Blackwater's Youngest Victim (The saddest story Jeremy Scahill has ever written )

[Are_grits_groceries]

Blackwater's Youngest Victim

Every detail of September 16, 2007, is burned in Mohammed Kinani's memory. Shortly after 9 am he was preparing to leave his house for work at his family's auto parts business in Baghdad when he got a call from his sister, Jenan, who asked him to pick her and her children up across town and bring them back to his home for a visit. The Kinanis are a tightknit Shiite family, and Mohammed often served as a chauffeur through Baghdad's dangerous streets to make such family gatherings possible.

..Mohammed had just pulled away from his family's home in the Khadamiya neighborhood in his SUV. His youngest son, 9-year-old Ali, came tearing down the road after him, asking his father if he could accompany him. Mohammed told him to run along and play with his brothers and sister. But Ali, an energetic and determined kid, insisted. Mohammed gave in, and off the father and son went.

As Mohammed and Ali drove through Baghdad that hot and sunny Sunday, they passed a newly rebuilt park downtown. Ali gazed at the park and then turned to his father and asked, "Daddy, when are you gonna bring us here?"

"Next week," Mohammed replied. "If God wills it, son."

Ali would never visit that park. Within a few hours, he would be dead from a gunshot wound to the head. While you may have never heard his name, you probably know something about how Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani died. He was the youngest person killed by Blackwater forces in the infamous Nisour Square massacre.


There is much more: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/scahill

There are no words...........

[PA Democrat]

1. K & R. I hope Mr. Kinani bankrupts Eric Prince.

[mod mom]

2. I hope the karma Prince deserves catches up with him!

:mad:

[notadmblnd]

3. I'd love to be able to volunteer for that jury.

take Mr Prince for every penny he's got.

[jotsy]

4. I look at myself in the mirror every morning and try not to see a person

who lives in a country that rewards the murderers of innocent children, even after it becomes widely known, they are murderers of innocent children. Eric Prince is a narcissistic child who should be made to pay a public and painful price. All children are unique treasures, no one dogmatic rabidly religious war monger should get to rob the world of them, muchless get paid for it, too.

Reading that was the first time I've allowed myself to take in the details of what happened that day. I am heavy hearted but more informed, tyvm.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. The action that pierced me to the heart

was when the family returned half of the $10,000 they received from the US Embassy. They wanted it to go to the family of a US soldier killed in Iraq. They are giants compared to Prince.

[Vidar]

6. K&R.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Kick.....

[laylah]

8. ...

no words :cry:

[Starry Messenger]

9. k & r

[G_j]

10. Incredible segment on Democracy Now! today:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/29/exclusiveblackwaters_youngest_victim_father_of_9

EXCLUSIVE…Blackwater’s Youngest Victim: Father of 9 Year-Old Killed in Nisour Square Gives Most Detailed Account of Massacre to Date

Today a Democracy Now! exclusive report from Jeremy Scahill about a nine year old boy, shot in the head and killed by Blackwater in the infamous Nisour Squre massacre. His father, who is suing the private military contractor, provides the most detailed eyewitness account of the massacre to date. Scahill has conducted an in-depth investigation of the massacre and of nine-year old Ali Kinani’s death. He files an exclusive report with Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films.

Today, an explosive Democracy Now! exclusive. Last weekend vice president Joe Biden announced that the US Justice Department would appeal the dismissal of the criminal case against five Blackwater operatives accused of being behind the infamous Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in September 2007. Some 17 Iraqis were killed and more than 20 wounded in fifteen minutes of sustained gunfire. On New Year’s Eve, federal judge Ricardo Urbina threw out the cases, but not for lack of evidence or because the men are not guilty. Urbina charged that prosecutors had committed gross misconduct in the case and violated the constitutional rights of the Blackwater men. Despite Biden’s assurances that the US would seek justice for the Iraqi victims, legal analysts say the appeal is an uphill battle and Blackwater’s lawyers predict it will fail.

Nisour Square was the highest profile deadly incident involving Blackwater--or any private war contractor. And was supposed to be the case that stuck, the case that showed the US would hold private security companies accountable for their alleged crimes. The indictment of the Blackwater shooters was the first time the Justice Department had taken any meaningful action against the company. To the Iraqi victims, the New Year’s Eve dismissal was shattering. Adding insult to injury, several of the Iraqi victims say they were pressured into a settlement with Blackwater earlier this month for what many considered a paltry sum. As it stands now, there is only one remaining legal case against Blackwater in the United States–a lawsuit brought by Mohammed Kinani, father of the youngest victim that day--his nine year old son, Ali who was shot in the head and killed by Blackwater forces. Ali’s father may well be the one man now standing between Blackwater and total impunity for the Nisour Square massacre.

Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, the National Security reporter for The Nation magazine, has conducted an in-depth investigation of the massacre and of nine-year old Ali Kinani’s death. His story for The Nation this week is called Blackwater’s Youngest Victim. He files this exclusive report with Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films.

"Blackwater's Youngest Victim", report from Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley. Read Scahill’s article on the story at TheNation.com

[malaise]

11. Too sad

:cry:

[sattahipdeep]

13. He flew up to heaven like a white dove~

JEREMY SCHAHILL: When U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad in April of 2003, Mohammad proudly took his son to greet the men he called their liberators, the US military. Mohammed was that rare personification of the neoconservative narrative about the US invasion.

MOHAMMED KINANI: The first day the American Army entered Baghdad, I handed out juice and candy in the street. To celebrate our liberation from Saddam.

MOHAMMED KINANI: My son died innocent, at an age when there are no strings attached. He flew up to heaven like a white dove.

JEREMY SCHAHILL: After Ali died, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad contacted Mohammed, offering his family a $10,000 condolence payment, making clear it was not a remedy for what happened and not a substitute for any potential legal action against the shooters. Initially, Mohammed Kinani refused the money, but the embassy pursued his family, urging them to take it. They eventually did, but on one condition, half the money to be donated to the family of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Mohammed’s wife Fatima delivered the gift to the U.S. embassy.

MOHAMMED KINANI: This is a gift from Ali’s family to whichever family you choose, the family of any soldier who lost his life for the sake of Iraq. I want to give it as a gift. I know it is insignificant, but it is an emotional and moral gesture from us to them.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/29/exclusiveblackwaters_youngest_victim_father_of_9

[donheld]

12. k & R