Former Abu Ghraib Detainees File Lawsuits … Thank You, SCOTUS
Former Iraqi detainees sue U.S. military contractors
By Daren Butler
ISTANBUL - Four Iraqi men are suing U.S. military contractors who they say tortured them while they were detained in Abu Ghraib prison, according to lawsuits being filed at U.S. federal courts on Monday.
The lawsuits allege the contractors committed violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy.
The scandal over the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib unleashed a wave of global condemnation against the United States when images of abused prisoners surfaced in 2004.
The four plaintiffs, all later released without charge, described their experiences to Reuters on Monday at an Istanbul hotel, where they periodically meet their U.S. legal team. They gave accounts of beatings, electric shocks and mock executions.
Farmer Suhail Naim Abdullah Al-Shimari, 49, said he was caged, beaten, threatened with dogs and given electric shocks during more than four years in detention. He was released in March without being charged and without any judicial process.
“I lost my house, my family were made homeless and left without a breadwinner. I lost four-and-a-half years of my life and all they did was say sorry,” he told Reuters.
Some lower-ranking soldiers have been convicted in military courts in connection with the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Abu Ghraib detainees.
The latest lawsuits follow a similar one launched in early May in federal court in Los Angeles by another former Abu Ghraib detainee, Emad Al-Janabi. The latest plaintiffs sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
“This litigation will contribute to the true history of Abu Ghraib. These innocent men were senselessly tortured by U.S. companies that profited from their misery,” said Susan L. Burke, one of the attorneys representing the detainees.
The lawsuits were being filed where the contractors reside. They named CACI International Inc, CACI Premier Technology, L-3 Services Inc and three individual contractors.
The first suit was filed on Monday in Seattle, Washington, and the others were being filed in Maryland, Ohio and Michigan.
CACI provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib and L-3 provided translators at the prison.
Sa’adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old shopkeeper and father of four, described being caged, abused and paraded naked as one of the unregistered “ghost” detainees, hidden for a time from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“In our Arab culture being stripped naked is one of the worst rights violations. It made me feel ashamed and it has left a deep scar in me,” he told Reuters.
“What I want is for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and punished for what they have done,” he said.
According to the complaints, the contractors participated in physical and mental abuse of the detainees, destroyed documents, prevented the reporting of torture and misled officials about the state of affairs at the prisons in Iraq.
(Reuters)
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“The scandal over the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib unleashed a wave of global condemnation against the United States when images of abused prisoners surfaced in 2004.”
In other news, pictures of mass graves found in the same compound were released to global …indifference.
The Abu Gharaib scandal was news not because anyone made a prisoner stand on a box with a bag on his head, but because it suited the political ambitions of the left, and the anti-American prejudices of europe, to hype it up.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:32 pmThat picture sure looks like torture to me…that poor dog looks like he’s being choked to death while trying to lick the prisoner’s face. Where the hell is PETA when you really need them?
June 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pmToo bad, so sad, next time don’t hang around your jihad buddies, liar.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pmInnocent men? How the fuck did they end up in Abu Ghraib? Just because they were released doesn’t mean they are innocent. When I was in Fallujah we detained a man who fired on my squad. We got the weapon, which was missing the same amount of rounds from the magazine that were shot at us, plus there was still a round in the chamber, and you could smell that it had been recently fired. We did a gunshot residue test, and he tested positive. we detained him, and the Detention Facility wouldn’t take him because we didn’t have “facial recognition” when he fired at us. Sorry if I was busy taking cover and maneuvering my squad. He didnt even make it to the Regimental Detention Facility, nevermind the Division Detention Facility or Abu Ghraib. That was my fault for being a naive squad leader and following the rules. Just because he was released from Abu Ghraib doesn’t mean he is innocent.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pmSo how do these douche bags get access or standing in an American court. If they were military, the UCMJ would apply but since they are civilian contractors the court that would seem to have jurisdiction would be an Iraqi court.
What did I miss?
June 30th, 2008 at 3:33 pm