A contractor working for the Protection Division in Iraq faces civil actions from three former prisoners alleging wicked abuse
An worker of CACI, a contractor with sturdy hyperlinks to the Pentagon, was pushing troopers serving in Iraq to rough-up detainees on the infamous Abu Ghraib jail, retired US Military Normal Antonio Taguba has testified, at a trial by which CACI denies torture.
The Virginia-based consultancy is being sued by three former detainees of the notorious jail, who allege they have been tortured 20 years in the past. The listening to started on Monday, after virtually 16 years of procedural delays.
Taguba, who retired in 2007 after 35 years’ service, recognized Steven Stefanowicz, aka ‘Large Steve,’ because the CACI worker who had instructed the Military guards at Abu Ghraib to “soften up” the inmates – and had even tried to intimidate the overall himself at one level.
“He would lean on the desk staring me down. He didn’t reply questions immediately,” Taguba advised the court docket. “He was attempting to intimidate me.”
Requested if he was actually intimidated, the retired normal responded, “Not in your life.”
A report by Taguba in 2004 mentioned that Stefanowicz “clearly knew his directions equated to bodily abuse” and really helpful he be fired, reprimanded and lose his safety clearance. In response to Related Press, his testimony on Tuesday was the strongest proof of CACI contractors taking part in a task within the Abu Ghraib abuses.
The retired normal testified that his investigation targeted on the army police (MP). Many MPs advised investigators that that they had not acquired clear directions from the army, so Stefanowicz and different CACI contractors stepped into the vacuum. The court docket additionally heard that investigators have been initially confused, as a result of they thought the troops have been saying “khaki” as an alternative of the corporate’s title.
One of many three plaintiffs additionally testified on Tuesday. Talking from Iraq and thru an interpreter, Asaad Hamza Zubae mentioned he had been stored bare, threatened with canines, and compelled to masturbate in entrance of jail guards.
Legal professionals for CACI challenged that testimony, pointing to authorities stories displaying that canines had not but been despatched to Iraq on the time.
The contractor has filed over 20 motions to dismiss the case over the previous 16 years. Its legal professionals have argued that, as a contractor to the Division of Protection, CACI must be protected by the identical sovereign immunity because the US authorities.
The Middle for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs, has described the trial as “the primary lawsuit the place victims of US post-9/11 torture will get their day in court docket.”
The Abu Ghraib scandal first got here to public consideration in April 2004, when images of abused prisoners and their smiling US guards have been printed. The abuses included stacking nude prisoners in pyramids or dragging them by leashes round their necks. Others have been threatened by canines or have been hooded and hooked up to electrical wires.
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