Today on The Gist, we prepare for a verdict in the Blackwater trial you might not have known is underway. From the hallway of a D.C. federal courthouse, Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times reminds us why it’s taken us seven years to prosecute the State Department contractors involved in a shooting in Iraq. Plus, biographer Tanner Colby reviews Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker, and discusses the glaring omission of the comedian’s sexual assault allegations. For the Spiel, are the terrorists we’re fighting smarter than us? Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2