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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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January 30th,
2010 - Father Pins Hopes on Last Blackwater Lawsuit |
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Father Pins Hopes
on Last Blackwater Lawsuit By Doug Miller Charlotte Observer January 30, 2010 The last chance for victims
of the bloody Nisoor Square shootings to have their day in court may rest on
a Charlotte firm's lawsuit accusing Blackwater of reckless conduct in Iraq. Mohammed Kinani, an Iraqi
businessman whose 9-year-old son died in the 2007 shootings, told the
Observer this week the N.C.-based security firm has threatened him and
offered him $20,000 to stop asking questions. "I said I don't want
anything," Kinani said. "All I need is for the Blackwater president
to apologize for killing of my son. They refused to apologize." The incident, where 30
civilians were killed or injured, remains a flashpoint over the use of
private contractors in battle zones. Five Blackwater guards were accused in
14 deaths at the busy traffic circle outside Baghdad. Blackwater earned hundreds
of millions of dollars in government contracts in Iraq, where contractors
outnumber U.S. troops. The firm eventually lost its license to work there. One former guard, who
pleaded guilty to manslaughter, said in court papers that a convoy from the
security firm, now called Xe, went to Nisoor Square outside the fortified
Green Zone to provide security after reports of a car bomb a mile away. Blackwater says guards shot
in self-defense. But Kinani and others said the gunmen were unprovoked. The lawsuit, filed in
Raleigh last year by SouthPark firm Lewis & Roberts, is the last Nisoor
Square case pending in the U.S. Other more-publicized cases
have fallen away. A federal judge on Dec. 31
dismissed manslaughter charges against five other guards, a ruling the
Justice Department appealed Friday. Vice President Biden announced the appeal
last week while visiting Iraq in response to anger there over the dismissals. In early January, a larger
group of survivors and families of those killed settled their civil suit
against Blackwater. Most reportedly agreed to payments ranging from $20,000
to $100,000, though the attorney in that case, Susan Burke of Washington,
D.C., would not comment on the amounts. Kinani said Blackwater
offered to meet with him and eventually offered money, but he refused both
gestures. His suit against Blackwater includes families of two other victims
killed and three injured survivors. Attorney Gary Mauney said none of the
firm's clients have accepted settlements. In an interview, Kinani
described the death of his youngest child, Ali. Speaking in Arabic through a
translator, Kinani said he never intended to take his son on the drive that
morning, until Ali begged him, "Daddy, I want to come with you." Inseparable pair drove into trouble Kinani, now 59, admits that
he doted on Ali, the youngest of three boys and a girl. He said the two were
separated for any length of time only once, when Ali visited relatives in
Syria. At home, he had his own room, but slept with his parents. "My
arms were his pillows," Kinani said. So Kinani obliged that
September 2007 morning when the boy asked to accompany him. Kinani had just
dropped his father off at their auto parts store. He reluctantly took Ali
along on a trip to pick up Kinani's sister. Kinani worried about
sectarian violence in the Sunni area where his sister lived, but they arrived
safely. His sister and her children got inside, and Kinani headed home. With Kinani driving, here is
how they sat in the four-door 1996 Isuzu: His sister in the front passenger
seat, and the four children across the back - her two young boys and one
girl, then Ali, behind his father. Kinani said he passed three
Iraqi police checkpoints and security was high by the time they entered the
traffic circle in Nisoor Square. He said he heard far-away gunfire. Traffic
slowed to a crawl. Ahead, he saw a large armed
vehicle blocking the road. Two gunmen were on top. They wore military clothes
and Kinani thought they were American soldiers. Investigators later said they
were security guards. One man put two fists in the air, Kinani said, a motion
for all the cars to stop. Kinani recalled someone
shouting - "They are shooting at the front" - and then chaos. Bewildering barrage of gunfire Kinani said after destroying
the front car with gunfire, the gunmen turned their aim toward the rest of
the square, to cars and people running away. To Kinani, they were shooting
"just absolutely to shoot. They just wanted to shoot." No one fired
back, he said. Kinani said he saw people
falling, people dying, cars getting hit - boom, boom, boom - sounds of
gunfire, shattered glass and tires exploding. Why are they shooting us,
his sister asked? Maybe somebody shot at them somewhere else and they are
seeking revenge, Kinani recalled saying. She pulled his head down and
laid over him on the driver's seat. Bullets hit the headrest of her seat of
where she had just been sitting, her life spared by protecting him. Awkward, he thought. He
should be protecting his younger sister, not the other way around, and he put
her beneath him. A bullet shattered his rear window. When finally the shooting
stopped, Kinani said he opened his door to get out. He looked at his son's
head lying against the back door, and as he opened it, Ali's body fell with
the door. "They killed my son,
they killed my son," Kinani recalled screaming. Family celebrated Saddam’s overthrow When the U.S. liberated Iraq
in 2003, Kinani said his elated family celebrated with cake, sweets and
juice. Iraqis for the "next million years" should be grateful that
Americans saved his country from a terrible dictator, he said. "Whatever officials
made the decision to topple Saddam Hussein, it was a gift from heaven. Divine
intervention," Kinani said. He is grateful that the U.S.
officials investigated Nisoor Square and sought indictments against the
security firm. During the shootings, he said he was shocked because he
believed the assailants were soldiers. Ten days after his son's
death, Kinani said three Army officers took his statement and he begged them
to find out the truth. "You guys have come to
Iraq and sacrificed a lot of your people. My son has been added to the
sacrifice. Don't disappoint us," he told them. The U.S. embassy gave him
$10,000, which he said he would accept as long as they took half of it back
to give to the family of a slain soldier. Investigations, lawsuits sort out responsibility A U.S. military
investigation determined that Blackwater guards used excessive force and
fired without provocation. In December, federal District
Judge Ricardo Urbina threw out the criminal charges, ruling that overzealous
prosecutors improperly used statements from guards who had been promised
immunity. In a recent ruling stemming
from that case, Urbina unsealed court papers with statements from three
Blackwater guards who were present at Nisoor Square and said they believed
the shootings were unjustified. An Xe spokesman on Friday
said the company could not comment on pending litigation. Charlotte attorneys Mauney
and Paul Dickinson Jr. said they could not divulge how they became involved
in the case for "legal, ethical reasons." They would not say who
was paying for their services. The suit against Blackwater
argues that the company's management "cultivated and condoned a culture
of reckless and unlawful conduct." Mauney said his firm has
asked Iraqi government officials to help them collect evidence. Mauney
doesn't rule out a settlement, but he said his goal is for a North Carolina
jury to hear the case. Said Kinani: "I just
want the world to know what happened." External link: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/1213836.html |