INSIDER
Beijing criticizes new US sanctions on companies over pilot training, weapons development
Read full article: Beijing criticizes new US sanctions on companies over pilot training, weapons developmentChina has criticized new sanctions imposed by the United States on companies believed to be involved in training Chinese military pilots and weapons development.
Venezuela sought to swap Americans for Maduro ally
Read full article: Venezuela sought to swap Americans for Maduro allyKnowledgeable sources and message exchanges reveal that Venezuelaโs government quietly offered last year to release imprisoned Americans in exchange for the U.S. letting go a key financier of President Nicolรกs Maduro.
After pardon, Blackwater guard defiant: โI acted correctlyโ
Read full article: After pardon, Blackwater guard defiant: โI acted correctlyโIn this Dec. 31, 2020, file photo pardoned Blackwater contractor Evan Liberty poses for a photo in Washington. The Blackwater contractors meet none of that criteria. They were convicted in the killings of unarmed Iraqi women and children and have long been defiant in their assertions of innocence. โI feel like I acted correctly,โ he said of his conduct in 2007. He says he's grateful to his supporters and to Trump for what he calls a โsecond chance at life."
Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry response
Read full article: Pardons in killings of Iraqi civilians stir angry responseFILE - This combination made from file photo shows Blackwater guards, from left, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. โThe infamous Blackwater company killed Iraqi citizens at Nisoor Square. The 2007 killings in the Baghdad traffic circle were among many attacks, large and small, hitting civilians that served to turn even some initial Iraqi supporters of Saddam Hussein's overthrow against Americans. The case against the Blackwater guards ping-ponged across courts in Washington, with a federal appeals court at one point overturning the first-degree murder conviction of one defendant, Nicholas Slatten, and sharply reducing the prison sentences of the three others. In Iraq, said Ford, the former diplomat, the pardons will โnecessarily give some ammunition to those who say get the Americans out now."