Overview
Based on the popular podcast, a journalist’s shocking story of how the U.S. government framed four decorated veterans working as Blackwater military contractors in Iraq with phony war crimes to placate foreign autocrats.
In Raven 23, journalist Gina Keating reveals how four American citizens working as personal security contractors for U.S. diplomats in the world's most dangerous city were convicted of war crimes in a federal trial that made international headlines -- and was plagued with prosecutor and judicial misconduct. The men spent six years in federal prison while Keating, the men's families, and a dedicated and growing group of supporters -- including U.S. Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth -- petitioned President Donald J. Trump for their release and obtained four full and unconditional pardons in 2020.
The events in Nisur Square constituted one of the most tragic events of the Iraq war. According to the official story, in 2007, Blackwater employees fired “unprovoked” into a crowd of civilians, killing fourteen civilians and wounding seventeen others. Blackwater guards claimed their convoy was ambushed; the Iraqi government disputed this explanation. Initial investigations by U.S. State Department and U.S. Army personnel cleared the Raven 23 team of wrongdoing, but the U.S. government bowed to Iraqi pressure to try the men for civilian deaths. Thus began a saga that cost the government 13 years, three trials, and tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to sell the lie that Dustin Heard, Paul Slough, Nick Slatten, and Evan Liberty were monsters who deserved to go to prison for life.
Journalist Gina Keating’s account reveals the official story was a lie. While the four former Blackwater employees were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison, her investigation showed that the men had been attacked by insurgents and engaged the enemy according to the rules of war. According to Keating, the Department of Justice cooked up a flimsy story that condemned Americans to placate foreign leaders.
At the beginning of Keating’s investigation into the Raven 23 case, she thought she knew what the world was like. The reality of the corruption, abuse of power, and malice she saw in America’s institutions turned her world upside down.
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