Twenty years since the appalling images of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq emerged, a civil lawsuit filed by some of those former prisoners will finally proceed. CACI, a Virginia-based contractor, is being sued for supplying the interrogators who worked at the facility. For years CACI denied any wrongdoing and since 30 June 2008 tried 18 times to have the case dismissed. But in 2021, SCOTUS ultimately turned back CACI's appeal efforts, sending the case back to district court for trial.
Al Shimari, et al. v. CACI begins 15 April 2024 in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Excerpt from the Center for Constitutional Rights:
“Suhail Al Shimari described sexual assaults and beatings during his two months at Abu Ghraib, where he also electrically shocked and dragged around by a rope tied around his neck. Former Al-Jazeera reporter Salah Al-Ejaili was subjected to stress positions causing him to vomit black liquid. He was also deprived of sleep, forced to wear women's underwear and threatened with dogs.”
(Mr. Al-Ejaili was also recently interviewed on DemocracyNow!: www.democracynow.org/...)
Retired US Army Major-General Antonio Taguba, who led an investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal, is expected to testify, as well as MPs assigned to Abu Ghraib. His voluminous report published May 2004 is linked here: hrlibrary.umn.edu/...
The plaintiffs were released from Abu Ghraib prison after periods of detention ranging from two months to a year without being charged with a single crime. Judge Leonie Brinkema, a President Clinton-nominated judge, has experience dealing with complex national security cases. (Link: www.washingtonpost.com/...)
Sources: ccrjustice.org/… ccrjustice.org/...