Families Say U.S. Contractors Tortured in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CN) – In the latest claim to escape the Pandora’s box of U.S. contracting in Iraq, 55 Iraqis sued prison contractors CACI Premier Technology, and L-3 Services fka Titan Corp., saying their employees tortured and raped detainees, took millions of dinars from them, stole prosthetic limbs, forced them to watch the torture of their own children, and, in a tactic employed widely by the Argentine junta, threw a man from a helicopter.     The plaintiffs claim that “while forcibly detained under United States custody in Iraq, [they] were unlawfully tortured by agents or employees of the defendants, who were under contract with the United States government to provide interrogation, translation and other services.”     Lead counsel in the 106-page complaint L. Palmer of Foret of Washington, D.C., is assisted by Edmond, Jones & Lindsay of Atlanta.     The complaint claims the defendants stole millions of dinars from the detainees, tortured and killed them and subjected them to unconscionable abuse such as:     taking one man’s prosthetic legs from him for 6 months, making him unable to walk; beating a woman while she was hooded, and forcing her to listen to them beat her mother while still hooded;     forcing a man to watch other detainees be tortured and killed;     shooting a man in the arm while he was hooded and restrained;     torturing a man with electroshock and chemicals, and making him watch his father be tortured until he became unconscious;     injected a man with hallucinogenic drugs, beat him until he leg was broken and forced him to watch his sons be tortured;     stole $14,000 in U.S. currency from man and forced him to watch his father and brother be tortured.     These complaints are taken from the first half of the lengthy complaint.     “Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that they or their decedents, while forcibly detained under United States custody in Iraq, were unlawfully tortured by agents or employees of the defendants, who were under contract with the United States government to provide interrogation, translation and other services with said detainees, with the result being that said plaintiffs or their decedents suffered significant physical injury, emotional distress, and/or wrongful death for which the defendants are liable for compensatory and/or punitive damages.”