- Abu Ghraib scandal’s civil trial against CACI International unfolds
- Survivors recount atrocities; US torture program accountability spotlighted
- Pursuit of justice continues for Abu Ghraib and beyond
I was in middle school on April 28, 2004, when the eerie photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were first released by CBS News. I cannot recall my precise emotions at the time, but I do recall that it was an exceedingly dark moment that shook everyone. That remains with me to this very day.
Twenty-five years later, I was in court, examining the identical distressing photographs depicting men with their faces obscured by coarse hoods. However, the tormented individuals depicted in these photographs were not anonymous or unrecognizable. I observed a survivor of Abu Ghraib’s testimony from Iraq through video link and exchanged handshakes with another individual outside the courtroom, situated twenty minutes away from the capital of the country where pivotal decisions influenced their lives.
Two weeks before the Abu Ghraib scandal’s twentieth anniversary, the civil trial of Al Shimari v. CACI commenced. As an advocate for the Centre for Victims of Torture, which holds the United States accountable for acts of torture, I was present in an observer capacity.
Suhail Najim Abdullah al-Shimari, Salah Hasan Nusaif al-Ejaili, and Asa’ad Hamza Hanfoosh Zuba’e, three Iraqi males, filed this case against a military contractor. It is the only one brought to trial by survivors of Abu Ghraib.
CACI International Inc., a private military contractor, is the subject of a lawsuit initiated by the three individuals. The charge against CACI personnel is that they “conspired to engage in unlawful activities, such as torture and war crimes, at Abu Ghraib prison.” The company has attempted to dismiss this matter over twenty times since 2008.
The trial represents a pivotal juncture in the legal dispute over accountability and redress regarding Abu Ghraib and, more generally, the United States torture program. This event signifies the result of victims, human rights advocates, and legal specialists laboring ceaselessly to expose the murky underbelly of the United States “war on terror.”
At my place of employment, the Centre for Victims of Torture, we engage in direct communication with torture survivors and listen to them recount their experiences of the ordeal, including its profound impact on their sense of safety, confidence, and identity. Intentionally causing harm to the human body, mind, and spirit, torture continues even after the acts cease. This is why it is important to convey the story.
The plaintiffs delivered distressing testimonies in court regarding their ordeals at Abu Ghraib and the enduring consequences that continue to plague them twenty years later.
They described in detail to the court the humiliation and torment to which they had been subjected by private contractors and military personnel. They described the enduring physical pain and injury, the challenges they faced in maintaining familial connections, the erosion of significant relationships, and the disruption to their sleep caused by nightmares. The individuals recounted their inability to engage in eye contact, a fundamental human ability to perceive and be perceived, due to the immense humiliation they felt about the treatment they endured.
Al-Ejaili, a former Al Jazeera journalist, described the significance of sharing his experience: “Perhaps it serves as a remedy or a form of treatment.”
Major Generals (retired) Antonio Taguba and George Fay provided testimony in court regarding their inquiries concerning the torture incidents that transpired at Abu Ghraib. The 2004 investigation led by General Taguba was initiated by the military in response to inquiries from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was carried out before the public disclosure of any photographs originating from Abu Ghraib. Several detainees were subjected to “incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses,” and “systemic and illegal abuse… was intentionally perpetrated,” according to the findings of General Taguba.
According to a report published by General Fay in August 2004, the detainees were subjected to torture methods such as canine use, nudity, humiliation, and physical assault. The document detailed various forms of torture, which encompassed “direct physical assault, such as detainees being rendered unconscious with head blows, sexual posing, and forced participation in group masturbation.”
Subsequent investigations by the US Senate Armed Services Committee in 2008 and Fay and Taguba’s respective committees revealed that the atrocities committed at Abu Ghraib were not unique occurrences. As part of the “war on terror” torture policy of the Bush administration, senior officials, including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, authorized the atrocities. Abu Ghraib received a number of its interrogation techniques from Guantanamo Bay and Bagram, two military bases in Afghanistan where detainees were subjected to similar treatment.
As alleged in the Taguba and Fay reports, CACI personnel engaged in mistreatment, including “softening up” detainees in preparation for interrogations. One of them was Steve Stephanowicz, who, as stated in internal CACI emails admitted in court, was “not qualified nor trained” and therefore unsuitable to serve as an interrogator. During his investigation, General Taguba testified in court that Stephanowicz attempted to “intimidate” him.
Stephanowicz was nonetheless elevated to a position of authority within CACI and granted a salary augmentation of 48 percent; this pattern was also observed among members of the Bush administration who authorized torture.
Unidentified CACI personnel are mentioned in the Fay report as having physically assaulted detainees and forced them into unauthorized stress positions. One even boasted that they “forced a detainee to wear red women’s pants” after shaving him.
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Abu Ghraib is distinctive in that, in contrast to Guantanamo and other covert CIA detention facilities, the atrocities that transpired there were exposed to the world. And today, the world once more witnesses what the United States did through this trial and the testimonies of these survivors. There have been no prosecutions of senior government or military officials for offenses committed by the United States. As of their demise, no victim has been granted reparation commensurate with the daily suffering they endure.
Nonetheless, this proceeding presents a chance to attain a measure of justice. Torture survivors are entitled to reparation, rehabilitation, and compensation; I fervently wish that these three individuals are granted all three. Although they will never receive the complete justice that is rightfully theirs, a favorable verdict could secure them monetary reparation, recognition of their suffering, and expose the complicity of CACI.
In this case, the struggle for justice does not culminate. Further efforts are still required to be undertaken.
Abu Ghraib and the Bagram detention facility were formally shut down in 2014; however, Guantanamo continues to operate with thirty men being held there indefinitely, allegedly in conditions that constitute torture, as reported by the United Nations. Despite the stated intent of the current US administration to close, efforts to do so have stalled. However, ongoing endeavors persist to shut down the detention facility and pursue redress and justice for the victims of the United States torture program.
