Blackwater employee who murdered Iraqi VP's bodyguard is Andrew Moonen, 27, of Seattle

[kurth]

Attorney: Former Blackwater employee has fully cooperated
By GENE JOHNSON

SEATTLE -- The attorney for a former Blackwater employee being investigated in the shooting death of an Iraqi security guard in Baghdad's Green Zone said Thursday his client has cooperated fully with the government, and he declined to say whether he expects any charges to be filed. "This is an extremely complex situation from a jurisdictional, factual and evidentiary standpoint," defense lawyer Stewart Riley said.

Riley confirmed the identity of his client, Andrew Moonen, 27, of Seattle, which was first reported by The New York Times. Moonen declined to speak with reporters staking out the south Seattle home he bought for $273,000 one month after the shooting. Riley said his client had no plans to give interviews beyond a short statement he gave to The Times that the controversy over Blackwater killings in Iraq makes him uneasy. Moonen was wandering drunk around the Green Zone after a party last Christmas Eve when he passed through a gate near the Iraqi prime minister's compound and was confronted by an on-duty, 32-year-old guard, whom he shot and killed, according to a congressional report released this week.

He then fled to a guard post operated by a different security contractor, Triple Canopy, and said he had been in a gunfight with Iraqis who were chasing and shooting at him. The Triple Canopy guards had heard no shooting, and took Moonen's pistol from him as he fumbled with it, the report said. Green Zone police determined he was too drunk to interview that night, but Moonen told Army investigators the next day that the guard, Raheem Khalif, had shot at him first. Blackwater, which had been hired to guard State Department personnel and diplomats in Iraq, fired Moonen and flew him back to the U.S. within 36 hours, and paid $20,000 to Khalif's family. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle has been reviewing the matter since January to see if charges are appropriate. By U.S. order, American contractors are immune from Iraqi law...

Moonen is a former Army paratrooper who served in Iraq from August 2003-April 2004, Riley said, and he was honorably discharged. He grew up in Kalispell, Mont. On Thursday, a woman answering the phone at the Moonen home in Kalispell declined to comment. She identified herself as Janice Moonen and referred questions to Riley...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Blackwater_Seattle.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. No wonder they hate us...the sheer arrogance.....

[Botany]

2. So he got drunk and shot a legit Iraqi "law person" and then ....

... fled the country. Well, deport him back to Iraq and let him face the
courts that sent Saddam to his death.

[L. Coyote]

3. "The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle has been reviewing the matter since January"

The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle has been reviewing the matter since January to see if charges are appropriate. By U.S. order, American contractors are immune from Iraqi law...

So, what's to review?

[cyberpj]

4. "By U.S. order, American contractors are immune from Iraqi law..." says it all. nt

[L. Coyote]

5. Join Blackwater USA, travel to exotic distant lands, kill people, and buy a big new house!

Where can I get the new t-shirt?