$10,000?$100,000?
Ali Mohammed Hafedh Kinani (known affectionately as Allawi by his family, or “daddy’s brat” by his older brothers) was the youngest victim of the 2007 Nisour Square massacre by Blackwater, now known as Xe.
Late last year, a federal judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater employees reponsible for Ali’s death, and the deaths of civilians in the Baghdad square. Blackwater offered $100,000 per victim as a civil settlement. Ali’s father refused the money. The US Embassy offered $10,000 in condolence money — no strings attached — and the family accepted it only if , according to this gut-wrenching The Nation article by Jeremy Scahill:
the US military accept a $5000 donation from the Kinanis to the family of a US soldier killed in Iraq. Mohammed’s wife, Fatimah, delivered the gift to the US Embassy. “My wife labeled it as a gift from a mother who sacrificed a son on the path to freedom, a gift from Ali’s family to whichever US military family the embassy chose, to any soldier’s family that was killed here in Iraq, who lost his life in Iraq for the sake of Iraq.” Soon thereafter, Fatimah received the letter from General Odierno. “Your substantial generosity on behalf of the families of fallen American soldiers has touched me deeply,” Odierno wrote.
Ali’s family is the last bastion of justice for their son and others. And now Ali’s father is telling his story. If you are at all on the fence about the damage and pain America’s hired mercenaries are causing in Iraq (and Afghanistan and elsewhere), slide off the fence.
