LITIGATION
Al Shimari v. CACI is a federal lawsuit brought by four Iraqi torture victims against private US-based contractor CACI International Inc., and CACI Premier Technology, Inc. It asserts that CACI participated directly and through a conspiracy in torture and other illegal conduct while it was providing interrogation services at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Click here for the case page.
Al-Quraishi v. Nakhla is a federal lawsuit against US-based private contractor L-3 Services, Inc. (formerly Titan Corporation) and Adel Nakhla, a former employee of Titan/L-3 Services. Brought on behalf of 72 Iraqi plaintiffs, it brings claims of torture, war crimes and other serious abuse against both L-3 Services and Nakhla for their participation in a conspiracy to torture detainees as prisons in Iraq, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Click here for the case page.
Saleh v. Titan is a federal lawsuit brought by more than 250 Iraqi plaintiffs against private contractors CACI International Incorporated and Titan Corporation (now L-3 Services). It charges the companies with torture and other heinous and illegal acts committed against Iraqi detainees while the contractors were providing interrogation and translation services at detention facilities in Iraq, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. On June 27, 2011, the Supreme Court issued an order denying Plaintiffs petition for certiorari, thereby ending this case. Click here for the case page.
TAKE ACTION:
NEW RESOURCE: The Business and Human Rights Documentation project is featuring the issue of Private Military Contractors in the In Focus section of their website.
Past actions (note the legislation is no longer active but may be re-introduced):
Please urge your representatives to co-sponsor the “Stop Outsourcing Security” legislation that Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) introduced in the House and Senate in February 2010.
Click here for more information about this legislation and to take action. Watch the press conference here.
RECENT CCR STATEMENTS AND LETTERS REGARDING CONTRACTORS
December 2011 Blog Do Private Military Contractors Have Impunity to Torture?
June 2011 Press Release: Legal Team for Abu Ghraib Victims: U.S. Supreme Court Ignored Torture about the Supreme Court declining to take the case of Saleh v. Titan
June 2011 Blog The Obama Administration on the Wrong Side of Torture...Again about Saleh v. Titan and contractor accountability under the Obama Administration
August 2010 Article Contracting Out the Occupation: Another False Ending to the War in Iraq
July 2010 Press release about court denying Motion to Dismiss in Al-Quraishi v. Nahkla
May 2010 Press release about Retired Military Officers and Rights Groups filing briefs in support of Saleh v. Titan
April 2010 Press release regarding Abu Ghaib victims asking the US Supreme Court to hear their case, Saleh v. Titan
March 2010 CCR and other human rights organizations sent a letter to Secretary Clinton urging that donor funds for Haiti be used for post-earthquake reconstruction and relief not for private security contracts. Read our letter here. Also, read CCR Legal Director Bill Quigley's article Mercenaries Circling Haiti.
February 2010 Press release about CCR's support for the Stop Outsourcing Security legislation.
The Blackwater Factsheet. The U.S. government has increasingly been outsourcing functions previously carried out by government employees or members of the military to for-profit corporations. During the Bush Administration, the use of private military contractors rose dramatically: while during the first Gulf War one in sixty people deployed were employees of corporations contracted by the U.S. government, the ratio swelled to one in three during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today, there are more private contractors than US soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read more...
Accountability for Torture by Contractors Factsheet. The release of the photographs and video documenting
horrific torture and other serious forms of abuse of Iraqi prisoners
detained by the U.S. at Abu Ghraib drew demands for accountability and redress from around the world, including from top Bush Administration officials. The subsequent investigations led to the court-martial of a small number of low-level U.S. soldiers as well as documentation of the role played in the torture at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities by contractors from two U.S.-based corporations: L-3 Services (formerly Titan Corporation) and CACI International.
Read more...
The U.S. Supreme Court sent a terrible message with its refusal in June of 2011 to hear the case of 250 civilians allegedly tortured and seriously harmed by corporate contractors at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, according to the detainees' legal team. Senior Staff Attorney Katherine Gallagher explains this problematic situation.
On Tuesday, October 27 CCR hosted a panel discussion on the private military industry in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa that was streamed through a live webcast.
Panelists Vince Warren, CCR Executive Director; Jeremy Scahill, Journalist and Author of Blackwater: Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army; Representative Jan Schakowsky, Congressional Representative from the 9th District of Illinois and Emira Woods, Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus discussed the impact of privatized conflict on human rights, current efforts to secure corporate accountability and redress for the victims of human rights abuses and ways that you can get involved. The panel was moderated by Annette Dickerson, CCR Director of Education and Outreach.
Above is a multimedia presentation prepared by Photographer Chris Bartlett, whose photo exhibit was on display at the True Reformer Building during the October 27, 2009 event. The Detainee Project was created by Chris Bartlett and Daniel Heyman, two artists whose work features CCR clients, Iraqi torture survivors, who bring allegations against contractors for participating in a conspiracy to torture Iraqi detainees. To learn more about Chris Bartlett's work, visit the Detainee Project’s website.
