Feral Jundi

“Don and James were very good friends for a number of years,” Judy Feeney said from her North Carolina home.

She said that her husband wasn’t even in Iraq at the time of Kitterman’s death and said her son and the other CTU employees had solid alibis.

“We’re anticipating a good outcome,” she said. “No charges have been filed and we don’t anticipate that at all.”

Judy Feeney said she has been granted limited contact with anyone in Iraq but that she had heard her husband and son were being treated well while in Iraqi custody. 

    I have been trying to follow this latest deal with CTU and Don Feeney, the CEO, being held by Iraqi authorities in connection with the death of James Kitterman.  One of my readers pointed out that they all had alibis, and could not possibly be responsible. So I went looking for some open source commentary about these alibis.  Here they are. (the last story brings up a law suit against CTU, but I was more concerned with what Judy Feeney had to say)

   If in fact these alibis hold up, then these men should be immediately released. If there are other legal issues in the past with CTU, that is one thing, but this is about the murder of James Kitterman.  And seeing how this is the first true test of the SOFA and Iraq’s ability to administer justice, then we need to keep them honest during the investigation. I will not make any judgements, but I think it is important to present what is floating around out there.

     I despise any efforts by the MSM to demonize these guys, before being charged with anything, and I hope to keep them honest with my little corner of the new media world.  Innocent until proven guilty is the way it must be, and reportage should always reflect that.  Thanks again to the readers and I look forward to any other input.  I welcome anyone from CTU to come forward as well, and correct the record if possible. –Matt

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    Here is a link to SOCNET and conversation about CTU and the death of James Kitterman.  According to the discussion, there is an alibi.  Here is the quote from Sniper111:

The names have been released and Don Feeney is one of them.

The Iraqi MG Hussein Ali Kamal can’t even figure out who Jim and Don worked for (they each owned separate companies and didn’t work for ANYONE) much less figure out who killed Jim- a man I consider a personal friend.

Kind of funny how 5 people could have managed to fit into Jim’s vehicle and stab him while they were putting out Larry Young’s hooch while it was actively on fire after taking a mortar round and helping the IZ Police and Baghdad Fire.

All individuals detained have had their whereabouts verified at the time of the killing. The Iraqis simply needed to be seen to “do something” so they arrested everybody in sight. Interestingly enought hey did not arrest the one person who stood to gain several million dollars who DID work with Kitterman….. but that is simply speculation on my part.

I’d take this as notice that the Iraqis will lock up whoever they damn well want to, regardless of evidence or even a concise thought process. If I hadn’t been injured and sent home I’d probably be sitting right next to them- the time to pop smoke and vacate that shithole is now.

He also stated this about Larry Young, who died in a mortar attack at the time. 

Larry’s wife has tickets to the US bought by CTU although the older child’s passport got burned up and Sue is pressing the Iraqis to get it done with help from State. I’m working on getting them into the States permanently considering her sister is here already married to a US MP it should be somewhat easier. They need to get out of there and have a chance ata better life.

Link to discussion here. 

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Murray mother’s longing for justice may be satisfied

Iraq death » She feels cheated by a mercenary who employed her son when killed in Iraq. The mercenary is now in Iraqi custody.

By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 06/07/2009 12:49:40 PM MDT

Four years had passed since her son had died in an explosion in Baghdad and Carol Thomas Young was getting no closer to knowing why.

Her lawsuit against the famed special forces operative who had employed her son — and refused to pay an insurance settlement when he was killed — had stalled. The Murray mother dropped the suit, saying she would leave Don Feeney’s fate in the hands of a “higher court.”

She didn’t think it would be the Iraqi courts.

Feeney, a former Delta Forces soldier who parlayed his military experience into a decades-long mercenary career, was being detained by Iraqi officials over the weekend, along with his son and three other men who worked for his company, CTU Security Services.

CNN reported Sunday that an Iraqi security source said three of the men were being held on suspicion of direct involvement of the death of another contractor, who was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in Baghdad’s Green Zone last month.

If the suspects are charged and set over for trial, it will be the first time that Americans are tried in Iraq’s Central Criminal Court since Iraqis gained jurisdiction over security contractors accused of crimes. The law was changed in the wake of the infamous Nissour Square in 2007.

“We must keep in mind that these men are innocent until proven guilty,” Young said. “But we also know what he is capable of.”

Utah National Guard soldier Brandon Thomas, Young’s

son, died May 7, 2005 when the convoy of security vehicles in which he was riding was attacked, likely by a car bomb. Young, a veteran of the U.S. Marshall’s Service set immediately to understand what had happened.

But she said her efforts were thwarted by Feeney, who had recruited her son to Iraq.

Meanwhile, insurance settlements that the families of Thomas and Colorado native Todd Venette, also killed in the bombing, believed they had been promised, did not materialize.

In a 2007 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune , Feeney said the families had mistaken expectations. He said that he had never spoken to the men in his company about life insurance, as Thomas, Venette and several other contractors who worked for CTU had independently told their families.

“It wasn’t talked about,” Feeney said from Hong Kong, where he had moved his company after the bombing and, at that point, had avoided being served with the suit. “And furthermore, I don’t think they cared. Everyone who does the job that we do knows the risks involved. You make good money and you stash it away for a rainy day.”

When that day came, CTU officials claimed that $20,000 in cash payments made to Thomas for work in Iraq had all “burned up in the explosion,” Young said. “His stories about the money just grew more and more implausible.”

Meanwhile, the families said, Feeney wouldn’t return their phone calls as Young, along with Venette’s mother, Debbie Casida, sought information about the attack.

Casida said she was “floored” when she heard that Feeney had been detained this weekend in the death of James Kitterman — a friend of her son’s and a long-time colleague of Feeney.

“I never thought he’d turn on one of his own…” Casida began, as the women spoke on a conference call.

“…but he turned on our kids,” Thomas interjected.

Casida conceded the point. “I keep hoping for the best in everyone, but I keep getting surprised,” she said.

But Feeney’s wife said Sunday that there is no reason to think the worst about her husband or son. She said they were merely being held as Iraqi authorities try to sort out what happened to Kitterman.

“Don and James were very good friends for a number of years,” Judy Feeney said from her North Carolina home.

She said that her husband wasn’t even in Iraq at the time of Kitterman’s death and said her son and the other CTU employees had solid alibis.

“We’re anticipating a good outcome,” she said. “No charges have been filed and we don’t anticipate that at all.”

Judy Feeney said she has been granted limited contact with anyone in Iraq but that she had heard her husband and son were being treated well while in Iraqi custody.

For her part, Young said she wasn’t surprised by the detentions.

“There’s a lot of arrogance in that group,” she said.

mlaplante@sltrib.com / blogs.sltrib.com/military 

Story Here

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FBI Assists Iraqi Officials in Investigation of U.S. Contractor’s Death

Sunday , June 07, 2009

The FBI has joined forces with Iraqi authorities in their investigation into the killing of an American contractor last month in Baghdad’s Green Zone, FOX News confirms.

Iraqi forces detained five U.S. private security contractors in connection with the murder of colleague James Kitterman, 60, whose body was found May 22 in his car in the Green Zone. He had been blindfolded, bound and stabbed.

The five men — who have not been formally charged yet — could become the first Americans to face local justice since a bilateral security pact that came into force in January made U.S. contractors subject to Iraqi law.

“Embassy consular officials have visited the five and ensured they are being afforded their rights under Iraqi law. The men appeared well,” a U.S. spokesman said Sunday.

The five contractors were detained early Friday morning when Iraqi authorities raided the contracting company’s compound, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Deputy Minister of Interior, told FOX News.

Kamal, who declined to release the names of the detainees, said Iraqi forces also uncovered unregistered weapons and drugs during their raid of the compound.

An FBI official told FOX News on Sunday that the bureau is assisting with evidence collection and other investigative procedures. Iraqi forces asked the FBI for help, the official said.

An official of Corporate Training Unlimited, a Fayetteville, N.C.-based security company, told Associated Press that the five included Donald Feeney Jr., 55, who founded the company in 1986, his son Donald Feeney III, 31, and three other employees.

“I think everybody is devastated by the loss, including the Feeneys. And they’re cooperating fully with the investigation,” company spokeswoman Sarah Smith said. “They’ve not been charged with anything. And we suspect that they won’t be charged with anything.”

She said the CTU contractors knew Kitterman as “simply comrades living in the Green Zone.”

“They ate meals together and just knew each other, I guess, being around one another. I think there was a mutual respect for one another and I know for a fact that the Feeneys are really devastated by his loss. The day he was murdered, I got a call saying how upset everyone was,” she said.

Kitterman ran a small construction company based in the Green Zone and had worked in Iraq for about six years.

Iraq assumed control of the Green Zone on Jan. 1 under a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, taking primary responsibility from the Americans for searching vehicles and checking identity papers as entry checkpoints.

Kitterman was believed to be the first American ever assassinated there since the protected area was established after the city fell to U.S. forces in April 2003.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who supervises Iraqi police, said it appeared that Kitterman was killed because of an undisclosed “financial situation.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Story link here.