the-lone-pamphleteer:No Accountability for Military Contractor’s Role in Abu Ghraib Torture, Federal
the-lone-pamphleteer:No Accountability for Military Contractor’s Role in Abu Ghraib Torture, Federal Judge SaysYesterday, a United States district court dismissed a case brought on behalf of four Iraqi men who were tortured at Abu Ghraib. The men were suing CACI Premier Technology, Inc., a private, U.S.-based contractor that U.S. military investigators concluded had participated in torture and other “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” of detainees at Abu Ghraib.In dismissing the torture victims’ claims, the district judge did not suggest that the plaintiffs’ allegations of torture or a conspiracy involving CACI were unfounded. Instead, the judge held that, pursuant to the recent Supreme Court case Kiobel v. Shell/Royal Dutch Petroleum, individuals can no longer sue U.S. corporations for human rights abuses committed abroad.At Abu Ghraib, the detainees were subjected to electric shocks, sexual violence, forced nudity, broken bones, and deprivation of oxygen, food, and water. U.S. military investigators concluded that several CACI employees serving as interrogators directed abuse of Abu Ghraib employees in order to “soften” them up for interrogations. CACI and the contractors it employs are completely unaccountable in U.S. court for the atrocities they committed at Abu Ghraib, despite the fact that CACI is a U.S.-based corporation, it conspired with U.S. soldiers to commit war crimes that were punished in U.S. courts martials, and the torture and war crimes occurred at a time when the United States exercised total jurisdiction and control over Abu Ghraib prison.The decision was announced yesterday, on the International Day in Support of Torture Victims.Facts and quotes from CCR Press ReleasePhoto from wired.com -- source link
#torture#human rights#war crimes#abu ghraib