Houstonian’s death in Iraq realizes family’s fears
Despite their concern, brother says, slain contractor took pride in his role in the nation’s rebuilding
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Houston Chronicle
May 24, 2009, 10:32PM
Family members of the Houston contractor who was found brutally killed in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Friday said they will remember 60-year-old Jim Kitterman as a self-reliant and adventurous man who was trying to help rebuild Iraq.
The U.S. military gave few details of the slaying, saying only that an American was found dead Friday in his car and that Army criminal investigators were handling the case.
An Iraqi security official, who spoke to the media on the condition of anonymity, said the victim had been stabbed in his chest and his throat had been slit.
Cliff Kitterman, of Waller, confirmed that the victim is his brother Jim, who runs a small construction company based in the Green Zone.
Jim Kitterman has worked in Iraq for about six years, a source of some anxiety for his relatives.
“We all knew something like this could happen,” Cliff Kitterman, 61, said. But “we take comfort in knowing he was doing something he loved.”
Jim Kitterman served 12 years in the U.S. Navy before working for Houston-based KBR, eventually working his way up to director of marketing for the Middle East region, his brother said.
He left KBR to form his own construction company.
Over the years, he “had his share of close calls but felt the worst was over and looked forward to being a part of the Iraq reconstruction,” Cliff Kitterman said. “He developed a close relationship with many Iraqis and their families. He thought he could be a part of something big and good by helping rebuild the infrastructure of a nation.”
Co-workers and friends called Jim Kitterman outgoing, trusting and sincere.
He is survived by his mother, an uncle, two aunts, a brother, son and three grandchildren. (Click HERE for original article)
5 Americans Detained In Baghdad Murder
Local Authorities Hold U.S. Citizens In Connection With Death Of U.S. Contractor; FBI “Very Involved”
BAGHDAD, May 30, 2009
(CBS/AP) Iraqi authorities have detained five U.S. citizens in connection with the death of an American contractor in Baghdad, officials said Sunday, in what could be the first case of Americans facing local justice under a joint security pact that took effect this year.
The body of Jim Kitterman, who was reportedly bound, blindfolded and stabbed, was found in his car last month in the protected Green Zone where his small construction company was based.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Kitterman, 60, a Navy veteran and former employee of KBR, had started his own construction company in Iraq, where he had been working for six years.
Interior Ministry official Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal says the detained Americans are from the same company as the slain contractor but declined to give more details because the investigation is ongoing.
A local police source told CBS News that the FBI is very involved in the case.
U.S. Embassy spokesman James Fennell confirmed that five Americans are in Iraqi custody but said no formal charges have been filed so he couldn’t provide further details about the detention.
It was an unprecedented slaying in the sprawling district and occurred at a time when blast walls are coming down and Iraqi forces are assuming greater control of their own security.
Embassy officials have visited the men to make sure they’re being given their rights in accordance with Iraqi law, Fennell said, adding “the men appeared well.”
Although Americans and others have been killed in rocket or mortar attacks in the Green Zone, 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.
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.
The Iraqis have begun removing some of the protective blast falls around the Green Zone – part of a campaign to restore a sense of normalcy as violence in the city has waned.
Violence, however, continues.
A rocket or mortar slammed into the Green Zone Sunday morning but no casualties were reported, according to the U.S. military.
The attack came just over two weeks after American was killed when a rocket struck the sprawling area that houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government. (click HERE for the original article)
Here’s another article with a little different spin on it from the Salt Lake Tribune. I feel there is A LOT more to this story.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12541010
Here is an article about a CTU employee that was killed in the Green Zone the night before Jim Kitterman was killed. CTU is having a bad month.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=327512
Here is an update to this incident:
Iraq says 4 US contractors detained, not 5
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA – 1 day ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi government spokesman says four Americans, not five, have been detained in an investigation into the killing last month of a U.S. contractor in the Green Zone.
Ali al-Dabbagh says four Americans and one Iraqi were picked up Wednesday during a raid on the Corporate Training Unlimited house. He says the raid was ordered after Iraqi security forces received information that a suspect involved in last month’s stabbing death of contractor Jim Kitterman might be there.
Al-Dabbagh says the raiding party found the contractors’ weapons permits and operating license had expired and took them into custody.
It was unclear if the purported suspect in Kitterman’s death was in the house when the raid occurred.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0HHloCYEgZ-xGroT79QZn9PeAowD98MFS9G0
Here’s an update in the Kitterman murder case.
First of detained U.S. contractors freed in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — One of five U.S. contractors who had been detained in Baghdad has been released and others will be freed soon, the wife of the released man said.
Earlier Wednesday an Iraqi judge decided that charges against the contractors were not warranted. 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 contractors 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.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/10/iraq.contractors/index.html
Here’s the latest on the Kitterman murder investigation.
Iraq transfers American contractors to U.S. custody
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/14/iraq.contractors/index.html