Ex-operator at Blackwater gets job as prison guard

A former Blackwater USA security operator under investigation for the Christmas Eve 2006 shooting death of the bodyguard of the Iraqi vice president has been hired as a prison guard by the state Department of Corrections.

Andrew Moonen, of Seattle, was hired at the Monroe Correctional Complex in February, said DOC spokeswoman Maria Peterson.

"He did not disclose his involvement in this incident until May," after news reports came out about the ongoing investigation, she said.

Moonen was first identified in national and local news reports as a suspect in the shooting eight months earlier. Peterson said the department was unaware of those reports.

She said the department conducted a criminal-background check, which showed nothing amiss because Moonen has not been charged or convicted of a crime. He remains employed, she said.

Moonen's attorney, Stewart Riley, said only that the DOC is aware of Moonen's history now.

"At this point in time, he is due the same presumption of innocence as anyone," Riley said. "He should not suffer consequences at his job merely because of a pending investigation."

According to congressional testimony and news accounts, Moonen, 28, was working an as armorer in the protected Green Zone in Baghdad and had been drinking at a Christmas party when he passed through a gate near the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and was confronted by a guard.

According to a memorandum issued last year by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Moonen fired several shots. The Iraqi, identified as 32-year-old Raheem Khalif, was hit three times and died. Khalif was assigned to the protection detail of Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi.

The shooting was one of several highlighted by congressional investigators concerned about a series of questionable incidents involving the use of deadly force by private security operators in Iraqis. The Moonen incident was widely publicized after a September 2007 incident in which Blackwater operators opened fire on a group of Iraqis and killed at least 14 of them.

Moonen, a former Army Ranger with the 82nd Airborne Division, was fired by Blackwater for violating policy about being armed while intoxicated.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan, whose Seattle office has conducted the investigation because Moonen lives here, has said he expects to decide whether to seek an indictment against Moonen by the end of this month.

Investigators and prosecutors have gathered documents, witness statements and traveled to Baghdad this past spring to review the crime scene and talk to additional witnesses.

Riley, Moonen's Seattle defense attorney, said he expects a decision soon. "I think they are very, very close," he said.

Riley has questioned whether the U.S. government has jurisdiction to prosecute Moonen for an incident that happened halfway around the world. Moreover, he said there are factual issues in dispute, such as whether Moonen was acting in self-defense.

According to congressional documents, Moonen fled the shooting and stumbled into a checkpoint run by operators from another security firm. He said he'd gotten into a gunfight with Iraqis and that they were shooting at him. The guard from the other firm, in a report, said he heard no gunfire.

The report says Moonen was obviously intoxicated and was fumbling with a loaded handgun, which someone took from him. He denied he had been drinking. Later that night, investigators determined he was too drunk to interview.

The following day, Moonen told Army investigators that Khalif had fired at him, and that he had shot back.

In a letter to the State Department three days after the incident, the Iraqi president's chief of staff called the incident a "murder" and demanded justice. By then, however, Moonen had been taken out of the country by Blackwater, under the supervision of the State Department.

Blackwater fired him and rescinded a $3,000 Christmas bonus.

He was hired two months later by another Defense Department contractor in Kuwait, resulting in allegations that the State Department had withheld information about Moonen's background.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com