Iraqi Nixes Blackwater Settlement Offer

'We won't accept such an amount' for Baghdad massacre, he says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 10, 2010 10:44 AM CST
Iraqi Nixes Blackwater Settlement Offer
In this Dec. 8, 2008 file photo, Sami Hawas, a 42-year-old taxi driver, and 7-year-old son Mohammed at home in Baghdad. Hawas was shot while driving his cab at Baghdad's Nisoor square.   (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

An Iraqi injured by the US private security firm once known as Blackwater today rejected a compensation deal for injuries he suffered after company employees opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square. "We have rejected the settlement because it is a small amount. We won't accept such an amount," said Mahdi Abdul-Kadir. None of the plaintiffs had yet received any money from the group, now known as Xe Services, he said.

Another plaintiff had said the company had offered $30,000 for each person wounded in the 2007 incident in Nisoor Square and $100,000 to the families of the 17 killed. On Dec. 31, a US federal judge threw out criminal charges against Blackwater, citing mistakes by prosecutors and infuriating Iraqis who had long held that security firms are above the law. A 2007 report called Blackwater out-of-control and indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties.
(More Nisoor Square stories.)

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