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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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June 7th,
2009 - Dead Iraqi’s Family Sues Blackwater in Shooting Involving Seattle Man |
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Dead Iraqi’s Family
Sues Blackwater in Shooting Involving Seattle Man Complaint alleges ‘shooters’ routinely sent into battle on steroids By Levi Pulkkinen Seattle Post Intelligencer June 7, 2009 As authorities continue to
investigate a Seattle military contractor accused in a deadly 2006 shooting
in Iraq, a new lawsuit has been filed against the man's former employer -
then Blackwater USA, now Xe - by the slain man's family. In court papers filed in
U.S. District Court, the family of Raheem Khalaf Sa'adoon alleges that
Blackwater committed a war crime by failing to control its
"shooters" working on contract with the United States government in
Iraq. A 32-year-old father of two
serving as a guard to the Iraqi vice president, Sa'adoon was shot to death on
Christmas Eve while guarding a home in the Little Venice neighborhood of
Baghdad's Green Zone. Sa'adoon's family says his killer was Blackwater employee
Andrew Moonen, and that the shooting follows a pattern of such incidents
involving employees of the Virginia-based contractor. "Blackwater has a
pattern and practice of recklessness in the use of deadly force," said
Susan Burke, a Philadelphia attorney representing Sa'adoon's family. The company, Burke alleged
in the complaint, "routinely sends heavily-armed 'shooters' into the
streets of Baghdad with the knowledge that some of those 'shooters' are
chemically influenced by steroids and other judgment-altering
substances." In claims supported in part
by Congressional testimony, Burke alleges in the complaint - filed in the
Eastern District of Virginia - that Moonen had been drinking at a Christmas
party hours before the shooting. Having left the party armed with a
Blackwater-issued pistol, Moonen allegedly became lost in the Green Zone
before coming across Sa'adoon's location. Burke contends that Moonen,
unprovoked, shot and killed Sa'adoon near a home he was guarding. It's a
contention that Moonen's attorney, Stewart Riley, disputes. "Basically, his
position is that he was shot at in the Green Zone and he ran for his
life," Riley said. "He didn't know for sure that anyone had died
until the next morning." Riley conceded that his
client fired his weapon that night, but says he did so to defend himself. Following the shooting,
Moonen was flown from Iraq. Burke argues in court documents that Blackwater
destroyed video and audiotape of the shooting shortly afterward, and,
following a March 2008 meeting of high-level executives, began systematically
eliminating company records regarding the incident. According to Associated
Press reports, Moonen was fired by Blackwater but then hired by another
military contractor for work in Kuwait. Burke claims in court documents that
Moonen is currently employed at Monroe Correctional Complex northeast of
Seattle. Military records show that
Moonen, 28, served a three-year term in the U.S. Army beginning in April
2002. Records indicate he completed airborne training; his specialty was
listed as small arms repair. Since the shooting, federal
investigators have been reviewing the incident. A spokeswoman for the Seattle
U.S. Attorney said Friday that no decision has been made on whether Moonen
will face prosecution. Moonen is not named as a
plaintiff in the current lawsuit, which lists Blackwater, company founder
Erik Prince and several related businesses as defendants. An earlier suit in
which Moonen was named was withdrawn earlier this month at the request of
Sa'adoon's family. No defendants have issued
responses to the claims. External link: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406929_blackwater05.html |