Detainee at Abu Ghraib prison (Reuters)
US Contractor Off the Hook for Abu Ghraib Torture with 'Token Payment'
$5 million settlement for victims comes years after abuses, highlights 'public problems of military outsourcing'
Seventy-one victims of torture at Abu Ghraib, the notorious U.S. prison in Iraq, will split a $5 million settlement following a lawsuit against the U.S. military contracting company Engility Holdings, the Associated Press reports Wednesday, providing "some measure of justice for the victims" but letting individual contractors escape punishment.
Engility, formerly known as L-3 Services and Titan Corporation, is now the first U.S. corporation involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib to be forced to compensate victims of torture.
"Private military contractors played a serious but often under-reported role in the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib," Baher Azmy, lawyer for the ex-detainees and legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights told Associated Press, but also expressed that the settlement "provides some accountability for one of those contractors and offers some measure of justice for the victims."
However, as RT reports, the settlement is "a meager amount" when compared to other lawsuits involving prison abuse in the U.S., and adds:
The average $74,000 compensation for each Abu Ghraib victim of rape, torture, death threats and physical harm seems almost inconsiderable in comparison, especially given the high levels of torture the Iraqi prisoners were subjected to. And many more Iraqi victims of abuses are unlikely to receive any sort of compensation at all.
As Peter W. Singer, of the Brookings Institution told Wired, the settlement raises questions over true accountability for U.S. military contractors and their actions overseas:
Soldiers get court martialed, but for the very same incident, the contractors named in the same reports face no individual punishment and their firm just throws high power lawyers at the problem until it decides to make it go away with a token payment?
Engility Holdings, a spin off of L-3 Communications, is a major government contractor and Fortune 500 company. The company employs more than 50,000 people and had a turnover of more than $15 billion in 2011 alone, Patrick Cockburn reports in the Independent.
The settlement was reached over two months ago but had gone unnoticed until a document filed by Engility with the Securities and Exchange Commission was uncovered by the Associated Press Wednesday.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. The final deadline for our crucial Summer Campaign fundraising drive is just days away, and we’re falling short of our must-hit goal. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Seventy-one victims of torture at Abu Ghraib, the notorious U.S. prison in Iraq, will split a $5 million settlement following a lawsuit against the U.S. military contracting company Engility Holdings, the Associated Press reports Wednesday, providing "some measure of justice for the victims" but letting individual contractors escape punishment.
Engility, formerly known as L-3 Services and Titan Corporation, is now the first U.S. corporation involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib to be forced to compensate victims of torture.
"Private military contractors played a serious but often under-reported role in the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib," Baher Azmy, lawyer for the ex-detainees and legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights told Associated Press, but also expressed that the settlement "provides some accountability for one of those contractors and offers some measure of justice for the victims."
However, as RT reports, the settlement is "a meager amount" when compared to other lawsuits involving prison abuse in the U.S., and adds:
The average $74,000 compensation for each Abu Ghraib victim of rape, torture, death threats and physical harm seems almost inconsiderable in comparison, especially given the high levels of torture the Iraqi prisoners were subjected to. And many more Iraqi victims of abuses are unlikely to receive any sort of compensation at all.
As Peter W. Singer, of the Brookings Institution told Wired, the settlement raises questions over true accountability for U.S. military contractors and their actions overseas:
Soldiers get court martialed, but for the very same incident, the contractors named in the same reports face no individual punishment and their firm just throws high power lawyers at the problem until it decides to make it go away with a token payment?
Engility Holdings, a spin off of L-3 Communications, is a major government contractor and Fortune 500 company. The company employs more than 50,000 people and had a turnover of more than $15 billion in 2011 alone, Patrick Cockburn reports in the Independent.
The settlement was reached over two months ago but had gone unnoticed until a document filed by Engility with the Securities and Exchange Commission was uncovered by the Associated Press Wednesday.
Seventy-one victims of torture at Abu Ghraib, the notorious U.S. prison in Iraq, will split a $5 million settlement following a lawsuit against the U.S. military contracting company Engility Holdings, the Associated Press reports Wednesday, providing "some measure of justice for the victims" but letting individual contractors escape punishment.
Engility, formerly known as L-3 Services and Titan Corporation, is now the first U.S. corporation involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib to be forced to compensate victims of torture.
"Private military contractors played a serious but often under-reported role in the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib," Baher Azmy, lawyer for the ex-detainees and legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights told Associated Press, but also expressed that the settlement "provides some accountability for one of those contractors and offers some measure of justice for the victims."
However, as RT reports, the settlement is "a meager amount" when compared to other lawsuits involving prison abuse in the U.S., and adds:
The average $74,000 compensation for each Abu Ghraib victim of rape, torture, death threats and physical harm seems almost inconsiderable in comparison, especially given the high levels of torture the Iraqi prisoners were subjected to. And many more Iraqi victims of abuses are unlikely to receive any sort of compensation at all.
As Peter W. Singer, of the Brookings Institution told Wired, the settlement raises questions over true accountability for U.S. military contractors and their actions overseas:
Soldiers get court martialed, but for the very same incident, the contractors named in the same reports face no individual punishment and their firm just throws high power lawyers at the problem until it decides to make it go away with a token payment?
Engility Holdings, a spin off of L-3 Communications, is a major government contractor and Fortune 500 company. The company employs more than 50,000 people and had a turnover of more than $15 billion in 2011 alone, Patrick Cockburn reports in the Independent.
The settlement was reached over two months ago but had gone unnoticed until a document filed by Engility with the Securities and Exchange Commission was uncovered by the Associated Press Wednesday.