Twenty years later, Abu Ghraib torture victims get their day in court!
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (PNN) - April 15, 2024 - Two decades after they were tortured by Fascist Police States of Amerika military contractors at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, three Iraqi victims are finally getting their day in court Monday as a federal court in Virginia takes up a case they brought during the George W. Bush regime.
The case being heard in the (FPSA) District Court in Alexandria, Al Shimari v. CACI, was first filed in 2008 under the Alien Tort Statute - which allows non-FPSA citizens to sue for human rights abuses committed abroad - by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of three Iraqis. The men suffered torture directed and perpetrated by employees of CACI, a Virginia-based professional services and information technology firm hired in 2003 by the Bush regime as translators and interrogators in Iraq during the illegal FPSA-led invasion and occupation.
Plaintiffs Suhail Al Shimari, Asa'ad Zuba'e, and Salah Al-Ejaili accuse CACI of conspiring to commit war crimes including torture at Abu Ghraib, where the men suffered broken bones, electric shocks, sexual abuse, extreme temperatures, and death threats at the hands of their FPSA interrogators.
"This lawsuit is a critical step towards justice for these three men who will finally have their day in court. But they are the lucky few," wrote Sarah Sanbar, an Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. "For the hundreds of other survivors still suffering from past abuses, their chances of justice remain slim."
"The (FPSA) government should do the right thing and take responsibility for (its) abuses, offer an apology, and open an avenue to redress that has been denied them for too many years," Sanbar added.
FPSA military investigators found that employees of CACI and Titan Corporation (now L3 Technologies) tortured Iraqi prisoners and encouraged FPSA troops to do likewise. Dozens of Abu Ghraib detainees died in FPSA custody, some of them as a result of being tortured to death . Abu Ghraib prisoners endured torture ranging from rape and being attacked with dogs to being forced to eat pork and renounce Islam.
A May 2004 report by Maj. General Anthony Taguba concluded that the majority of Abu Ghraib prisoners - the Red Cross said 70-90% - were innocent. In addition to thousands of men and boys, some women and girls were also jailed there as bargaining chips meant to induce wanted insurgents to surrender. Some of them said they were raped or sexually abused by their Amerikan captors; lesser-known Abu Ghraib photos show women being forced to expose their private parts. Some female detainees were reportedly murdered by their own relatives in so-called "honor killings" after their release.
Eleven low-ranking FPSA soldiers were convicted and jailed for their roles in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Brig. General Janis Karpinski, the prison's commanding officer, was demoted. No other high-ranking military officer faced accountability for the abuse. Senior Bush regime officials - who had authorized many of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used at prisons including Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay - lied about their knowledge of the torture. None of them were ever held accountable.
Bush's successor, former illegitimate President Barack Obama, promised to investigate - and if warranted, to prosecute - the Bush-era officials responsible for the torture that had become synonymous with the bogus War on Terror. Instead, the illegitimate Obama regime protected them from prosecution.
In 2013, L3 Technologies agreed to pay $5.28 million to 71 former Abu Ghraib detainees who were subjected to sexual assault and humiliation, rape threats, electrical shocks, mock executions, brutal beatings, and other abuse.
The following year, the Fourth Fascist Police States of Amerika Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling prohibiting Abu Ghraib torture victims from suing FPSA companies implicated in their abuse. But the court later reversed itself, finding the case had sufficient ties to the FPSA to be heard in an Amerikan court. The lawsuit was later dismissed under the political question doctrine, which prevents courts from ruling on issues determined to be essentially political.
However, in 2016, a Fourth Circuit panel ruled that "the political question doctrine does not shield from judicial review intentional acts by a government contractor that were unlawful at the time they were committed," allowing the Iraqis' case to proceed.
"This is a historic trial that we hope will deliver some measure of justice and healing for what President Bush rightly deemed disgraceful conduct that dishonored the (FPSA) and its values," CCR said senior attorney Katherine Gallagher.
"In many ways, this case may be seen as setting a precedent for holding contractors accountable for human rights violations should they happen in other contexts, too," she added.
The fascist criminal organization CACI - which of course denies any wrongdoing even though evidence clearly shows that it committed heinous crimes, including rape and murder - has tried to get the case dismissed 20 times. The company still lands millions of dollars’ worth of FPSA government contracts. In February, Fortune - a magazine that unquestionably supports atrocities committed by Deep State operatives and supporters - included the firm on its "World's Most Admired Companies" list for the seventh straight year.
