[2] Moonen, originally from Kalispell, Montana, in the US, served previously in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army; he received an honorable discharge.
[5] Responding to claims of company-wide negligence, Erik Prince, the company's founder, said “when we found knucklehead behavior, we fired them.” The employee was identified on October 4, 2007, by The New York Times as Andrew J. Moonen, from Seattle, Washington, and federal law enforcement is investigating the case, which the Iraqi government considers a murder.
[2] In Congressional hearings on October 2, 2007, Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince testified that Moonen was fired for "violating alcohol and firearm policy.
[6] On August 12, 2007, an MSNBC report noted the largely unaccountable and unsupervised nature of security contractor activities and the high number of casual or indiscriminate civilian killings attributed to them.
[5] On October 5, 2007, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requesting Moonen's personnel records.