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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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January 11th,
2010 - Iraqis Say They Were Forced to Take Blackwater Settlement |
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Iraqis Say They
Were Forced to Take Blackwater Settlement Several of the plaintiffs say they were told the firm, now called Xe,
was in danger of bankruptcy and that they might not get any damages at all.
They want the agreements nullified. By Liz Sly Los Angeles Times January 11, 2010 Reporting from Baghdad -
Several victims of a 2007 shooting involving American private security guards
employed by the firm formerly known as Blackwater alleged Sunday that they
were coerced into reaching settlements, and they demanded that the Iraqi
government intervene to have the agreements nullified. The Iraqis said they were
pressured by their own attorneys into accepting what they now believe are
inadequate settlements because they were told the company was about to file
for bankruptcy, that its chairman was going to be arrested and that the U.S.
government was about to confiscate all of the firm's assets. This would be
their last chance to get any compensation, the victims said they were told. When criminal charges
against the guards were dismissed by a U.S. federal judge on Dec. 31, the
Iraqis concluded that they had been duped and that Blackwater, now called Xe,
was not in the kind of legal and financial trouble they had been led to
believe. "We signed the papers
to accept a settlement because we had psychological pressure and some of us
were threatened," Mahdi Abdul Khodr, 45, told reporters Sunday at Iraq's
parliament. He led a delegation comprising representatives of nine of the
victims' families who petitioned Iraqi officials to exert pressure on the
U.S. government to nullify the settlements. Xe confirmed last week that
it had reached out-of-court settlements in seven lawsuits filed in the
September 2007 shooting in Nisoor Square that killed 17 Iraqis, as well as a
string of other incidents in which company guards are alleged to have killed
or injured Iraqis. Altogether, the suits covered 45 injured people and the
families of 19 slain Iraqis who have all signed settlement agreements,
according to court documents. Civilian deaths The Nisoor Square shootings
were the bloodiest of numerous incidents in which Blackwater contractors are
alleged to have fired on civilians, inflaming anti-U.S. sentiments and
straining relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. At least 14 civilians were
killed and more than 20 injured when the guards opened fire in the busy
square. The charges against five
guards accused in the shooting were thrown out on the grounds that the
prosecution had built its case wrongly using statements the accused provided
under immunity to State Department investigators. The settlements were reached
last fall in meetings at Baghdad's Rasheed Hotel, where the claimants say
they were required to sign a paper, written in English, and make videotaped
testimony in Arabic, relinquishing all future claims against the company.
Though Xe has not disclosed the settlement amounts, media reports say they
averaged between $20,000 and $30,000 for an injury and $100,000 for a death. Peter White, the lawyer
representing Xe in the civil suits, said the company was not present at any
of the meetings and "never stated to any victims or their counsel that
it would be filing for bankruptcy." All of the company's contact with
the victims was through the plaintiffs' own lawyers, he said. Susan Burke, the lawyer who
represented the Iraqis in the civil case filed in Virginia, refused to
comment Sunday, citing confidentiality agreements included as part of the
settlements. She withdrew the civil suits last week. After meeting with
lawmakers, three members of the delegation described in separate interviews
how they were summoned to the hotel and urged by their lawyers to accept the
payouts. Burke was not at the meetings. Fawzia Sharif, 53, whose
husband, Ali Khalil, was among those killed at Nisoor Square, said Sunday
that three Iraqi lawyers and one American attorney tried to persuade her to
accept a settlement. She would not disclose the amount, but said it did not
exceed the reported figures. "At the beginning I
refused," Sharif said. "They spent three hours sitting with us and
beseeching us to sign. They planted despair in our hearts, saying they are
going to announce bankruptcy and the government is going to confiscate all
their assets and you will not get any amount at all if you do not sign." "I feel I was deceived
by them," she said. "They told me the company is going to go
bankrupt and this was my last chance. But now I wonder, how could this happen
to such a big company?" Feeling coerced Khodr, the head of the
delegation, lost his left eye in the shooting and spent three months in the
hospital. He said he accepted a $10,000 settlement because "they told me
Blackwater was about to go into bankruptcy, that their manager will be sent
to prison and the government will confiscate all their assets." "I signed because I had
financial difficulties and I needed the money," said Sami Hawas, 45, a
former taxi driver who accepted $30,000. He also lost an eye, walks with
difficulty because of leg injuries and hasn't worked since the shooting. "We
don't know English and we don't know legal things. But now I think about it,
it is not the amount I deserved." Not all those who settled
are unhappy. Hassan Jabar Salman, an attorney who suffered injuries to his
back, shoulder and arm, said in a telephone interview Sunday that he received
significantly more than the amounts being reported and that he is satisfied.
Because he is a lawyer, he said, "I know how to negotiate." An October ruling by a
federal judge in the Virginia case suggests the Iraqis may have faced
obstacles had they persisted. The ruling said that the plaintiffs had not
demonstrated that the company could be sued in federal court, and it
suggested that they refile using different arguments. That could have dragged
the case out for several years, legal experts say. "These lawsuits would
not have been a piece of cake," said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches
military law at Yale Law School. "It would have been a real hassle and
who knows what the outcome would be." Though there have been no
published reports suggesting Xe is in danger of bankruptcy, it is also highly
unlikely that any court would dismiss the out-of-court settlements without
proof of coercion or fraud, especially as the plaintiffs' own lawyers were
present when they signed, said Robert Strassfeld, director of the Institute
for Global Security Law and Policy at Case Western Reserve University School
of Law. He described the amounts
involved in the settlements as "disappointing," but added, "I
was fairly pessimistic about the likelihood of ever achieving justice in this
case." A separate civil suit filed
by several other victims of the Nisoor Square shootings is pending in a North
Carolina court. Times staff writer Raheem
Salman contributed to this report. Copyright © 2010, The Los
Angeles Times External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iraq-blackwater11-2010jan11,0,4877380.story |