Any reasonable person?

See below for a former Blackwater contractor's take on his job and the Drotleff/Cannon case

Two former Blackwater contractors have been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the May 2009 shooting death of an unarmed civilian in Kabul, Afghanistan.

On March 11 in Norfolk, Va., Christopher Drotleff of Virginia Beach and Justin Cannon of Corpus Christi, Texas were acquitted of all other murder and weapons charges, including the death of a second unarmed civilian and assault on a third person injured during the shooting.

The conviction comes many months after the original trial ended in September with a hung jury. Jurors of the new case could be heard arguing behind closed doors for three days after receiving their instructions.

The trial focused on whether Drotleff, 29, and Cannon, 27, feared for their lives the night of the shooting in May, 2009, or acted irrationally out of anger and frustration.

Drotleff and Canon were escorting their translators home for the night when the car in front of them, carrying the translators, got into a bad accident. Defense attorneys said that they opened fire on a Toyota Corolla driven by Fareed Haji Ahmad because they believed it had caused the original accident and it had started approaching them at a high speed afterward.

Prosecutors said it was a truck that caused the lead vehicle to get into an accident, that the Corolla wasn't a threat and that Ahmad only approached to help the accident victims.

Uncontested is the fact that Cannon and Drotleff fired about 30 rounds toward the vehicle, Cannon with an AK-47 rifle and Drotleff with a 9mm pistol. Prosecutors noted that all the bullet holes in the vehicle were in the rear, which was shown to jurors during the trial and deliberations.

The men's boss had been fired earlier in the day and the prosecution alleges that they had been drinking. The defense counters that they were acting in self-defense and that any reasonable person would have done the same thing on a dangerous road in a war-torn nation.

Ahmad survived his injuries, thought Drotleff and Cannon have been convicted for the death of Ahmad's passenger, Ramal Mohammad Naiem. Another man, Rahib Mirza Mohammad, was out walking his dog and was hit unintentionally. The jury found Drotleff and Cannon not guilty on any charges related to his death.

Drotleff cried and Cannon stood silently as the series of not guilty verdicts were read. They now face up to eight years in prison, though it could have been life. Both men have been released until sentencing, with Drotleff required to post a $10,000 bond over prosecutors' objections. They will have to wait until June 14 for the judge's decision.

"We're happy our client is being released at this point. We felt he should have been acquitted on all charges," said Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., one of Drotleff's attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar had previously found that Drotleff would be a danger to society if released while awaiting trial.

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment and Woodward did not respond to a request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

'A different standard'

This trial follows several years of media scandal and legal battles for the Blackwater Corporation, a firm of private security contractors that recently changed its name to Xe, pronounced Zee. A contractor who worked for Blackwater in Iraq in 2004 when militants killed and hung four contractors from a Fallujah bridge, speaking to WORLDVirginia on condition of anonymity, provided his perspective on this case and about what life overseas is like for security service contractors.

Anywhere I have gone for other work or when I tell anybody I do security overseas they always ask, 'Oh, like what Blackwater does?'

There are hundreds of private security companies just like Blackwater. Most contractors like myself have not only worked for Blackwater but several others too. Private security has been around for a long, long time. They used to be called mercenaries, basically warriors who would fight for money, they didn't care what the cause was. Now companies like Blackwater hire 'contractors' like myself for U.S. government agencies only. They can't make you go fight in foreign wars. The U.S. State Department monitors this for obvious reasons.

Most contracts require at least four years in the military and a year in a combat zone, either Afghanistan or Iraq, with experience in Special Operations, Rangers, Special Forces, Navy Seals, or Marine Recon. Some contracts you had to have at least six years Special Operations experience. Sometimes they allowed police officers with SWAT experience.

The background check and security clearance can take up to a year, then you do a physical fitness test, shooting qualifications, high speed anti-terrorist driving, protection techniques, medical training, land navigation and an overall evaluation [in] realistic high stress role playing scenarios. After you complete the class - if you do - you go back home and wait for deployment dates.

I was on the contract that made Blackwater famous and infamous as well. The best way I can describe what I did on that contract was to compare it to the President's Secret Service detail. Their sole mission in life is to protect him no matter what it takes. Well that's what we did; we drove around just like that. A little faster and harder at times, but we had the strictest rules of engagement.

This was the U.S. State Department's WPPS program, World Wide Personal Protection Services. Don't ask me where the second W is.

When [the U.S.] ran into the high threat countries we are currently in, they soon realized it wasn't like other countries. Their own governments can't be trusted, the military or police can't be trusted to provide security for our embassy workers and ambassador. They didn't have enough agents to do this work or the time to train them and the agents didn't have the combat zone experience to do so either. So security companies provided a simple fix for a huge problem. People ask why they don't just use military. The fact is they don't want the mission we do. They can't do it and it's not their mission.

The guys who are doing these jobs are not what the media likes to say about them, calling them killers and all kinds of crazy things. These guys are true patriots, like our military.

Fact is, Blackwater is so famous because back in 2004 when four guys were out in Fallujah, they got killed doing security. They were killed in a terrible way, shot in the streets and literally cut into pieces and hung up on the bridge. One of the worst things somebody can imagine. That's when and why the battle for Fallujah got started.

When that happened, the U.S. realized [Fallujah] was a stronghold for militants and it had to be destroyed. They sent in thousands of soldiers, and Marines and killed countless [of the] enemy.

When a contractor is killed the family is awarded for their loss. If I get killed [my wife] will be paid a percentage of my pay for the rest of her life or until she gets remarried. If I get hurt while over there, they will pay for my medical care when I get home. If needed, they will pay workers compensation as well in some cases.

Well, in the case of the guys who got killed in Fallujah, the parents and loved ones were very upset. They blamed Blackwater and tried to sue them for millions and millions of dollars.

As a contractor, I don't have to go on missions. I'm allowed to say no to anything. It isn't like the military [where] you're under orders or anything. My point is, these guys knew what they were doing. They knew the risk of being in this country. If they didn't they shouldn't have gone on the mission. We all know that as contractors and we know the risks.

When you as a protective agent do run into a situation when you have to do your job - as in do things you only practice in a worst case scenario - you do these things and are held accountable, above any soldier doing the same thing. You are held to a different standard.

These guys [Drotleff and Cannon] sound like they were hung out to dry. That's another reason they hire contractors. While [U.S. dignitaries] are there they love us and have no sense of what's really going on until it goes bad. Then they have to start pointing fingers.

These guys who were protecting somebody‑I doubt they were drinking on the job. None of us would in a high threat zone. Second, they wouldn't just shoot somebody who didn't deserve it, 'cause we all know the repercussions if we do. I have to assume they were threatened with [losing] their lives or somebody else's lives. The only guys who really know the truth are those guys that were faced with that situation, and we always only hear what people and the media want us to hear.