Podcast to prove political expediency paved way for prosecutorial bias, author says

The podcast is expected to begin on Friday. Above Nisur Square the day of the incident; inset, Evan Liberty on duty in Iraq and an image of the podcast's icon.

ROCHESTER - In four days the Northern Seacoast and the nation will be able to listen to a blockbuster podcast that promises to prove politics was behind the unfair prosecution of a Rochester native in the so-called Nisur Square Massacre in Iraq in 2007.

Evan Liberty, 36, who grew up in Rochester and graduated from Spaulding High, is one of four former Blackwater guards convicted in 2014 and imprisoned now more than four years. The story of their wrongful prosecution and incarcerations will be the subject of "Raven 23: Presumption of Guilt."

Prosecutors in the case have said that on Sept. 16, 2007, Liberty and three others from his Raven 23 Blackwater team fired machine guns and threw hand grenades at innocent civilians in an unprovoked attack, killing more than a dozen including children, but during a lengthy appeal process much of the evidence against the four has proved compromised, tainted and in many cases, just lies.

Meanwhile, the four former soldiers, all highly decorated, remain behind bars, Slatten after being found guilty of first degree murder; and Liberty, Slough and Heard on gun charges that were vacated in 2017 but still await resentencing.

Gina Keating, a former Reuters reporter who wrote the critically acclaimed book Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs, is the force behind the podcast. Keating told The Rochester Voice in an exclusive interview on Friday the she will be bringing forward proof that the government's prosecution of the case was both prejudicial, heavy handed and politically motivated.

Judge Ricardo M. Urbina released the government's initial decision on the case in Dec. 31, 2009, stating that Liberty, along with fellow Raven 23 members Dustin L. Heard, Paul Slough and Nicholas A. Slatten could not be charged because their statements about the incident were protected as they had been told they wouldn't be used against them.

Keating said on New Year's Day, 2010, the emails between the provisional U.S.-backed Iraqi government and U.S. officials centered on possible unrest since Iraqis had been promised the four would be held accountable.

Sentiments also grew that harder-lined insurgents might take hold in upcoming elections if the provisional government and the U.S. DOJ couldn't deliver on its promises.

"We have Wiki Leaks dumps and cables from the State Department and CIA the day after Judge Urbina tossed the case," Keating said. "And we have cables from the Iraqi ambassador to several (U.S.) agencies."

The result, she agreed, was Blackwater ended up being a scapegoat to bolster the chances that the U.S.-backed provisional government would stay in power.

Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama were all seen as heavily invested in a Raven 23 conviction.

California Congressman Duncan Hunter went so far as to call the imprisoned Raven 23 members "The Biden Four," because Biden was the one who traveled personally to Baghdad after Urbina's ruling to guarantee they'd be held accountable for massacre in the United States.

"Joe Biden sided with Iraqi politicians over America's own. This is why I am calling these veterans 'The Biden Four,'" Hunter said in a Saturday column published on Fox News.

Keating said the eight-episode podcast will give voice to the suffering families of the four Blackwater guards, recount the terrors of the war in Iraq in 2007 and try to make sense of what Keating calls "a 12 year odyssey" to reverse a travesty of justice.

The podcast will be available on several platforms. To view a preview and subscribe on Spotify click here.