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Home Front: WoT

Three Abu Ghraib detainees are awarded $42million for torture they experienced 2 decades ago

2024-11-14

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Three former detainees at Abu Ghraib prison have awarded $42million for the torture they faced two decades ago.

The decision from eight person jury came after they found Virginia-based military contractor CACI responsible for the mistreatment of the men at the notorious Iraqi prison.

A different jury earlier this year couldn't agree on whether Reston, Virginia-based CACI should be held liable for the work of its civilian interrogators who worked alongside the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004.

Yesterday's ruling in Alexandria, Va, will see Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa´ad Al-Zubae each receive $3million in compensatory damages and $11 million each in punitive damages.

The three testified that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at the prison.

Whilst they did not allege that CACI's interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, but argued CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to 'soften up' detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.

CACI issued a statement expressing its disappointment in the verdict and its intention to appeal.

'For nearly two decades, CACI has been wrongly subjected to long-term, negative affiliation with the unfortunate and reckless actions of a group of military police at Abu Ghraib prison from 2003 through 2004,' the company said. 'To be clear: no CACI employee has ever been charged - criminally, civilly, or administratively - in this matter. CACI employees did not take part in nor were any of our employees responsible for these disturbing events.'

Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit on the plaintiffs' behalf, called the verdict 'an important measure of Justice and accountability' and praised the three plaintiffs for their resilience.

The $42 million fully matches the amount sought by the plaintiffs, Azmy said. It's also more than the $31 million that the plaintiffs said CACI was paid to supply interrogators to Abu Ghraib.

'Today is a big day for me and for justice,' said Al-Ejaili, a journalist, in a written statement. 'I´ve waited a long time for this day. This victory isn´t only for the three plaintiffs in this case against a corporation. This victory is a shining light for everyone who has been oppressed and a strong warning to any company or contractor practicing different forms of torture and abuse.'

Al-Ejaili traveled to the U.S. for both trials to testify in person. The other two plaintiffs testified by video from Iraq.

The trial and subsequent retrial were the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment - accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse - shocked the world during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

None of the three plaintiffs were in any of the notorious photos shown in news reports around the world, but they described treatment very similar to what was depicted.

Al Shimari described sexual assaults and beatings during his two months at the prison. He also said he was electrically shocked and dragged around the prison by a rope tied around his neck. Al-Ejaili said he was subjected to stress positions that caused him to vomit black liquid. He was also deprived of sleep, forced to wear womens underwear and threatened with dogs.

CACI had argued it wasn´t complicit in the detainees´ abuse. It said its employees had minimal interaction with the three plaintiffs in the case, and CACI questioned parts of the plaintiffs' stories, saying that military records contradict some of their claims and suggesting they shaded their stories to support a case against the contractor. Fundamentally, though, CACI argued that any liability for their mistreatment belonged to the government.

As in the first trial, the jury struggled to decide whether CACI or the Army should be held responsible for any misconduct by CACI interrogators. The jury asked questions in its deliberations in both cases about whether the contractor or the Army bore liability.

In the first trial, which ended with a mistrial and hung jury, multiple jurors told The Associated Press that a majority wanted to hold CACI liable.

CACI, as one of its defenses, argued it shouldn´t be liable for any misdeeds by its employees if they were under the control and direction of the Army. under a legal principle known as the 'borrowed servants' doctrine.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that CACI was responsible for its own employees' misdeeds. They said provisions in CACI´s contract with the Army, as well as the Army Field Manual, make clear that CACI is responsible for overseeing its own workers.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2008 but was delayed by 15 years of legal wrangling and multiple attempts by CACI to have the case dismissed.

Lawyers for the three plaintiffs argued that CACI was liable for their mistreatment even if they couldn't prove that CACI´s interrogators were the ones who directly inflicted the abuse.

Evidence included reports from two retired Army generals, who documented the abuse and concluded that multiple CACI interrogators were complicit in the abuse.

Those reports concluded that one of the interrogators, Steven Stefanowicz, lied to investigators about his conduct and that he likely instructed soldiers to mistreat detainees and used dogs to intimidate detainees during interrogations.

Stefanowicz testified for CACI at trial through a recorded video deposition and denied mistreating detainees.

CACI introduced a different report that concluded contractors like CACI did a 'satisfactory' job of complying with military procedures.

That all sounds like CACI plans to appeal the ruling.

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Home Front: WoT

Former Terror Detainee Recalls Captivity - Where else, on 60 Minutes

2008-03-28

A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Even after determining he was not a terrorist, Murat Kurnaz says the torture continued. Kurnaz tells his story for the first time on American television this Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born and raised in Germany, went to Pakistan in late 2001 at age 19 to study Islam and wound up in Pakistani police custody. It was three months after 9/11, and Kurnaz says the U.S. was offering bounties for suspicious foreigners. Kurnaz says he was "sold" to the Americans for $3,000 and brought to Kandahar as terrorist suspect.

They all go to Pakistain to "study Islam." And three months after 9-11 was December, 2001, when the Qaeda thugs swarmed out of Afghanistan in the wake of Tora Bora.

He claims American troops tortured him in Afghanistan by holding his head underwater, administering electric shocks to the soles of his feet, and hanging him suspended from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar and kept alive by doctors. "Every five or six hours they came and pulled me back down and the doctor came," he recalls. "He looked into my eyes. He checked my heart and when he said 'okay,' then they pulled me back up," he tells Pelley.

"The abuses Mr. Kurnaz alleges are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish."

The U.S. Pentagon responding by e-mail says, "We treat all detainees humanely and all credible claims are investigated thoroughly. The abuses Mr. Kurnaz alleges are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish."

Kurnaz, who has told his story to European investigators, says "[It] doesnt matter whatever they will say. The truth will not change this is the truth." Kurnaz says he was questioned in Afghanistan about Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban. He answered truthfully, he says, and told them repeatedly to call the German government and verify who he was. But they continued to torture him, he says. "They used to beat me when my head was underwaterthey beat me into my stomach.I had to inhale the water," he tells Pelley.

He says he was then brought to Guantanamo as one of the first "enemy combatants." His treatment there, he says, included repeated beatings at the hands of soldiers in riot gear, sleep-deprivation and solitary confinement. "It's dark inside, no lights and they can punish you in isolation by coldness orheat. They have special air conditioners. Very strong. They can turn it very cold or very hot."

"They have special machines that can turn you into a newt or back into a maggot!"

After a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2004, Kurnaz was visited by an American lawyer, who successfully sued the U.S. government to release his classified file. That file contained information from the FBI, German Intelligence and even the U.S. military pointing to his innocence. But after a series of Kafkaesque military tribunals and review boards, he remained in Guantanamo for another three-and-a-half years.

Kurnaz' lawyer, Baher Azmy, says there may be many more cases like Kurnazs at the offshore prison. "In Guantanamo, no detainee has ever been able to genuinely present evidence before a neutral judge and so as absurd as Murat Kurnaz's case is, I assure you, there are many, many dozens just as tenuous," Azmy tells Pelley.

Link

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