Unreal: U.S. to Appeal Dismissal of Charges Against Blackwater

Makes you wonder whose side they're on. Actually, no, I'm no longer wondering. They're definitely not on our side.

The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday.

Biden's announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later.

Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in a crowded Baghdad intersection. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraqi.

The U.S. rebuffed Iraqi demands that the U.S. contractors face trial in Iraqi courts. After a lengthy investigation, U.S. prosecutors charged five of the contractors with manslaughter and took a guilty plea from a sixth.

But the case fell apart in December after a judge found that the Justice Department mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. Prosecutors now face difficult odds getting an appeals court to reinstate the case.

The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed the Americans considered themselves above the law. The Iraqi government began collecting signatures for a class-action lawsuit from victims who were wounded or lost relatives.

Messages seeking comment from lawyers for the guards were not immediately returned Saturday.

Blackwater has said the guards were innocent, contending there were ambushed by insurgents. Prosecutors said the shooting was unprovoked.

The government is eager to ruin the lives of these people doing a dirty job, yet when it comes to prosecuting domestic thugs, well, they're just not interested in that.

The Justice Department, citing privilege claims, has refused to release e-mails and other documents sought under an open records request by The Washington Times to explain its decision last year to dismiss a civil complaint accusing the New Black Panther Party of intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place.

In a letter, the department said that while 69 documents totaling 135 pages were responsive to the Freedom of Information Act request for information on how and why the decision to dismiss the complaint was made, they were being withheld because of "deliberative process" and "attorney work-product" privilege exemptions.

Obama has his priorities straight, that's for sure: Black Panthers good, Blackwater bad.

It's as if they're unaware of a certain election this past week that sent a very loud message people don't like how this administration is operating.

Black Panther, Now Inspired by Barack Obama, Gets 30 Days For 1969 Cop Shooting

I guess such a light sentence will free him up in plenty of time to stump for Barack Obama this fall.

He's a changed man, after all.

A former Black Panther Party member has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years' probation for the 1969 shooting of a Chicago police officer.

Joseph Pannell spent years living in Canada, working as a researcher and raising a family under the name Gary Freeman.

In 1969 as a 19-year-old member of the militant group, Pannell shot Terrence Knox three times in the right arm, wounding him. Pannell was arrested after the shooting but he ran after being released on bail in the early 1970s. He spent years fighting his extradition until voluntarily returning to Chicago this month and pleading guilty to an aggravated battery charge.

Naturally, the New York is very sympathetic to Pannell. So sympathetic, in fact, they bury the fact he was a Black Panther deep in the story.

What punishment should be imposed on a man who shot a police officer almost 40 years ago and fled to Canada, but went on to live an upstanding life as a husband and father who worked in a library?

How the hell do they know he lived an upstanding life?

Ah, what does that matter? Now he's inspired by the political climate of change sweeping the land.

The case began on March 7, 1969, when Mr. Knox, then 21, was patrolling near a Chicago high school in a squad car. Prosecutors said that when he pulled over and asked Mr. Pannell, then 19, why he was not in school, Mr. Pannell fired several shots at him. While on bail, Mr. Pannell fled to Canada. He married a Canadian and worked as a library research assistant.

In 2004, he was arrested, but fought extradition. Last month he gave up that fight, saying he was inspired by the new political climate he saw in Chicago, symbolized, he said, by the support of Mayor Richard M. Daley and other political leaders for the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Pannell, who has long gone by the name Gary Freeman, called the incident “an American tragedy” and said he took responsibility for his actions.

“We must seek to move away from adversarial confrontation and towards peaceful reconciliation and conflict resolution,” Mr. Pannell went on. “Today is about acceptance of responsibility, atonement and redemption.”