Judge slaps Obama's Justice Department in the face.

Midknight Reviews editorial notes:
On December the 8th, 2008, just days before Obama took his throne, the Justice Department filed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater agents. They were charged with killing at least 14 and wounding 20. The shooting took place in a public square in Baghdad on September 16 of 2007. Prosecutors made the crime sound as if it were cold blooded murder, the Blackwater agents firing on the crowd for NO reason. Lawyers for the five guards, trained in combat and used to protect high level personnel, argued that they fired in self-defense and the shootings were more than justified. They further maintained that the charges were politically motivated. We all remember the pressure against Blackwater created by the anti-war, anti-Bush Woodstock machine. Understand that Lefties believe that the ends justify the means and, consequently, will lie and misuse "evidence" to accomplish their goals. This is what the Blacdkwater guards are up against.

Onlookers have a choice: they can choose to believe that 5 hillbilly Blackwater guards decided to drive up to a public square and started shooting, just for the hell of it or consider the notion that anti-Bush elements within the Justice Department decided to use mounting negative public opinion against Blackwater to score points against that agency, the Iraq war and G.W. Those are the choices - which sounds more believable?

GOOD NEWS. Obama and his henchman, Eric Holder, US Attorney General, decided to pursue the prosecutions while letting 3 convicted Black Muslims go free. All was well for Obama's Justice Department until this past week's unprecedented rejection of not only the Blackwater case but some of the methods used in its prosecution. The NT Times article below details the Appeals Court's objections.
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Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq NY Times

WASHINGTON — In a significant blow to the Justice Department, a federal judge on Thursday threw out the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards over a shooting in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqis dead and about 20 wounded.

The judge cited misuse of statements made by the guards in his decision, which brought to a sudden halt one of the highest-profile prosecutions to arise from the Iraq war. The shooting at Nisour Square frayed relations between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration and put a spotlight on the United States’ growing reliance on private security contractors in war zones.

Investigators concluded that the guards had indiscriminately fired on unarmed civilians in an unprovoked and unjustified assault near the crowded traffic circle on Sept. 16, 2007. The guards contended that they had been ambushed by insurgents and fired in self-defense.

A trial on manslaughter and firearm offenses was planned for February, and the preliminary proceedings had been closely watched in the United States and Iraq.

But in a 90-page opinion, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court in Washington wrote that the government’s mishandling of the case “requires dismissal of the indictment against all the defendants.”

In a “reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights,” the judge wrote, investigators, prosecutors and government witnesses had inappropriately relied on statements that the guards had been compelled to make in debriefings by the State Department shortly after the shootings. The State Department had hired the guards to protect its officials.

News of the judgment came out late Thursday afternoon, when it was the middle of the night in Iraq.

Mark J. Hulkower, the defense lawyer for the lead defendant in the case, Paul A. Slough, who was manning a turret machine gun during the episode, said that his client and his family had gathered in Texas for New Year’s Eve when he called them to convey the news. They were “overjoyed,” he said.

“We are obviously pleased at the decision dismissing the entire indictment and are thrilled that these courageous young men can start the new year without this unfair cloud hanging over their heads,” Mr. Hulkower said.

The other defendants were Evan S. Liberty, Dustin L. Heard, Donald W. Ball and Nicholas A. Slatten. The Justice Department had earlier said it intended to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against Mr. Slatten.

Another Blackwater employee involved in the case, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the shootings and was cooperating with prosecutors.

A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said no decision had been made about whether to appeal the judge’s ruling.

“We’re still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options,” Mr. Boyd said.

But Judge Urbina’s scathing and detailed review of the ways that crucial evidence and witnesses had been tainted by exposure to the defendants’ early statements — or to news media accounts based on them — appears likely to complicate any effort to ask an appeals court to overturn his opinion or to bring a new prosecution by a different legal team using any untainted evidence.

Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches criminal law at Columbia University, said that it was rare to have a judge issue a lengthy opinion at a pretrial stage. While cautioning that he had not read the opinion, he said that rulings like this one, consisting heavily of factual findings rather than merely legal interpretation, were “hard to challenge on appeal.”

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Decsion # 2 : Supreme Court protects corporate speech. Read these stories a here and an analysis the Court's decision here.
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Decision # 3 : D.C. Appeals Court says "no" to FCC's imposition of "new neutrality" and kills Obama's push to silence conservative talk radio -- read the story here. and here.