MARC HESS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT, WASHINGTON, DC: On September 16th of 2007, a Blackwater team entered Nisour Square. They were responding to a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that went off a few miles from that venue.
GREGG MAISEL, NATIONAL SECURITY SECTION CHIEF, U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: They stopped traffic, and then, unprovoked, one of the Blackwater contractors fired a shot.
MARC HESS: Gunfire erupted from the Blackwater team.
GREGG MAISEL: At least 14 Iraqis died. At least 18 were seriously injured by gunshot. The scene was absolute carnage. The defense in the case was that the contractors from Blackwater had been attacked by insurgents, and it was very important for the jury to meet these victims, to know this is no terrorist. This is an ordinary person whose life was tragically changed by the actions of those contractors.
MARC HESS: It took 7 years from the time the incident occurred until the trial.
YVONNE BRYANT, VICTIM/WITNESS PROGRAM SPECIALIST, U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The trial was set for June 3, 2014. We brought over 47 foreign nationals from Iraq.
GREGG MAISEL: Many, if not all, of these folks had never left Iraq. So there was a huge effort by the FBI to start getting all the documents together to travel.
SAWSAN AL-BASSAM, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE PROFESSOR, FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: It was important for the team to be culturally sensitive to those victims because of the different values and traditions and customs.
YVONNE BRYANT: We requested from the State Department experts in the Iraqi culture and also in the Arabic language to help us train our staff and anyone that was going to be touching this case. We found a hotel that was willing to let us take the entire floor. The manager there put prayer rugs and prayer beads and marked each room for Mecca.
MARC HESS: And then, you know, we had to make sure their security was ensured. So we actually ended up having agents sit over 800 shifts at the hotel, night and day, making sure that they were safe and that their needs were met.
SAWSAN AL-BASSAM: It was important for us to be part of this legal process and to achieve justice for those people.
YVONNE BRYANT: This was a historic case for the Department of Justice.
GREGG MAISEL: This team made the impossible possible.
