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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 16th,
2007 - Iraqis Shot by Contractors Stymied in Search for Justice |
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Iraqis Shot by Contractors Stymied
in Search for Justice As many as 19 have died in the last month. No precedent exists to hold
guards responsible. By Tina Susman Los Angeles Times October 16, 2007 Baghdad - In the days after
Usama Abbass was shot dead in a Baghdad traffic circle by security guards
working for Blackwater USA, his brother visited the U.S.-run National Iraqi
Assistance Center seeking compensation. Like other Iraqis who have
done the same, he learned a harsh truth: The center in Baghdad's Green Zone
handles cases of Iraqis claiming death or damages due to military action, but
not due to actions of private contractors such as Blackwater, who work in Iraq
for the U.S. government, private agencies and other governments. "There will be no
compensation because the American Army did not kill your brother," an
apologetic U.S. soldier told Abbass' brother, who did not want his name
published. There is no civilian
counterpart to the assistance center in Iraq, leaving the families of as many
as 19 Iraqis killed by private security contractors in the last month
searching for other means to address abuses by private security contractors. There is no precedent for
holding Western security contractors accountable in court, in Iraq or the
U.S., for injuries or deaths suffered by Iraqi civilians. Seventeen Iraqis, including
Abbass, were killed Sept. 16, according to Iraqi officials, when Blackwater
guards opened fire after a U.S. diplomat was escorted back to the heavily
secured Green Zone. Two Iraqis were killed in an Oct. 9 incident involving
another private security company. Nobody knows how many Iraqis
have died at the hands of such contractors because of the secrecy with which
security firms operate here. The victims are among untold thousands of
civilians who have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The white Volkswagen Golf
that Abbass was driving when he was killed in September sits outside his brother's
house in Baghdad. Its windshield is peppered with bullet holes. A
jagged-edged, baseball-sized hole in the roof came from ferocious incoming
fire, said his brother, who was in the passenger seat when the shooting
erupted. Four families, including
Abbass', filed a lawsuit against Blackwater USA in U.S. federal court in
Washington on Oct. 11, seeking unspecified damages. The family of Marani
"Maro" Ohannes - she had been identified by Iraqi authorities as
Marani Oranis - a woman shot to death Oct. 9 by guards from an
Australian-owned security company, Unity Resources Group, has issued a
statement demanding that Unity "make amends following this appalling
tragedy." Her family has taken the
unusual step of appointing an English-speaking relative to serve as an
official family spokesman to draw international attention to the case. Although the recent
shootings have galvanized Iraqis to demand justice, it is far from certain
they will get it - either in the form of criminal prosecution or financial
compensation. "The answer may be no
for both," said Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert who practices in
Washington and teaches military justice at Yale Law School. Robert N. Strassfeld,
director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy at Case Western
Reserve University School of Law, agreed. "There is a solid legal
basis for keeping American courthouse doors open for these claims,"
Strassfeld said. "That said, any plaintiff, whether an American citizen
or a foreign national, who brings such a claim will face a battery of
arguments that the court lacks jurisdiction, that the claim is preempted by a
variety of federal laws, and that the defendant has immunity." Laws that appear to offer
clear avenues for plaintiffs to prevail are open to interpretation. A 2006 revision to the
military code of justice, for example, permits courts-martial of civilians
serving with or accompanying the armed forces. But Fidell said Blackwater USA
could argue it was doing neither because its 1,000 or so armed guards in Iraq
protect civilian State Department officials. "They were performing
the sort of job you might expect GIs to do, but they were not side-by-side
with GIs," Fidell said. "I think this would be
a hard sell." Separate from criminal
prosecution, monetary damages would be difficult to win because of the
challenge of proving who did what in the chaos of the moment - likely to
become tougher as time passes. At least four probes have
been launched into the Blackwater incident. One investigation, conducted
by the Iraqi government, concluded that the shootings were unjustified. A
U.S.-run investigation led by the FBI is not complete. The U.S. military is
conducting what Maj. Winfield Danielson, a military spokesman, referred to as
an "inquiry" aimed at learning what took place in Nisoor Square and
figuring out how to advise its own contractors - who do not include
Blackwater - on how to act. There also is a joint
U.S.-Iraqi team conducting an investigation. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe
Nantongo said its job was to review the findings of the other investigations
and make policy recommendations to the United States and Iraqi governments. "It's a very complex
issue and it's probably appropriate that the approach to finding out the
details is complex as well," she said. Susan L. Burke, an attorney
for the Iraqi plaintiffs suing Blackwater, said the fact that the convoy was
not accompanying a client at the time of the shootings - the official had
been driven away from the perceived threat when gunfire erupted - helps her
clients' case. "Blackwater already had
dropped off the person they were protecting, and they went out and engaged in
unnecessary and senseless gunfire," she said. If that argument holds up,
it could also benefit the families in the Oct. 9 case involving Unity
Resources Group. Guards from that company shot two Iraqi women to death after
they allegedly drove at high speed toward the guards' convoy. The guards were
not accompanying a client at the time. In the case of U.S.
contractors, when payments to victims' families have been made, they have
been a fraction of what U.S.-based victims of similar incidents might have
received. The State Department has
recommended that Blackwater pay $15,000 to the family of Raheem Khalif
Hulaichi, an Iraqi vice presidential security guard shot dead Dec. 24, 2006,
by an allegedly drunk Blackwater guard. Hulaichi's widow, Umm Sajjad, says
she has yet to receive compensation because the Iraqi vice president's office
is demanding more. The family of Ali Mahdi
Salih, killed in August 2005 in Samarra in a shooting involving a private
security contractor, sought $5,000 compensation from the U.S. military. Like
Abbass' brother, Salih's relatives were rejected on grounds that it was not
the military's fault. A claim for compensation by
the family of Faysel Kamel Hamza, killed by a ricocheting bullet fired by a
private contractor in January 2005, was similarly rejected by the American
military. Just as the U.S. military
does not release numbers of civilians killed as a result of its actions,
neither do the more than 40 private security companies operating in Iraq. Many Iraqis say that if the
Sept. 16 shooting had not occurred in front of hundreds of witnesses, it
might have been covered up. Even if the victims are able
to win some form of justice, that is no guarantee other cases will be
resolved. Hulaichi's widow said she
has heard nothing for two months about her quest for compensation and can
barely provide for her two sons without her late husband's salary. The house
she rents in a poor Baghdad neighborhood is so small that Hulaichi's wooden
coffin barely fit through the door the day of his funeral, according to a
friend and fellow guard. The family of Suhad Shakir,
a woman employed by the U.S. military, remains stymied in its attempts to
find out who killed her and to seek compensation for her Feb. 4 slaying by
unidentified security contractors. Witnesses say the gunmen
first threw water bottles at Shakir's car - a method used by security
contractors to warn away vehicles. Then, a gunman in the last SUV of the
four-car convoy opened fire. "I wonder, when this
man came beside her and saw this beautiful girl, how he triggered his gun to
kill her," said Suhad's father, Shakir Ismail. "Why?" Times staff writers Raheem
Salman, Usama Redha and Mohammed Rasheed contributed to this report. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-justice16oct16,1,4026754.story |