New Haven Independent

Last November, Colville and six other peace activists traveled to the rural North Carolina headquarters of Blackwater USA (now called Blackwater Worldwide) to re-enact the Nisour Square massacre, in which Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians. The employees have faced no legal consequences for what many say was an unprovoked attack, and in fact private contractors — of whom there are more than a hundred thousand working in Iraq — seem to be immune from prosecution based on current U.S. and Iraqi law.

Members of the peace group were convicted of minor crimes like trespass, passively resisting arrest and destruction of real property — for parking on the grass outside the headquarters. Five of the protesters were sentenced to time served, which was the five days they had spent in jail upon their arrest. Two were given five-day suspended sentences.

In an interview with Melinda Tuhus for WPKN’s Between the Lines radio newsmagazine , Colville describes the unusual opportunity he and his co-defendants had to bring in issues of international law during the trial, and what such actions mean in the context of a drastic reduction in visibility for the anti-war movement on the part of the media and the presidential candidates.

Click here for a transcript of the Between the Lines radio newsmagazine interview.