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Abu Ghraib Prisoners Accuse US Companies of Torture
By Agence France Press
10/03/07 "AFP" -- - WASHINGTON - Two US Army subcontractors
accused of torturing prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail go
to court Wednesday in a case that highlights the murky legal
status of private US companies in Iraq.
Titan and CACI International were hired by the Army to provide
interrogators and interpreters at the notorious prison, the
scene of well-documented abuses of detainees following the
US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
One former Iraqi prisoner now living in Sweden says that under
the companies’ watch, he was sodomized, nearly strangled with a
belt, tied by his genitals to other detainees, and given
repeated electric shocks.
“This is probably the most important case still standing against
Abu Ghraib because the cases against the government have
essentially failed so far,” said Michael Ratner, president of
the Center for Constitutional Rights.
“This case represents our last hope for getting some
accountability for the torture in Iraq and getting any
compensation for the victims,” said Ratner, whose group has
fielded lawyers to assist in the lawsuit.
The case was filed in 2004 by a dozen former prisoners and the
family of a man who died in detention, accusing Titan and CACI
of conspiring with US officials “to humiliate, torture and abuse
persons” at Abu Ghraib.
But US security companies in Iraq occupy a legal gray area, as
highlighted by the case of Blackwater USA, which according to a
new Congress report has been involved in nearly 200 shootings in
Iraq since 2005.
The report was issued by a House of Representatives committee as
congressmen convened hearings following a September 16 shooting
in a crowded Baghdad square involving Blackwater guards that
killed at least 10 Iraqis.
Under an order passed by the US occupation authority in 2004,
security contractors hired by the Pentagon and State Department
enjoy immunity from arrest under Iraqi law for acts related to
their contracts.
After the Baghdad shootings, the Iraqi government said it was
preparing a new law to control the operations of the private
companies, but has backed off initial demands for Blackwater to
be thrown out of Iraq.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Titan and CACI were to ask Washington
federal judge James Robertson to dismiss the case.
The companies argue that they cannot be tried as they were under
the control of the Army, which in turn says it can only
prosecute its own personnel, not civilians.
Other US judges have refused to hear cases brought by former
Iraqi prisoners, arguing that they have no jurisdiction over
alleged crimes committed against foreigners in a third country.
But in one case brought by a federal prosecutor in North
Carolina, former CIA agent David Passaro was jailed for more
than eight years in February for beating an Afghan prisoner who
died of his injuries in 2003.
Detroit-based lawyer Shereef Akeel, who is representing some of
the Abu Ghraib plaintiffs, is confident that the case will
proceed.
“This is for the sake of who we are (as Americans). And if we
don’t understand the principals at stake here — if we let them
lay low — we have done a disservice to our founding fathers,” he
said.
“I have this vision of the Iraqis coming here… of putting them
in a hotel in Washington, DC right across the street from the
people who make the decisions… so they can have their day in
court,” Akeel added.
The sole US officer charged over the Abu Ghraib abuses,
Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, escaped with just a reprimand
at his court martial in late August.
Eleven junior soldiers are serving varying sentences but no
senior Pentagon official was ever charged in the scandal, which
President George W. Bush has described as the “biggest mistake”
made by the United States in Iraq.
© 2007 Agence France Press
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