Iraq killing headed for court

Federal prosecutors in Seattle intend to charge a former Blackwater USA operative for fatally shooting the bodyguard of the Iraqi vice president after a drunken Christmas party in Baghdad's secure "Green Zone" in 2006, according to the man's attorney and sources within the U.S. Department of Justice.

After nearly two years of investigation and debate in Washington, D.C., over complex legal and jurisdictional issues posed by the case, prosecutors have been given permission by the Department of Justice to seek a grand-jury indictment against 28-year-old Andrew Moonen, of Seattle, in the shooting death of Raheem Khalif, a 32-year-old security guard for Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, outside the vice president's quarters, according to the Justice Department and other sources.

Stewart Riley, Moonen's Seattle lawyer, confirmed he has received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office outlining the government's intent to charge his client. Initially, Moonen was to have responded to the letter by mid-January, although Riley said he expects nothing to be done before late February or March.

"What the letter indicates to us is that this case is not simply going to go away," Riley said Monday. "I cannot predict for sure what they are going to do. But it's clear they intend to proceed against my client in some fashion."

Riley said there has "been no offer, and no negotiations have taken place."

Moonen, a former Army Ranger who was working as an armorer for the private security company, is accused of getting drunk at a company Christmas party and then wandering into the Green Zone armed with a handgun. According to a September 2007 memo by the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Moonen got into a confrontation with Khalif outside the vice president's quarters and shot him three times. Khalif died the following day.

Blackwater arranged to have the State Department fly Moonen to the U.S. within hours of the shooting. Upon his return to the U.S., Moonen was fired and fined, and Blackwater paid the slain guard's family $20,000, according to the congressional memo.

Moonen was too drunk to interview on the night of the shooting, according to the memo, but the next day claimed the guard had fired on him and that he shot back in self-defense. However, other security forces in the vicinity did not hear the shots.

In an unrelated case, five other Blackwater security operatives were indicted last month on manslaughter charges by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., in connection with the deaths of Iraqi civilians during a firefight in Baghdad's Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007.

Lawyers for those soldiers say their convoy came under fire and that the Blackwater guards were defending themselves. Prosecutors contend they fired automatic weapons indiscriminately into a vehicle and crowd, killing 14 people and wounding 20 others.

The five men are scheduled to make first appearances in a District of Columbia federal courtroom on Tuesday.

Iraqi officials have complained about the impunity with which private security contractors have operated in their country, and the issue came up during negotiations on the recently ratified Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two countries, which details a time frame for a U.S. pullout.

One source familiar with the Iraqi side of the SOFA negotiations, who spoke to The Seattle Times on condition of anonymity, said both the Nisoor Square case and the Khalid shooting were specifically brought up during the negotiations and that the Iraqis have questioned the U.S. government's commitment to the prosecutions and its willingness to rein in Blackwater, which is the largest security contractor in Iraq. Among its duties are to provide security for U.S. State Department officials.

That fact has raised questions about whether the Blackwater employees might be subject to diplomatic immunity. The issue of jurisdiction has been a driving factor in the investigations, the source said.

The Iraqis have threatened to demand extradition of the guards — all U.S. citizens — to face justice in Iraqi courts, the source said.

Andy Laney, a spokesman for the State Department, said diplomatic negotiations are privileged and that the department would have no comment.

Blackwater's role in both Iraq and Afghanistan has also come under intense scrutiny by Congress, which first revealed the details of the Moonen incident in the memo issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Riley has said he believes that the decision to prosecute Moonen may have political undertones, but he declined to elaborate on Monday. He did note that the Nisoor Square indictments and the letter he received all came within weeks of the ratification of the Status of Forces Agreement.

One Justice source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said two prosecutors and an FBI agent who traveled from Seattle to Baghdad in May, briefed the Iraqi vice president's staff on the status of the investigation.

Army records show that Moonen served as a Ranger in the elite 82nd Airborne Division from April 2002 to April 2005. He served a seven-month deployment in Iraq, from September 2003 until early April 2004, and received an honorable discharge. His records do not show any special medals or commendations.

The shooting angered the Iraqi government, and the chief of staff to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called it a "murder."

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