I N T E R N AT I O N A LTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

WASHINGTON: The Homeland SecurityDepartment appears to be preparing foran increase in the number of immigrantsapplying for work permits afterPresident Barack Obama announces hislong-promised plans for executiveactions on immigration reform later thisyear. US Citizenship and ImmigrationServices confirmed to The AssociatedPress that it has published a draft con-tract proposal to buy the card stockneeded to make work permits andPermanent Resident Cards, more com-monly known as green cards. The pro-posal calls for providing material for at

least 5 million cards a year, with as manyas 9 million “during the initial period ... tosupport possible future immigrationreform initiative requirements.” The con-tract calls for as many 34 million cardsover five years.

USCIS, the Homeland Security agencythat oversees immigration benefits, pro-duces about 3 million work permits andGreen Cards annually, so the new con-tract would at least provide the Obamaadministration with the flexibility to issuefar more work permits or green cardseven if it chose not to exercise thatoption. USCIS spokesman Christopher

Bentley described the proposal postedearlier this month a routine contract solic-itation. “Solicitations of this nature are fre-quent practice,” Bentley said. He said thenumber of immigration applications canrise “for any number of any reasons.”

The contract proposal was firstreported by the online news siteBreitbart.com. Obama said earlier thisyear that he would act on his own ifCongress failed to pass immigration leg-islation. He has twice delayed makingany changes, saying as recently as lastmonth that he would hold off on execu-tive actions until after November ’s

midterm elections.The administration has repeatedly

declined to say what options Obamawas considering, but it is widely believedthat he will expand protections fromdeportation already extended to morethan 500,000 young immigrants whocame to the United States as children.Under that program, known as DeferredAction for Childhood Arrivals, manyyoung immigrants who are in school orwho have graduated and don’t have acriminal record can win protection fromdeportation for up to two years. Theyare also eligible for work permits.

The president does not have the legalauthority to unilaterally offer immigrantsin the country illegally green cards orany other permanent immigration sta-tus. But administration officials have saidthe president can authorize protectionfrom deportation for immigrants on acase-by-case basis, such as with theDACA program, and issue work permits.

USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez toldan audience at a Georgetown UniversityLaw Center conference Tuesday that hisagency was ready for whatever immigra-tion changes Obama may announce. Hedeclined to provide details. — AP

Govt seeks supplies for immigration documents

WASHINGTON: In this Jan. 6, 2009 file photo, former Blackwater Worldwide security guard Dustin Heard leavesfederal court in Washington. A jury returned guilty verdicts for Heard and three other former Blackwater guardscharged in Iraq shootings. — AP

WASHINGTON: In a sweeping victoryfor the US government, a federal juryyesterday found four formerBlackwater guards guilty on nearlyevery count they faced in connectionwith the 2007 killing of 14 unarmedIraqis at a Baghdad traffic circle.

Jurors found three of the ex-guardsguilty of manslaughter and weaponscharges, and a fourth guilty of murder.The verdict comes more than sevenyears after the shooting incident thatoutraged Iraqis and inflamed anti-American sentiment around theworld. A court clerk read the jury’s ver-dict aloud on Wednesday aroundnoon to a packed courtroom, repeat-ing the word “guilty” 71 times as thedefendants sat and listened silently.

Paul Slough, Dustin Heard andEvan Liberty were convicted of volun-tary manslaughter in connection withat least 12 deaths at Nisur Square,where the Blackwater unit had beentrying to clear a path for a US StateDepartment convoy. The Washingtonjury also found the three guilty ofattempted manslaughter in connec-tion with the wounding of at least 11Iraqis who had been at the site.

The fourth guard, Nicholas Slatten,was found guilty of murder in connec-tion with the first death at the circle.The 2007 shooting stood out for its

brazenness, even during a war repletewith grisly incidents, and raised ques-tions about the rules governing secu-rity contractors working overseas forthe U.S. government.

Mohamad al-Quraishy, DeputyChief of Mission at the Iraqi Embassyin Washington, came to court to hearthe jury’s verdict and said the Iraqipeople had been closely monitoringthe trial hoping that the guards wouldbe convicted. “They will welcome thisdecision,” he said.

100 questionsYesterday’s verdict follows more

than seven weeks of deliberationsduring which jurors considered nearly100 different questions.

During more than two months oftrial, prosecutors flew family membersof some of the victims to the UnitedStates to testify, and drew on the testi-mony of the other guards in the unit.

The government sought to portraythe indicted guards as recklesslyunleashing their massive firepower,including multiple grenades notdesigned to be used in urban areas,on innocent Iraqi civilians, includingwomen and children.

Lawyers for the guards had arguedthat while the loss of life was unfortu-nate, the men were operating in a

volatile war zone and used theirweapons at Nisur Square only inresponse to incoming fire and a vehi-cle that appeared to be a car bomb.

The defendants’ lawyers presentedonly four of their own witnesses at tri-al, but extensively cross-examinedgovernment witnesses and had triedto draw attention to inconsistencies inthe testimony.

In the end, the jury did not acquitany of the defendants on a singlecount. It was unable to reach a deci-sion on a few counts, leading to a mis-trial on those counts.

Much of the case turned onwhether the unit was actually facingincoming fire, or whether a white Kiarealistically appeared to be a carbomb bearing down on the convoy.Slatten had been charged with themurder of the driver of the car.

When jurors heard closing argu-ments in the case in August, prosecu-tor Anthony Asuncion told them thaton Sept. 16, 2007, there were “noinsurgents, no AK-47s, just peopleseeking shelter from these men.”

Slatten faces a life sentence on themurder charge. The other three face atleast 30 years in prison based on thegun charge they were all convictedon, though defense lawyers are likelyto appeal the verdict. — Reuters

US jury convicts ex-Blackwater guards in 2007 Baghdad killings

Family members flown to US to testify

MEXICO CITY: At least 12 and probably15 of the 22 people killed by soldiers at arural warehouse last summer were exe-cuted, the president of the governmentalHuman Rights Commission said Tuesday,contradicting both the army’s and prose-cutors’ versions of the mass killing insouthern Mexico. Commission PresidentRaul Plascencia called it “one of the mostserious human rights violations that canbe committed” and issued a formal rec-ommendation demanding prosecutorsinvestigate what he said were attempts tocover up the executions of the suspectedgang members. Three of the victims wereadolescents.

Plascencia said bodies were movedand the crime scene was altered to mimica shootout - the army’s initial explanationof what happened.

The human rights investigation turnedup gruesome details, including that some-one had twisted the head of one suspectuntil his neck broke, Plascencia said at anews conference. Four other bodies hadmarks of having been beaten with bluntobjects before they were killed.

Bullet marks and other evidence indi-cated that seven others among the deadwere lined up near three of the ware-house’s walls and shot “when they weredisarmed and were not resisting,”Plascencia said.

His report constituted the third officialversion of what happened at the aban-doned warehouse in the town of SanPedro Limon in southern Mexico.

The army initially said all 22 suspectedgang members died during a gunbattlewith soldiers, but Attorney General JesusMurillo Karam said recently that eight ofthe 22 had presumably been extrajudicial-

ly executed.The army’s version almost immediately

came under question because only onesoldier was wounded The AssociatedPress visited the scene three days after theshootings and found evidence suggestingsome of the dead may have been execut-ed. A witness later told the AP that onlyone man died in an initial shootout and allthe others were shot after surrendering.

Three soldiers face civilian murdercharges and eight soldiers face militarydiscipline charges in the case. Federalprosecutors say that the three entered thewarehouse and killed suspects who wereno longer fighting and that the other fivesoldiers, including an officer, stayed out-

side. But Plascencia said his commission’sinvestigations found a scene of such bru-tality that it raised questions on whetherthree soldiers alone could have carriedout the acts.

The report marks the latest chapter ina string of government contradictionsover the killings. Prosecutors in the Stateof Mexico, where the shootings occurred,said in July that they had found no evi-dence of executions.

Plascencia’s commission demanded aninvestigation into the cover-up. The com-mission’s recommendations are not bind-ing, but the government must publiclyexplain its reasons if it does not complywith them. —AP

Mexico military kill 15 suspected criminals

SAN PEDRO LIMOM: In this July 3, 2014 file photo, bullet holes and bloodstains cover a wall above papers marking where bodies were found in anunfinished warehouse that was the site of a shootout between Mexican sol-diers and alleged criminals on the outskirts of the village of San PedroLimon, in Mexico state, Mexico. — AP

WASHINGTON: Legendary formerWashington Post editor Ben Bradlee,who oversaw reporting on theWatergate scandal that brought downUS president Richard Nixon, diedTuesday. He was 93.

Bradlee, who died of natural causesat his Washington home, leaves a last-ing legacy at the Post and in the widermedia, and has been hailed as agenius and for having “the courage ofan army.” He was also a friend to JohnF. Kennedy.

President Barack Obama, whoawarded Bradlee the PresidentialMedal of Freedom last year, led the

tributes, saying that for the newspa-per man, “journalism was more than aprofession-it was a public good vitalto our democracy.”

During Bradlee’s leadership of thePost from 1968 to 1991, he inspiredreporters who “told stories that need-ed to be told-stories that helped usunderstand our world and one anoth-er a little bit better,” the presidentadded.

His wife, former Washington Postreporter Sally Quinn, revealed lastmonth Bradlee had been diagnosedwith dementia. Donald E. Graham,who served as publisher of the Post

and was Bradlee’s boss, said: “BenBradlee was the best American news-paper editor of his time and had thegreatest impact on his newspaper ofany modern editor.”

It was Graham’s mother, KatharineGraham, who was publisher of thePost when Bradlee charged youngreporters Bob Woodward and CarlBernstein with investigating theWatergate burglary.

‘New era of transparency’ The reporting uncovered a vast

scheme of surveillance and dirtytricks, and the resulting coverage ledto the impeachment and resignationof Nixon in 1974, and the prosecutionof dozens of administration officials.

“Ben was a true friend and geniusleader in journalism,” Bernstein andWoodward said in a joint statementon the Post website as news of hisdeath emerged.

“His one unbending principle wasthe quest for the truth and the neces-sity of that pursuit. He had thecourage of an army.” Bradlee’s reign aseditor saw the Post win the PulitzerPrize for its Watergate stories, and therespected newspaper also played arole in the successful legal challengeto the publication of the PentagonPapers revealing the political maneu-vers leading up to the Vietnam War.

The Watergate coverage trans-formed the notion of political inves-tigative journalism, and became thetopic of a best-selling book, and latera film, “All the President’s Men.”—AFP

Washington Post editor dead at 93

WASHINGTON: The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, left, and BenBradlee confer in the newsroom of the paper in Washington, after formerFBI official W. Mark Felt let it be known he was the Watergate whistleblow-er and Woodward’s source, known as Deep Throat. — AP