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TechnoratiA federal judge in Washington ruled yesterday that a civil lawsuit alleging abuse and torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq can go forward against a U.S. military contractor, setting the stage for what could be the first case in a U.S. civilian court to weigh accountability for the notorious abuses in 2003.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson denied CACI International's motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit on behalf of more than 200 Iraqis who at one time were detained at the Abu Ghraib prison. The Iraqis allege that the contracted CACI interrogators took part in abuses and that the company should be held liable for the harm inflicted on the detainees.
Attorneys for the Arlington-based CACI have argued the company should be immune from such a lawsuit because it worked at the behest of the U.S. military, but Robertson said he believes a jury should hear the case, in part because CACI had its own chain of command and might not have answered directly to the military.
Legal experts said the decision could affect other U.S. contractors alleged to have harmed Iraqi civilians, even if the U.S. government is unable or unwilling to prosecute individuals in U.S. criminal courts. The decision could set a precedent for how the courts deal with cases such as the Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians in September.
"A military contractor is going to have to think twice about the arrangements it works out with the government when it is brought in to play a role the military has typically played," said David Remes, a Washington lawyer who has represented Guantanamo Bay detainees. "The decision shows that companies like Blackwater are at risk."
Susan L. Burke, a lawyer representing the Iraqi detainees along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, alleges that CACI interrogators were responsible for numerous abuses. Burke also filed a similar lawsuit against Blackwater for wrongful death over the Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad.
Michael Ratner, CCR's president, said he believes it is a remarkable achievement that the civil case could go to trial, as numerous others have faltered. He said he believes the case will set a new standard: "I think the whole opinion sends a message to private contractors that you can't just do what you want in Iraq."
Military investigations of the Abu Ghraib abuse linked CACI interrogators to alleged abuses such as the use of dogs in interrogations and putting detainees in painful "stress positions."
CACI officials yesterday denied any wrongdoing and vowed to vigorously defend and vindicate the company.
"From day one, CACI has rejected the outrageous allegations of this lawsuit and will continue to do so," said Jody Brown, a CACI spokeswoman. "CACI has unequivocally renounced any abuse of detainees in Iraq and has cooperated fully in all government inquiries relating to detainee abuse. The court's ruling today only declined to end the lawsuit now."
In the same ruling, Robertson granted summary judgment for Titan Corp. -- now called L-3 Communications Titan -- ending the case against that company, which supplied interpreters for Abu Ghraib.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Washington Post
15 Comments so far
Show AllI agree, Supreme Court will use the "state secrets" defense, a la Khaled el-Masri if it even gets there.
They've even managed to privatize war crimes, haven't they? I can imagine Dubya's voice, "we happen to think that business can do a better job at torturing than government can. Some, on the other side of the aisle may disagree, that's their perogative. But we're taking the bureaucracy out of summary exexcutions, because we believe it's good for Uhmerika and the Uhmerikan tax payer."
Good for Judge Robertson. Anyone in the judiciary who stands up to these creeps makes my day a little better. Of course, Bush/Cheney might take a cue from Musharraf and sack the whole lot of them, y'know, "to protect democracy from the terr-wrists."
Personally I hope all claimants are able to suck up some of the obscene profits being made by these mercinary and terrorist organizations like CACI (even though I know that any monbies awarded would be from my tax dollars instead of out of their sorry hides).
In a larger sense it really doesn't matter how much the claimants are awarded so long as it is required that the high priced lawyers CACI employs run up thousands of billable hours to help extract that extortiante and dirty money that has acumulated in their greedy hands.
Wired Magazine
AT&T Whistle-Blower Hits D.C. To Stop Telecom Spying Immunity
By Ryan Singel November 07, 2007 | 8:20:04 PM
"The Senate Judiciary plans Thursday to mark-up a measure passed by the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee would let telecoms like AT&T and Verizon escape the bevy of lawsuits accusing them of massively violating Americans' privacy, so long as the attorney general writes a letter to the judge saying that the government told the companies that the president thought he had Constitutional authority to evade the nation's privacy laws."
Mark Klein ..
"I've called and sent letters to senators and Congress members. They haven't called back. I don't think they want to pursue it. They want to talk about this behind closed doors. These days I am angry at Congress for helping them keep it secret.
They could hold hearings and subpoena people and give them immunity. Right now there are people who could come forward and say what they know, but they need immunity. That's the bottleneck. I don't see a resolution coming from this Congress. It's a conspiracy against the American people."
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/att-whistle-blo.html
See ..
AT&T Wiretap Whistleblower Fights Senate Deal
All Things Considered, November 7, 2007 •
"In 2002, Mark Klein, a former technician for AT&T, came forward with information that the company was collecting data for the National Security Agency. His testimony was central to several class-action lawsuits against AT&T for its alleged wiretapping.
Klein is now in Washington, D.C., to speak out against a possible Senate deal that would grant immunity to AT&T and the other telecoms for their role in NSA surveillance — effectively nullifying those lawsuits."
Robert Siegel talks with Klein.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16088947
Stop Mukasey before he can undercut lawsuits that will save America!
Don't let Congress and the White House legitimize and cover up torture, illegal detentions, extraordinary renditions, warrantless wiretapping, the Iraq invasion, et al.
Help Us Common Dreams!!!
Help Us Washington Post!!!
How does one entity based on laws have the legal standing to grant it's own forces or contracted forces an immunity from laws. As if our military is saying we have to obey the code of military justice but we will say you have immunity so that you won't have to?
Like Bremer's blanket immunity. Where does he have the legal standing to make anyone immune from our laws or Iraqi law either? Since when and where is that legal in international law?
No one ever seems to question the legality of Bremer's decree.
Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. For Pat Robertson to endorse a transvestite who cohabited with a gay couple would not long ago have been unimaginable. But there have always been seismic shifts in the hated others; in the 1950s and 60s it was communists and African-Americans. By the 1970s and 80s it had become liberals, liberated women, homosexuals and those who have, perform or advocate abortion.
Now it is Muslims--ostensibly "Islamofascists", but in practice all Muslims. Right wing Jews and Christians have joined forces to support the Israeli far right and an aggressive Middle East policy. One wonders what kind of backroom deal was cut between the evangelical entrepreneur who heard the divine voice after repeatedly failing the bar examination and thereby earned such Godly favor as to be able to advise the Almighty on meteorology, as well as politicians on policy.
Most likely it involves judicial appointments, as just one more radical neocon justice would turn the STAR (Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts) Chamber into a solid, reliable 5 vote majority. Rudy surely wouldn't mind selling out his erstwhile pro-choice and pro-gay rights friends for the support of Robertson's legions, the red-state, redneck, red-ink voters who have become the party's power base. Since these cases will probably be making their way through the system when the next justice is appointed, it's almost certain that a President Giuliani would assure that justice would never be done.
The "toilet class" is organized enough to show up at rallies by their right wing radio DJs, like they did in Berkeley recently. It's a lot of hype on wheels to try to discourage people, but they come from out of town . . .
It seems not unlike the email and letters to the editor campaigns by the right wing -- aggressive, loud, threatening, claiming to own the right to the nation alone. These tactics can work on editors, and cowering columnists, but won't work on our streets.
The most significant underclass-- for those who want to understand America-- is its people who support torture.
These are the bottom of American society. They are lower than the lowliest of unwanted immigrants.
Why not call them "the toilet class?"
Did they not long ago throw away their moral compasses? Coddle them therefore not another second. They deserve
nothing better than the worst we can say.
They include President Bush and his new abomination for Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
Also, all campaigning politicians, Republican, Democratic and other alike who are not putting torture, violence and
gratuitous war at the top of their issues.
As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert said yesterday, "The campaigns are nearly all being waged as if the only votes that really matter are those of dimwitted guys
fascinated by big guns and insecure in their masculinity."
Reader, you should have seen the counterprotesters at Smithfield, North Carolina two Saturdays ago. They were
some of the very people Herbert alluded to.
Smithfield is home of torture flights that start from Aero Contractors Inc., a user of Gulfstream planes and front for the CIA at Johnston County Airport.
The protesters were on and around a stage by the Neuse River, which was swirling brown from long-delayed heavy rains. The counterprotesters formed a phalanx higher up on a bridge and all around the top edge of the town park's natural ampitheater, holding oversized American flags.
Who were they? The "Eagles" with neo-con Vietnam Vets at their core. What were they doing? Heckling the anti-torture protesters and making every noise possible to drown out the performances and speeches.
What were some of the noises? Motorcycles without baffles and a mufflerless swamp buggy doing figure eights on the river behind the stand.
Examples from five hours of heckling:
"You're Communists! You're unpatriotic!
You're going to get arrested! You're ageing hippies trying to relive your glory daze! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You hardly have any American flags!"
All of these statements of course were untrue. Much else was nastier.
As I looked around at the unbroken curtain of American flags I thought that if they turned white, these people would suddenly be revealed as the Ku Klux Klan.
But now, two weeks later, these flags have changed color again, at least in my own mind. They are the color of the river that day.
Yeah, Bane Richter, things are pretty close to the edge now. But this thing is gonna go all they way to the Supremes, and as boricua suggests, there's not much hope for satisfaction there. As Naomi Wolf said in her article of yesterday, the fascism-creep factor has really produced a slomo coup.
Both Giulianni and Clinton appear to have sold out to it, so I don't imagine things are gonna change, post-election. The only hope is some kinda counter-coup.
So what happens to the real culprix? Wolfy and Rummy and Dicky - getting their medals of fiefdom from Georgy for Water Sports no doubt.
Bane Richter, I sadly fear you are right.
No more military contractors!
The US can have its own offices, for all taskes required- it would cost less, would have more oversight/transparency.
It's like a Wild West, free-for-all for all the contractors reaping fortunes from this needless war. That they could ever play an "immunity" card at all shows just how degraded has become our legal/political system in the US.
CACI and Titan, long enjoying free reign at Uncle Sam's ATM, kicked it up a notch in Iraq, unfurling new consulting abilities in cruelty, sadism and murder. To let Titan off the hook, after they've squirrled away billions in loot is comical. Somebody has to take a lil' blame, the lower level CACI drones will be punished, or more accurately, sacrificed for their "unconscionable conduct" that violated company policy.
"The decision shows that companies like Blackwater are at risk."
At risk for being held accountable......finally!
no hope with the current supreme court