BLACKWATER - IRAQ - TRIAL

Re - Article from Washington Post (28 July 2014) - here.

Headline's 'Government suppressed ..." but it's hardly 'suppression' of evidence if the evidence was inadvertently excluded due to a set of oversights.  Well, either that or it's some sort of ruse or performance for the sake of the jury.

Basically, four (4) Blackwater US mercenaries are currently on trial for the deaths of '14' persons in 2007, Nisoor Square, Baghdad, Iraq.

I've not been following the trial and the entire Blackwater and Iraq thing is very new to me.

Defence is claiming that the government withheld photographs taken at the scene, which could be vital evidence in the defence of the accused.

Photographs taken at the scene -- principally, photographs of 8 shell castings that 'could fit' into an AK-47 (which is a weapon used by the insurgents and the Iraqi authorities); as well as photographs of those at the scene.

The prosecution says the absence of the photographs was inadvertent and that it arose out of a series of oversights.

The defence complains that they haven't had the opportunity to question witnesses -- who have already appeared at the trial -- in relation to the photographs.

Nobody on the US side has the shell castings.  Not the State Department.  Not FBI.

In a 2007 statement to the FBI, 'then-army captain' Peter Decareau, one of the first to arrive at the scene, stated that Iraqi army General Baja took items from the scene.

The possibility was raised that the Iraqi authorities took the shell castings.

However, WP also says:

Based on Decareau’s testimony, federal prosecutors understood that Decareau did not observe any AK-47 shell casings on the scene, Machen wrote to the defense lawyers.

I don't know how the jury's going, but I'm thoroughly confused right now.

Is there a distinction between the 'scene' and the bus stop location?  Are the bus stop shell casings part of the 'scene'.  If so, why does Decareau's testimony reflect that he did not observe any castings?

Or was there a 'did not observe' declaration because there were no shell castings -- at all?

I'm a little scattered today and finding it extremely difficult to focus on scraps of the story that don't seem to make sense to me.

As I said, I haven't been following and I don't know the ins and outs.  But from what little I've read so far, a bunch of civilians stuck in in traffic were fired upon by US mercenaries -- as well as a helicopter crew who fired from above -- and even an incendiary device was tossed into a car (or perhaps more than one car?).  Forty bullets were fired into a single white Kia at the scene.  The occupants were killed and burnt to a crisp.

Now there's a magic set of photos that were there but 'not there'.  But there's no magic shell castings -- of shells that 'might fit into' an AK-47?  State Department and FBI involvement? Blackwater mercenaries taking the fall for the government?  

The entire thing sounds like crap to me and I wouldn't believe anything presented, but I'm sure a patriotic jury will believe anything set before them.