The Washington Post - 07.09.2019

A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019

CORRECTIONS

l A n article about two upcoming

“Swan Lake” p roductions in this

weekend’s A rts & Style section,

which w as printed in a dvance,

transposes the n ames of the

leading f emale characters in the

ballet. O dette is the v ictim and

Odile i s the sexual p redator.

l A Sept. 6 Style article about

fashion talent manager Ethan

Miller and the Fabric, his

initiative to create a sense o f

community f or other black

fashion professionals, incorrectly

said that he grew up i n a black

family. He w as a dopted b y white

parents and had black s iblings.

l C ourtland Milloy’s c olumn in

the S ept. 4 Metro section, about

challenges faced by some D.C.

students, i ncorrectly said that the

unemployment rate in Ward 8 is

over 18 p ercent. I t is 1 3 percent,

according to the D.C. Department

of Employment S ervices.

Hong Kong withdraws

extradition bill

After months of clashes and

chaos, Hong Kong Chief

Executive Carrie Lam announced

an end Wednesday to the

extradition bill that touched off

the territory’s worst political

crisis since its handover to

China. Protesters called it too

little, and said it fails to address

deep concerns over expanding

use of force by riot police.

washingtonpost.com/world

Walmart to stop selling

some ammunition

Walmart will stop selling

ammunition for military-style

weapons and no longer allow

customers to openly carry

firearms in stores. The world’s

largest retailer had been under

mounting calls to respond to two

deadly shootings inside its stores

this summer in El Paso, and

Southaven, Miss.

washingtonpost.com/business

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Th e Washington Post is committed to

correcting errors that appear in the

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Some reports that you may have missed. Read more at washingtonpost.com.

Michigan first to ban

flavored e-cigarettes

Michigan on Wednesday
became the first state in the
nation to ban flavored
e-cigarettes, a step Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer (D) said was needed to
protect young people from the
potentially harmful effects of
vaping.
washingtonpost.com/national

Judge reinstates

reporter’s press pass

A federal judge on Tuesday
reversed the White House’s
decision to suspend a reporter’s
press credentials, granting a
motion that will restore him to
his beat. Brian Karem, a White
House correspondent for
Playboy magazine and a CNN
political analyst, had been
suspended for 30 days in mid-
August over a verbal
confrontation at a White House
event on July 11.
washingtonpot.com/lifestyle

KLMNO

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BY SPENCER S. HSU

A federal judge resentenced

three former Blackwater World-

wide security guards Thursday,

cutting by about half the prison

terms imposed for the shootings

of unarmed Iraqi civilians in a

Baghdad traffic circle in 2007,

after an appeals court found their

initial 30-year sentences uncon-

stitutionally cruel.

The September 2007 shootings

left 14 dead and 17 wounded,

setting off a diplomatic crisis on

oversight of American security

contractors during one of the

deadliest periods in the Iraq War.

After a three-hour hearing

Thursday in Washington, U.S.

District Judge Royce C. Lamberth

handed down prison terms of 15

years for Paul A. Slough, 39, of

Keller, Te x.; 14 years for Evan S.

Liberty, 37, of Rochester, N.H.;

and 12 years and seven months

for Dustin L. Heard, 38, of

Maryville, Te nn., on multiple

counts of manslaughter and at-

tempted manslaughter each.

The hearing marked the latest

turn in an extended prosecution

since the events in Baghdad.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for

the District of Columbia Circuit

in August 2017 set aside sen-

tences imposed after a 2014 trial,

because the men’s convictions

included one count of commit-

ting a felony while armed with a

military weapon, a charge that

carries a mandatory 30-year

term.

The appeals court panel ruled

that the charge, usually aimed at

violent drug traffickers, had nev-

er been applied to security con-

tractors carrying government-is-

sued automatic weapons and ex-

plosives in a war zone, resulting

in “grossly disproportionate”

punishment.

At resentencing, the defen-

dants asked for time-served —

about five years for each of them

— while prosecutors with the U.S.

Attorney’s Office for the District

of Columbia sought terms of 26 to

30 years, on the basis of the

number of victims attributed to

each of the men.

The defense cited the men’s

military and other service to their

country, model

behavior in

prison, regret

for the loss of

innocent lives

and the havoc

of war.

Lamberth

acknowledged

the good char-

acter they had

demonstrated while imprisoned

and the extraordinary support

shown by scores of family mem-

bers, friends and backers who

traveled at their own expense

from their home states and filled

the courtroom. Among those at

the hearing was Blackwater

founder Erik Prince, who de-

clined to comment.

The judge said, however, that

the men’s lawyers could not

“change the facts” underlying

their jury convictions: firing

wildly for 20 minutes into cars

stalled in midafternoon traffic at

Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007,

and sending machine-gun bullets

and grenades into crowds that

included women stepping off

buses who were clutching only

purses, elderly men with their

hands in the air and parents

trying to shield young children.

“This kind of wild shooting

cannot be condoned by any

court,” Lamberth said, adding

that “deterring future cases” of

wartime excesses was an impor-

tant factor in his decision-mak-

ing.

The judge said the court did

have a message to answer the

question, “What kind of country

is the United States?”

The reply, Lamberth said, was

that “we have a military and

armed contractors who respect

the rule of law.”

Slough’s attorney Brian M. He-

berlig, Liberty’s attorney William

F. Coffield and Heard’s attorney

David Schertler said they

planned to appeal, citing the

“overwhelming disparity” be-

tween their clients’ sentences and

the one-year prison term for Jer-

emy Ridgeway, a Blackwater

team member who pleaded guilty

and cooperated with the govern-

ment.

“Our system provides for cer-

tain benefits for people who coop-

erate, but the disparity of 15 to 1

here is extreme,” Heberlig said in

comments repeated by the oth-

ers. “Obviously, we’re happy that

the sentences are half what they

were before... but we’re utterly

disappointed that they have to

serve even another minute be-

hind bars,” he said.

The appeals court also vacated

the murder conviction and life

term of a fourth defendant, Nich-

olas A. S latten, citing errors in his

trial. Slatten, 35, of Sparta, Te nn.,

then was convicted by a different

federal jury in Washington and

sentenced again in August to life.

[email protected]

BY PAUL SONNE

Defense Secretary Mark T. Es-

per said he is urging European

allies to pick up the tab for

military construction projects in

their countries defunded by the

Pentagon to pay for President

Trump’s border wall.

The comments come after the

Defense Department announced

127 construction projects that it

plans to defund to free up

$3.6 billion for 175 miles of

fencing and barriers on the

southern border with Mexico.

Among the defunded initiatives

is some $770 million worth of

construction projects in Europe

that are designed to help U.S. al-

lies better defend themselves in

the event of an attack by Russia.

Esper, who made the com-

ments while on a trip to Europe,

emphasized that the Trump ad-

ministration has been seeking

greater “burden sharing” with

allies across the board. Trump

regularly criticizes NATO allies

who he says have failed to con-

tribute enough funds to their

defense and rely instead on the

U.S. military.

“The message that I’ve been

carrying, since w hen I was acting

secretary to today, has been

about the increase in burden

sharing,” Esper told reporters in

London late Thursday, according

to Reuters. “So part of the mes-

sage will be, ‘ Look, if you’re really

concerned, then maybe you

should look to cover those proj-

ects for us,’ because that’s going

to build infrastructure in many

cases in their countries.”

“Part of the message is burden

sharing, ‘ Maybe pick up the t ab,’ ”

Esper added.

An obscure section of the U.S.

code governing the military al-

lows the defense secretary, in the

event of a national emergency

requiring the use of the armed

forces, to undertake military

construction projects in support

of those forces without sign-off

from Congress. The law allows

the defense secretary to use m on-

ey that Congress has appropriat-

ed for other military construc-

tion projects but which hasn’t y et

been contracted.

Earlier this week, the Penta-

gon announced that Esper would

be using that law to take $3.6 bil-

lion that Congress appropriated

for other military construction

projects and divert the funds to

the construction of new barriers

on the southern border. Esper

determined that the barriers in

question would support troops

Trump has deployed as part of

the national emergency he de-

clared in February.

There are about 3,000 active

duty troops and 2,000 national

guardsmen serving on the bor-

der, where they are helping ease

the burden on Customs and Bor-

der Protection caused by an in-

flux of primarily Central Ameri-

can migrant families.

The Pentagon says it is com-

mitted to seeing through the

defunded programs and is urg-

ing Congress to replenish the

funding by “backfilling” the

money. To do this, Congress

would need to appropriate funds

for projects it has already appro-

priated funds for in the past.

Republican lawmakers largely

have agreed to do so, but Demo-

crats have balked, saying

Trump’s move to take Pentagon

funds without approval from

Congress flies in the face of its

constitutionally mandated pow-

er of the purse. Should Congress

ultimately decide to replenish

the funding, many of the projects

could proceed without delay, be-

cause they are scheduled to

award their contracts in future

years.

More than $770 million worth

of defunded projects are for the

European Deterrence Initiative

and its predecessor program,

which President Barack Obama

launched in 2014 to shore up the

defenses of European allies after

Russia annexed Crimea from

Ukraine.

The affected initiatives in-

clude a plan to build a facility for

Special Operations forces and

their training in Estonia, proj-

ects to construct ammunition

and fuel storage facilities and

staging areas in Poland, and

planned upgrades to surveillance

aircraft facilities in Italy, as well

as airfield and fuel storage up-

grades in Slovakia and Hungary.

[email protected]

Sentences halved for three Blackwater contractors

Allies urged to fund Pentagon projects lost to wall

Dustin

Heard

Paul

Slough

Evan

Liberty

FLORIDA

Mechanic charged

with sabotaging flight

An American Airlines

mechanic appeared in court

Friday on charges of sabotaging

a flight over stalled union

contract negotiations.

Federal officials say Abdul-

Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani

admitted to tampering with a

part that provides vital flight

information to pilots because he

was upset about stalled contract

negotiations and wanted to earn

overtime fixing the plane.

Pilots aborted the July 17

flight before takeoff in Miami.

Alani was arrested Thursday and

charged with willfully damaging

or disabling an aircraft. The 60-

year-old had worked for

American since 1988 but was

suspended after his arrest.

In federal district court, Alani

spoke to Magistrate Judge John

O’Sullivan through an Arabic

interpreter. Mostly, he answered

basic questions about his assets

and whether he could afford a

lawyer. The judge appointed a

public defender and scheduled a

bond hearing for next

Wednesday and an arraignment

hearing on Sept. 20.

When interviewed Thursday

by investigators, “A lani stated

that his intention was not to

cause harm to the aircraft or its

passengers,” according to the

affidavit by Jose A. Ruiz, a

federal air marshal who serves

on an FBI terrorism task force.

Alani explained that stalled

contract negotiations between

American Airlines and the

mechanics’ unions were hurting

him financially. Alani said he

tampered with the plane “to

cause a delay or have the flight

canceled in anticipation of

obtaining overtime work,” Ruiz

wrote.

The incident occurred before

an American Airlines Boeing 737

was scheduled to fly from Miami

to Nassau in the Bahamas with

150 people on board.

— Associated Press

MISSOURI

Bishop names clerics

accused of abuse

The Roman Catholic Diocese

of Kansas City-St. Joseph on

Friday released a list of 19 clerics

who Bishop James Johnston Jr.

said had substantiated

allegations of sexual abuse of

children against them.

Of the 19 clerics named, 13

have died, two have been

removed from ministry, and four

have been laicized, or removed

from the clerical state. One of

the laicized clerics, Shawn

Ratigan, is serving 50 years in

federal prison after being

convicted in 2013 of producing

or attempting to produce child

pornography.

Johnston said in a statement

that he hoped releasing the

names would help the victims

heal.

The diocese also released the

names of 11 clerics in other

categories with allegations of

abuse.

— Associated Press

DIGEST

Former security guards

given terms up to 15 years

for Iraq War massacre

BRYAN R. SMITH/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Greta Thunberg joins activists outside the United Nations during

a climate change protest on Friday. The Swedish teenager sailed

across the Atlantic Ocean rather than fly to the New York conference

because of the carbon emissions associated with air travel.

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