Va. military contractors face lawsuits over alleged torture

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a legal team that last year filed suit against North Carolina-based private security contractor Blackwater for its role in the mass shooting of Iraqi civilians.

Now the nonprofit law firm is targeting three other contractors based in the South -- this time over torture inside Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Yesterday CCR announced that it was suing CACI International and CACI Premier Technology Inc. of Arlington, Va., along with an Alexandria-based division of L-3 Communications Corp. It's also suing three individual contractors: Adel Nakhla of Maryland, a translator with L-3, then known as the Titan Corp.; Timothy Dugan of Ohio, a CACI screener and interrogator; and Daniel E. Johnson of Seattle, also a CACI interrogator.

"Private military contractors and the individuals they employ cannot act with impunity," said CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher in a statement. "Contractors must act within the bounds of law and must be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities in Iraq. We believe their actions and the acts of torture of their employees clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual, and the laws of the United States."

The lawsuits were filed in federal court on behalf of the following Iraqi civilians:

* Mohammed Abdwaihed Towfek Al-Taee, a 39-year-old taxi driver who alleges abuse during a nine-month detention and who later learned that he was probably turned in by a customer seeking U.S. payment for intelligence tips.

* Wissam Abdullateef Sa'eed Al-Quraishi, a 37-year-old who was allegedly hung on a pole for seven days and subjected to beatings, forced nudity, electrical shocks, humiliating treatment, mock executions and other forms of torture.

* Sa'adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old Arabic teacher and shopkeeper who was allegedly held for a year during which he was caged, abused, stripped and kept naked, and who for a time was hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

* Suhail Najim Abdullah Al-Shimari, a farmer who was held for more than four years and allegedly caged, menaced with dogs, subjected to beatings and electrical shocks, and threatened with death and being sent to a "far away" place.

CCR was founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South. Other firms involved in the lawsuit over contractor torture are Burke O'Neil of Philadelphia and Akeel & Valentine of Troy, Mich. For more details on the allegations, click here.