Dead Iraqi's family sues Blackwater in shooting involving Seattle man

[David]

Seattle PI


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.






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