Four Abu Ghraib Torture Lawsuits Filed Against Military Contractors

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:29:48 AM EST
Tags: torture (all tags)

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The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed four lawsuits against military contractors on behalf of four detainees who were subjected to torture at Abu Ghraib.

The defendants are CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CAI) and CACI Premier Technology, Inc., of Arlington, Va.; L-3 Services Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based division of L-3 Communications Corp. (NYSE: LLL), of New York; and three individual contractors, Adel Nakhla, of Montgomery Village, Md., Timothy Dugan, of Pataskala, Ohio, and Daniel E. Johnson, of Seattle, Wash.

The allegations:

The lawsuits allege that the defendants committed multiple violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes, and civil conspiracy. CACI, which provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib, and L-3, which provided translators at the prison, were linked to abuses there in military court martial proceedings which resulted in convictions for U.S. military personnel but no civil or criminal penalties for contractors implicated in abuses. According to the lawsuits, the individual contractor defendants allegedly “tortured, and conspired with others to torture.”

The lawsuits were filed in the federal district courts where the contractor defendants reside: Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, and Washington state.

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Four Abu Ghraib Torture Lawsuits Filed Against Military Contractors | 5 comments (5 topical)

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Give to CCR (none / 0) (#1)
by Stellaaa on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:45:47 AM EST

See, I have and still give large donations to CCR, gets me more for my money than any political donation. So, support their work and their achievements. More for your money. Blatant advertisement.

Are these law suits timed? (none / 0) (#2)
by Lil on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:46:15 AM EST

I worry that truth will not prevail, if these trials happen under the current administration. Or am I just being paranoid?

I was just reading... (none / 0) (#3)
by Marco21 on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 10:08:18 AM EST

Glenn Greenwald's response to Olbermann's "Special" comment last night on Obama and FISA. Glenn mentioned Bush could pardon telecoms on his way out of office sparring them any criminal penalties.

Will George do the same for these contractors? I am thinking yes.

I know it's not the same as... (none / 0) (#4)
by Marco21 on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 10:08:57 AM EST

a civil suit. Just saying.

Some Related Info (none / 0) (#7)
by The Maven on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 12:11:57 PM EST

I've been periodically tracking other similar types of lawsuits for several years, and thought it worthwhile to note here that there are already three earlier-filed suits against CACI Int'l and L-3 Services (formerly known as Titan Corp.).

Ibrahim v. CACI, 04-1248 (D.D.C.)
Saleh v. CACI, 05-1165 (D.D.C.)
al-Janabi v. Stefanowicz, 08-2913 (C.D. Cal.)

The first two have been around for a while and currently have multiple appeals under way before the D.C. Circuit Court (08-7001, 7008, 7009, 7030, 7044 and 7045). The opening appellate briefs are due at the end of this month. Most motion practice at the district court was held jointly for both cases before James Robertson, USDJ. The corporate defendants had claimed, among other things, that their actions were protected under the government contractor defense. Judge Robertson largely agreed with L-3 in this regard, but not with CACI. Generally, the federal claims were all dismissed, however, leaving only supplemental tort claims arising from state law. I wish I had the time right now to describe what had occurred at the district court level and provide all relevant links, but unfortunately that may have to wait for a while.

The al-Janabi complaint was just filed in late May, so little has yet happened in that matter, aside from a recently filed motion to transfer the case to the Eastern District of Virginia.

CCR, Burke O'Neill and Akeel & Valentine are plaintiffs' counsel in the Saleh and al-Janabi cases. Ibrahim has a different set of attorneys. All of the earlier cases, like the new ones, rely upon the same set of statutes (led by the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. §1350) to provide for jurisdiction in the federal courts.