Monday, July 20, 2009

Update on Kitterman

According to an article in the Washington Times, an unidentified American man is said to be responsible for the brutal murder of contractor Jim Kitterman. Apparently, the assailant was himself killed not long after. In the general time frame of the murder, at least four other  Americans are known to have been killed in Iraq: in a roadside bombing, attorney Terry Barnich, a State Department civilian and two un-named security personnel accompanying him; and an unknown victim of a rocket attack in the Green Zone [ed. note: Larry Eugene Young]. 


Americans held in Iraq: FBI violated rights
By Bill Gertz, Washington Times, July 20, 2009
A total of five men [Donald Feeney Jr., his son Donald Feeney III, Mark Bridges, Micah Milligan and Jason Jones] were first arrested by FBI agents, Iraqi police and U.S. Army personnel in Baghdad's Green Zone on June 3 after the killing of American contractor Jim Kitterman, who was found stabbed to death in Baghdad May 22.

The men were later cleared of the murder charges by the Iraqi government, based on testimony from two Iraqi witnesses. A translated Iraqi court document stated that an investigator informed the judge in the case that the witnesses had testified that the murder was committed by an American man who was himself killed around the time of the Kitterman murder.
Additional Reading

State Dept. worker, long known in Ill. politics, dies in Iraq
By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, May 26, 2009

3 comments:

Peter said...

According to http://www.dbacomp.com/Casualties.html , Larry Eugene Young was killed May 22, 2009 (the same day as Kitterman's death) by a mortar inside the Green Zone. He worked for CTU, the same organization that the five arrested men were employed by.

If you ask me, it's awfully convenient for the arrested men to pin the murder on a man who was dead.

Susie Dow said...

I'd like to believe that American authorities have a vested interest in a thorough and professional investigation into the death of any American citizen while overseas - and that such an investigation is based on good old fashioned detective work. Unfortunately, history suggests otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Peter- The arrested men did NOT pin the murder on Larry Young. Two Iraqis simply stated "An American did it who got killed later". All 5 individuals have been cleared, including one whose sole connection to the whole thing was he was sleeping overnight in a trailer on the CTU compound.

As a side note into the "professionalism" of American authorities overseas, they allowed the CTU villa and trailers to be used as a personal shopping spree for MoI and the IP with numerous credit cards being stolen along with tens of thousands of dollars in electronic equipment and personal property. Several credit cards have been used while the men were in jail.