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All three networks covered the indictment against five American civilian contractors for killing 14 unarmed civilians at Baghdad's Nisoor Square traffic circle in 2007. CBS was the only network with a correspondent filing from Iraq. Elizabeth Palmer showed us the bullet holes in the back of one of the 20 civilians who were wounded in the shooting spree. "His body is still full of shrapnel." They were each paid $7,500 by the State Department in compensation for their injuries. "A massacre," quoted ABC's Brian Ross, noting the "harsh language" prosecutors used against the Blackwater bodyguards--yet they were not charged with murder, only manslaughter, and 13 of the 19 were exonerated. A sixth bodyguard named Jeremy Ridgeway has already admitted unlawful use of deadly force and will testify against his five colleagues. NBC's Pete Williams offered the defense argument that "the charges are political, intended to appease Iraq."
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