By Del Quentin Wilber
WASHINGTON
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the public from attending a critical set of pretrial hearings in the prosecution of five U.S. security contractors accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a 2007 shooting.
The hearings, which are expected to last through Friday of next week, will examine whether the government improperly used immunized statements by the Blackwater Worldwide security guards in its investigation. The guards gave the statements to the State Department shortly after the shooting Sept. 16, 2007, in a busy Baghdad square.
Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, which has since renamed itself Xe, had a contract to provide security for the State Department in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Wednesday that he was closing the hearings to shield witnesses and potential jurors from pretrial publicity. He also cited concerns about disclosure of grand jury material. Urbina said he wanted to ensure a fair trial.
In a letter Tuesday, The Washington Post asked Urbina to reconsider. Post attorney James McLaughlin said that the court should have put the proceedings on the public docket and given the public an earlier chance to challenge the basis for closing the hearings. He said concerns about pretrial publicity were "highly speculative" unless supported by factual findings in open court.
At a brief hearing Wednesday, Urbina denied The Post's request to open the hearings. He said the rights of the five guards to a fair trial outweigh the public's interest in attending the proceedings. He said he was concerned about how press accounts of the guards' immunized statements might affect witnesses, some as far away as Baghdad.
He said he didn't see a way to partially open the hearings, because they will deal with grand jury information. Grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret.
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headline: 14 civilians killed in Iraq, killers on trial
from the liberal anti military point of view, these people must be military according to the Pilot. Is it the Pilots intent to connect anything that happens in Iraq as a military thing, especially if it is bad? 14 people killed, Xe, did it, YUP, that is the military doing it.
Pilot, stop attributing this story to the military. Xe is not military. Xe was hired by the STATE department, you know, Hilary Clinton, she is the one in charge of them, NOT Gates. They are STATE DEPARTMENT employees, with a contract from the STATE DEPARTMENT. Associate Xe with Clinton already. The state department is the group that enabled Xe into Iraq. The state department is the group that wanted Xe in-country. Let the state department deal with Xe.
Get it yet?
What a suprise!
Well known liberal Judge.
B.A. 1967 Georgetown University
Law 1970 Georgetown University Law Center
1970-1972 D.C. Public Defender Service
1974-1981 Faculty, Howard University Law School
1981 Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
1994 Appointed to the United States District Court by
President Bill Clinton
"Judge: Let Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo into US
Public Not So Good
Why is the public's right to know the details about this secrecy less important than protecting these informants? No one is going to be shot or tortured to be kept silent, are they?
How is this case any different than all the others?