forces swept through northern Iraq in 2014.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order banning nationals of six Muslim countries to enter the United States , excluding Iraq from the list of a previous ban. The new document maintained a 90-day ban on nationals of Syria , Yemen , Sudan, Libya, Iran and Somalia from entering the United States, effective from March 16. "Each of these countries is a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones," the order said.
The al-Hurriya bridge is the second to be secured by the Iraqi forces in the city, after securing one located further south, in the offensive that started on the western part of Mosul on Feb. 19. "We control the western end of the bridge," said a senior media officer with Rapid Response, the elite unit of the interior ministry leading the charge through the districts alongside the Tigris river. All of Mosul's five bridges over the Tigris have been destroyed but their capture and repair would help the offensive against the militants, who have controlled the northern Iraqi city since 2014.
A spokesman for Barack Obama rejects claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that the then-president had wiretapped Trump in October during the late stages of the presidential election campaign, saying it was "simply false." , moved, by David Shepardson, 917 words) WASHINGTON - The White House budget director confirms that the Trump administration will propose "fairly dramatic reductions" in the U.S. foreign aid budget later this month.
Sick of all the propaganda about Russia? Me too. Larry Johnson reports: People insisting that Sessions "lied" under oath have not taken time to actually read the exchange that took place with Senator Al Franken.