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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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September 12th,
2009 - Court Rejects Suit Against CACI Over Abu Ghraib Torture |
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Court Rejects Suit Against
CACI Over Abu Ghraib Torture Contractor Granted Wartime Immunity By Mike Musgrove Washington Post September 12, 2009 A federal appeals court
rejected a lawsuit Friday against CACI International that accused the firm's
employees of taking part in the torture and abuse of prisoners at the Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq. In a 2 to 1 ruling, the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the case on
the grounds that CACI should be immune from prosecution because the company's
employees were under U.S. military authority. "During wartime,"
wrote Judge Laurence H. Silberman, "where a private service contractor
is integrated into combatant activities over which the military retains
command authority, a tort claim arising out of the contractor's engagement in
such activities shall be preempted." The decision reversed a
lower court's ruling in March that the company must face a lawsuit filed by
former detainees who claim that they were tortured at the detention center
near Baghdad. Ever since the Abu Ghraib
scandal erupted in May 2004, CACI has maintained that it was not involved in
the facility's mistreatment of its detainees, a stance the firm repeated
Friday. The Arlington-based government contractor had provided interrogators
to the U.S. military in Iraq. "The court's decision
today is an important step toward resolving all legal matters regarding the
company's mission and duties in Iraq," Jody Brown, executive vice
president for public relations at CACI, said in a statement. "We have
said from day one that these lawsuits are completely without merit and
designed to pursue a political agenda." The attorney who argued the
case on behalf of the Abu Ghraib detainees, Susan L. Burke, said on Friday
that her legal team intends to file for an "en banc" review of the
case, under which all nine of the court's judges would hear the appeal. "We are cautiously
optimistic that we will receive en banc review and that it will be
reversed," she said. "We anticipate that the majority of jurists
hearing the matter will adhere to the rule of law." "Although we are
disappointed, this is an anticipated setback in what will continue to be an
ongoing battle against torture," Burke said. In a dissenting opinion
filed Friday, Judge Merrick B. Garland argued that there is no judicial
precedent that would prohibit the detainees from suing government
contractors. "The plaintiffs in
these cases allege that they were beaten, electrocuted, raped, subjected to
attacks by dogs and otherwise abused by private contractors," he wrote.
"At the current stage of the litigation we must accept these allegations
as true." © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091103285.html |