Four Iraqi inmates sue US firms for torture
By Ebrahimi
Istanbul, 2008 July 1, IRIB
According to lawsuits filed in US courts, four Iraqi men have sued US military contractors who they say tortured them while they were detained in Abu Ghraib prison.
The lawsuits hold the contractors responsible for violations of US law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy.
Lawyer William Gould said their lawsuit is against private security contractor CACI International and two of its interrogators, Daniel Johnson and Tim Dugan, and the translation agency L-3 and its interpreter, Abel Nakhla.
The scandal over the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib unleashed a wave of global condemnation against the US when images of abused prisoners surfaced in 2004.
The four plaintiffs, all later released without charge, described their experiences on Monday at a hotel in the Turkish city of Istanbul, where they periodically meet their US legal team. They gave accounts of beatings, electric shocks and mock executions.
Since 2003 when Iraq was occupied by the US forces, US private security firms have infiltrated the country. There is no doubt that the US prepared the ground for the presence of such firms in Iraq. During the last five years, the members of the private security firms have acted as the military arm of the US army. In many crimes the US occupation forces have committed in Iraq, the track of such firms can be seen clearly.
Most US private security firms are run by influential and prominent figures of the Republican regime. In other words, Bush's close friends are among the main shareholders of the US private companies in occupied Iraq. Thus, there is a kind of close cooperation between the private security firms and the White House in implementing Bush's inhuman policies in Iraq.
US officials over the last five years have tried to hush up the sordid realities of such firms in Iraq. But the disclosure of the US crimes in Abu Ghraib prison and the horrible photos of the tortured Iraqis have gradually exposed the bitter realities of the US war in Iraq and the nefarious activities of the private firms as well as the vested interests the United States and its major companies have in Iraq.
Many political experts believe the complaint lodged by the four Iraqis against the torturers and the security firm can, not only turn into another scandal for the White House, but also discloses the shocking situation into which Iraq has plunged because of the illegal US military presence.
