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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 20th,
2009 - Iraqi Family Sues Ex-Blackwater Guard Over Death News article from the Associated
Press |
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Iraqi Family Sues
Ex-Blackwater Guard Over Death By Mike Baker Associated Press March 20, 2009 Raleigh, N.C. - The family
of a slain Iraqi security guard says in a federal lawsuit that a former
Blackwater contractor fatally shot the man while wandering drunk in Baghdad,
and the survivors accuse the company of covering up wrongdoing while reneging
on promises of compensation. Raheem Khalaf Sa'adoon's
wife and two children said Blackwater, the North Carolina-based company now
known as Xe, destroyed documents to hide evidence of a pattern of
recklessness. The lawsuit filed Thursday in the southern district of
California also says the company promised to compensate the widow, Wijdan
Mohsin Saed, in a series of payments but stopped after an initial payment of
$20,000. "She was expecting a
continued stream of compensation," said Susan Burke, a Washington-based
attorney for the family, in an interview. "But, obviously, with killing
the breadwinner of the family, they had essentially cut off her means of
livelihood. She's a stay-at-home mom and doesn't have any other source of
income." The lawsuit names both Xe
and the former Blackwater guard, Andrew Moonen. It says Moonen shot Sa'adoon
without provocation on Christmas Eve of 2006 after getting drunk at a party
and then getting lost. Sa'adoon, 32, was on guard duty for Iraqi Vice
President Adel Abdul Mahdi at the time. A lawyer for Moonen, a
Seattle resident, said in January he received a letter from federal
prosecutors saying they intend to charge him in the killing. On Friday,
attorney Stewart Riley said Moonen was defending himself. "Mr. Moonen fired in
self defense, ran for his life to the nearest checkpoint and reported the
incident," Riley said, declining to comment further. Xe spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell
said in a release that the shooting happened while Moonen was off-duty. She
said military officials investigated the matter and that the company was
ordered to remove him from Iraq. He was fired and fined, and Tyrrell said the
company has assisted throughout a Department of Justice investigation. "If it is determined
that he acted unlawfully, we strongly support holding him accountable,"
Tyrrell said. Tyrrell said the lawsuit
"is riddled with errors and is being driven by a desire for
publicity." She said Xe has strict rules for preserving documents and
that an outside counsel found no signs that any related to the case were
destroyed. A congressional report
released in 2007 said Moonen reported the shooting at a nearby post for
another security contractor, Triple Canopy, saying he had been in a gunfight
with Iraqis. The lawsuit says a visibly intoxicated Moonen simply pulled out
his Glock and fired at Sa'adoon for no reason. The lawsuit accuses Xe of a
pattern of recklessness and illegal activity. It seeks compensation and
punitive damages that would strip the company of all "revenue and
profits earned from their pattern of constant misconduct and callous
disregard for human life." "To some degree, I
think they continue to believe they'll be able to evade scrutiny and
accountability," Burke said. Blackwater changed its name
to Xe (pronounced ZEE) in February. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gz6F9KCtd8lQQXBGRKhnTFY1_FmwD971TLP80 Blackwater sued in US court
over alleged cover-up From Agence France Presse March 20, 2009 Washington - The widow of a
32-year-old Iraqi has filed suit in a federal court against private security
firm Xe, formerly Blackwater, for allegedly trying to hide that her husband
was killed by one of its security agents who was drunk. According to the suit filed
in federal court in San Diego, California, a copy of which was obtained by
AFP, "on Christmas eve 2006, a highly intoxicated and heavily armed
Xe-Blackwater employee named Andrew Moonen, shot and killed a man named
Raheem Khalaf Sa'adoon, for no reason." "Although Xe-Blackwater
has learned of their employee's crime short after it occurred, Xe-Blackwater
acted, and continues to act, in conspiracy with Moonen to evade any
accountability whatsoever," the suit charges. The lawsuit also alleges the
company rushed to get the agent out of Iraq, and destroyed documents in the
case. It also charges that Xe,
which until recently was a contractor for the Department of State in Iraq,
does not punish employees found guilty of wrongdoing, but "instead, Xe-Blackwater
continued to rehire and deploy mercenaries known to have killed
innocents." The company, which made
hundreds of millions of dollars protecting State Department officials in war
zones, was banned from working in Iraq two months ago because of a 2007
incident in which 17 civilians were killed by Blackwater guards. An Iraqi investigation found
that 17 civilians were killed and 20 wounded when Blackwater guards opened
fire with automatic weapons in Baghdad while escorting an American diplomatic
convoy. US prosecutors say 14
civilians were killed in the incident. Five former Blackwater guards pleaded
not guilty in January to manslaughter charges. "From Mr. Sa'adoon's
death to the litany of other civilian shootings by Xe-Blackwater personnel,
the company has created, fostered and refused to curb a culture of
lawlessness and unaccountability," said a statement from Susan Burke, an
attorney for Sa'adoon's widow. Copyright © 2009 AFP. All
rights reserved. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gP-Zf65rRBhRdmoo61RCcVXkdbRw |