Justice elusive for Iraqis

In the days after Usama Abbass was shot dead in a Baghdad traffic circle by security guards working for Blackwater USA, his brother visited the U.S.-run National Iraqi Assistance Center seeking compensation.

Like other Iraqis who have done the same, he learned a harsh truth: The center in Baghdad’s Green Zone handles cases of Iraqis claiming death or damages due to military action, but not due to actions of private contractors such as Blackwater, who work in Iraq for the U.S. government, private agencies and other governments.

“There will be no compensation because the American Army did not kill your brother,” an apologetic U.S. soldier told Abbass’ brother, who did not want his name published.

There is no civilian counterpart to the assistance center in Iraq, leaving the families of as many as 19 Iraqis killed by private security contractors in the last month searching for other means to address abuses by private security contractors.

There is no precedent for holding Western security contractors accountable in court, in Iraq or the U.S., for injuries or deaths suffered by Iraqi civilians.

Seventeen Iraqis, including Abbass, were killed Sept. 16, according to Iraqi officials, when Blackwater guards opened fire after a U.S. diplomat was escorted back to the heavily secured Green Zone. Two Iraqis were killed in an Oct. 9 incident involving another private security company.

Nobody knows how many Iraqis have died at the hands of such contractors because of the secrecy with which security firms operate here. The victims are among untold thousands of civilians who have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The white Volkswagen Golf that Abbass was driving when he was killed in September sits outside his brother’s house in Baghdad. Its windshield is peppered with bullet holes. A jagged-edged, baseball-sized hole in the roof came from ferocious incoming fire, said his brother, who was in the passenger seat when the shooting erupted.

Four families, including Abbass’, filed a lawsuit against Blackwater USA in U.S. federal court in Washington on Oct. 11, seeking unspecified damages.

The family of Marani “Maro” Ohannes -- she had been identified by Iraqi authorities as Marani Oranis -- a woman shot to death Oct. 9 by guards from an Australian-owned security company, Unity Resources Group, has issued a statement demanding that Unity “make amends following this appalling tragedy.”

Her family has taken the unusual step of appointing an English-speaking relative to serve as an official family spokesman to draw international attention to the case.

Although the recent shootings have galvanized Iraqis to demand justice, it is far from certain they will get it -- either in the form of criminal prosecution or financial compensation.

“The answer may be no for both,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert who practices in Washington and teaches military justice at Yale Law School.

Robert N. Strassfeld, director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, agreed.

“There is a solid legal basis for keeping American courthouse doors open for these claims,” Strassfeld said. “That said, any plaintiff, whether an American citizen or a foreign national, who brings such a claim will face a battery of arguments that the court lacks jurisdiction, that the claim is preempted by a variety of federal laws, and that the defendant has immunity.”

Laws that appear to offer clear avenues for plaintiffs to prevail are open to interpretation.

A 2006 revision to the military code of justice, for example, permits courts-martial of civilians serving with or accompanying the armed forces. But Fidell said Blackwater USA could argue it was doing neither because its 1,000 or so armed guards in Iraq protect civilian State Department officials.

“They were performing the sort of job you might expect GIs to do, but they were not side-by-side with GIs,” Fidell said.

“I think this would be a hard sell.”

Separate from criminal prosecution, monetary damages would be difficult to win because of the challenge of proving who did what in the chaos of the moment -- likely to become tougher as time passes.

At least four probes have been launched into the Blackwater incident.

One investigation, conducted by the Iraqi government, concluded that the shootings were unjustified. A U.S.-run investigation led by the FBI is not complete. The U.S. military is conducting what Maj. Winfield Danielson, a military spokesman, referred to as an “inquiry” aimed at learning what took place in Nisoor Square and figuring out how to advise its own contractors -- who do not include Blackwater -- on how to act.

There also is a joint U.S.-Iraqi team conducting an investigation. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said its job was to review the findings of the other investigations and make policy recommendations to the United States and Iraqi governments.

“It’s a very complex issue and it’s probably appropriate that the approach to finding out the details is complex as well,” she said.

Susan L. Burke, an attorney for the Iraqi plaintiffs suing Blackwater, said the fact that the convoy was not accompanying a client at the time of the shootings -- the official had been driven away from the perceived threat when gunfire erupted -- helps her clients’ case.

“Blackwater already had dropped off the person they were protecting, and they went out and engaged in unnecessary and senseless gunfire,” she said.

If that argument holds up, it could also benefit the families in the Oct. 9 case involving Unity Resources Group. Guards from that company shot two Iraqi women to death after they allegedly drove at high speed toward the guards’ convoy. The guards were not accompanying a client at the time.

In the case of U.S. contractors, when payments to victims’ families have been made, they have been a fraction of what U.S.-based victims of similar incidents might have received.

The State Department has recommended that Blackwater pay $15,000 to the family of Raheem Khalif Hulaichi, an Iraqi vice presidential security guard shot dead Dec. 24, 2006, by an allegedly drunk Blackwater guard. Hulaichi’s widow, Umm Sajjad, says she has yet to receive compensation because the Iraqi vice president’s office is demanding more.

The family of Ali Mahdi Salih, killed in August 2005 in Samarra in a shooting involving a private security contractor, sought $5,000 compensation from the U.S. military. Like Abbass’ brother, Salih’s relatives were rejected on grounds that it was not the military’s fault.

A claim for compensation by the family of Faysel Kamel Hamza, killed by a ricocheting bullet fired by a private contractor in January 2005, was similarly rejected by the American military.

Just as the U.S. military does not release numbers of civilians killed as a result of its actions, neither do the more than 40 private security companies operating in Iraq.

Many Iraqis say that if the Sept. 16 shooting had not occurred in front of hundreds of witnesses, it might have been covered up.

Even if the victims are able to win some form of justice, that is no guarantee other cases will be resolved.

Hulaichi’s widow said she has heard nothing for two months about her quest for compensation and can barely provide for her two sons without her late husband’s salary. The house she rents in a poor Baghdad neighborhood is so small that Hulaichi’s wooden coffin barely fit through the door the day of his funeral, according to a friend and fellow guard.

The family of Suhad Shakir, a woman employed by the U.S. military, remains stymied in its attempts to find out who killed her and to seek compensation for her Feb. 4 slaying by unidentified security contractors.

Witnesses say the gunmen first threw water bottles at Shakir’s car -- a method used by security contractors to warn away vehicles. Then, a gunman in the last SUV of the four-car convoy opened fire.

“I wonder, when this man came beside her and saw this beautiful girl, how he triggered his gun to kill her,” said Suhad’s father, Shakir Ismail.

“Why?”

tina.susman@latimes.com

Times staff writers Raheem Salman, Usama Redha and Mohammed Rasheed contributed to this report.

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Background

On Sept. 16, a convoy of four Blackwater USA vehicles in Baghdad left the heavily secured Green Zone and headed to Nisoor Square to provide backup for a separate Blackwater convoy escorting a U.S. diplomat back to the Green Zone. A car bombing in the area had heightened concerns of the first convoy that a larger ambush could be in the works.

Witnesses say Blackwater guards who arrived in Nisoor Square opened fire without provocation. Many say the first victim was a young man who was shot after he was unable to slow down quickly enough for the Blackwater guards. They say gunfire escalated as his car rolled closer to the convoy on its own after he was shot.

Blackwater says its guards opened fire after coming under attack. Blackwater says at least one of its vehicles was disabled by gunfire.

An Iraqi government investigation concluded that Blackwater was not attacked, and it put the death toll at 17. A U.S. investigation headed by the FBI has not finished its work.

The Iraqi government announced Sept. 17 that it was withdrawing Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq. Four days later, it permitted Blackwater back on the streets.

Families of four victims, including one who survived his injuries, have filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., demanding unspecified damages.

Source: Times reporting