Feral Jundi

     This is the latest, and I hope it turns out to be true.  You never know over there and I will be happy when I see the report where these guys are actually free and telling their side of the story. –Matt

Edit:  The Iraqi police Wednesday released three of the five U.S. contractors who were detained last week in connection with the slaying last month of an American in Baghdad’s Green Zone enclave, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

 The men were freed on bail, but were forbidden to leave Iraq during the investigation of the death of Jim Kitterman, a 60-year-old construction contractor from Texas, said Rafae Munahe, a senior advisor to Interior Minister Jawad Bolani.

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Sources: U.S. contractors will not face Iraq charges

June 10, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A judge in Iraq has decided that charges against five U.S. contractors are not warranted and they will soon be released from custody, according to an Iraqi security source and a source close to the five.

The reason for the contractors’ detention had been unclear.

The five were initially told they were being held in connection with the death last month of another contractor, James Kitterman, said the source close to the five.

But on Monday the men were told they were being held on suspicion of having unregistered weapons, although they were asked about their activities around the time Kitterman was killed.

However, Iraqi government officials told CNN Monday the five were detained as suspects in connection with Kitterman’s slaying.

The Iraqi security source said the five will either be released Wednesday or Thursday. They are waiting to finish the logistical procedures at the police station where they had been held.

None of the five has been charged with a crime.

Kitterman was found bound, blindfolded and fatally stabbed in a car in Baghdad’s Green Zone on May 22. The 60-year-old from Houston, Texas, owned a construction company that operated in Iraq.

The Green Zone, where Kitterman’s body was discovered, is the high-security area in central Baghdad that contains the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government buildings.

Access to the area, formally known as the International Zone, is tightly controlled.

Story here.

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 Wednesday, June 10, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi judge releasing U.S. contractors

Joseph Weber (Contact)

EXCLUSIVE:

Three Americans arrested in connection with the killing of a contractor in Baghdad’s Green Zone are being released Wednesday, said their attorney Timothy M. Haake.

The men are Donald Feeney Jr., 55; son Donald “Buddy” Feeney III, 31; and Mark Bridges, an employee of the Feeneys’ Corporate Training Unlimited security firm.

The case is the first under a 2008 agreement in which U.S. contractors are subject to criminal law in Iraq.

Two other men are being held but also are expected to be released. They have been identified as Micah Milligan, a Corporate Training Unlimited employee, and Jason Jones, employed by another security firm working in Baghdad.

Mr. Haake said no charges have been or were filed against any of the five.

“Hopefully, they will be out in four days as well,” said Mr. Haake, a retired special forces general.

The State Department has yet to return a call to confirm the releases.

The men were arrested June 3 by Iraqi security forces following a joint investigation with U.S. officials. The forces raided the home in which the men were staying, reportedly to find the killer, and arrested the five Americans on weapons violations.

“We really don’t know why they were arrested yet,” Mr. Haake said. “There were a lot of weapons in there. There were concerns about whether some of the weapons were properly registered or the registrations had expired.”

Mr. Haake said the release of the men could be delayed because their passports cannot be found in the ransacked house, but the process has so far worked well, the Americans are being treated fairly and are eager to return to work in Baghdad.

The contractor has been identified as Jim Kitterman, 60, of Houston. He was found dead May 22 inside the Green Zone with his throat cut and multiple stab wounds to his body.

A source says Mr. Kitterman was last seen alive arguing with a security guard because he wanted to leave a secured compound. He eventually was allowed to leave, then later found dead.

The agreement under which U.S. contractors can be arrested and tried by the Iraq government follows a Sept. 2007 incident in which employees of the Blackwater security company fatally shot 17 Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Company employees were escorting a convoy of State Department vehicles.

Five of the contract employees face charges in a U.S. court of manslaughter and using a firearm in a violent crime.

Mr. Haake said an Iraqi judge essentially acts as a grand jury in deciding whether to pursue charges against U.S. contractors arrested.

Mr. Fenney started Corporate Training Unlimited in 1986 and has performed contract work in Iraq since 2003, according to the company Web site.

Prior to founding the company, Mr. Feeney was a member of the Army’s Delta Force counter-terrorism unit and chief security consultant for Solomon Brothers, a New York-based diamond and jewelry company.

The company began work in Iraq as a personal-security service for the Kellogg Brown & Root engineering and construction company. The company also works in Hong Kong and the Philippines and has had at least three employees killed in Iraq.

Reporter Michelle Bollman contributed to this story.

Story here.