Jim Kitterman
Encyclopedia
Jim Kitterman was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 citizen murdered in Iraq's Green Zone
Green Zone
The Green Zone is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a area of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city...

.

Kitterman was a former United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 chief petty officer
Chief Petty Officer
A chief petty officer is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards.-Canada:"Chief Petty Officer" refers to two ranks in the Canadian Navy...

.
He had worked in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, for Kellogg, Brown and Root
Kellogg, Brown and Root
KBR, Inc. is an American engineering, construction and private military contracting company, formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton, headquartered in Houston. The company also has large offices in Arlington, Birmingham, Newark, Delaware and Leatherhead, UK. After Halliburton acquired Dresser...

 and other firms. He was the president of his own construction firm Janus Construction, based in Houston.

CNN reported on June 7 2009 that Kitterman had been bound, blindfolded and gagged, prior to being stabbed.

Suspects

Five men were arrested on June 5 2009 at the barracks and office of security firm Corporate Training Unlimited
Corporate Training Unlimited
Corporate Training Unlimited is a "security contracting firm" operating in Iraq.It is notable because its founder, and three of its employees, were arrested on June 5 2009 by Iraqi police investigating the first murder of American Jim Kitterman in Baghdad's "Green Zone".The firm was founded by...

 (CTU). One of the arrested men was Donald Feeney Jr., a former Delta Force
Delta Force
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...

 soldier and the founder of CTU. Also arrested were Donald Feeney III, one of Feeney's sons, two members of CTU, Micah Milligan and Mark Bridges, and an insect exterminator named Jason Jones who was spending the night on his way to Camp Taji.

The Washington Post reported that the five suspects were arrested by Iraqi authorities following a tip from the FBI. The Associated Press reported that the five men were arrested during a raid on the Corporate Training Unlimited's offices and barracks because their weapons permits had expired. Iraqi officials suspected that they were involved in the murder.

Later, CNN quoted officials at the US Embassy who stated the five men were not suspected of the murder and that all five had alibi
Alibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...

s. Sarah Smith, a spokesperson with CTU, acknowledged that Feeney and his colleagues knew Kitterman, and respected him:

One of the proclamation of America's administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, was that American contractors would be immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts. This proclamation remained in effect until the Iraqi legislature countermanded it in 2008.

Release

Three of the contractors were later released on June 11 due to lack of evidence. Milligan and Jones, who were held longer by the FBI, were released in July.

Two Iraqis testified in the ICCC (Iraqi Central Criminal Court) said that Kitterman's murder was committed by another American who himself was killed not long afterward. Larry Eugene Young, a CTU employee, was killed by mortar fire in the Green Zone on the same day as Kitterman's murder.
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