The Center for Constitutional Rights announced May 2:
“Today, after eight days of deliberations following a six-day trial, the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the case against a Virginia-based company for its well-documented role in the torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of three Iraqi men held in 2003-2004 at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison during the early months of the U.S. occupation. The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by Iraqi torture victims against CACI Premier Technology Inc., a private contractor the U.S. government hired to provide interrogation services at Abu Ghraib after it invaded Iraq in 2003. The plaintiffs intend to pursue their right to a retrial, according to their attorneys.”
Our friend Katherine Gallagher, Senior Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (see above with two survivors) wrote in 2016 of a UN Human Rights Council meeting which heard from two survivors of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison: Voices From the Ground: Abu Ghraib Torture Survivors Speak in Geneva.
From Salah Hassan’s testimony: When I entered the Abu Ghraib prison, my only fault was being a journalist looking for truth and defending human rights. In prison, I heard the guards singing, happy birthday Al Jazeera on my first night at Abu Ghraib prison… I believe that the international community must take a serious position by exploring the possibilities of setting an international framework organizing the activities of private military and security companies. This is in addition to monitoring them and imposing oversight on their actions so that [this] catastrophe would not be repeated and human rights would not be violated anywhere.
We are furious to see that the closest possibility for justice in this case hasn’t reached a conclusion yet of guilty for CACI, the contracting company. And further, what about those who gave the orders? As we said back in 2005: Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.