Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Iraqi in Abu Ghraib saw captors rape, kill detainees

SETH HETTENA Associated Press Writer | 03.07.2004 17:59 | Analysis | World

An Iraqi-born Swede's allegations of rape, sexual humiliation and abuse in Abu Ghraib prison..

Lawsuit: Iraqi in Abu Ghraib saw captors rape, kill detainees
Thursday July 01, 2004
By SETH HETTENA
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) An Iraqi-born Swede's allegations of rape, sexual humiliation and abuse in Abu Ghraib prison were added Thursday to an ongoing lawsuit in San Diego against U.S. defense contractors.

The man, identified only by his last name, Saleh, says during his three months in captivity last fall he saw guards fire into a crowd of inmates, killing five. He says he also witnessed the rape of two young male detainees by one of his captors, said his lawyer, Shereef Akeel.

Eight other Iraqis and the estate of an Iraqi man who allegedly was tortured to death are suing San Diego-based Titan Corp. and CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va. Employees of the two firms worked as government translators and interrogators.

The lawsuit accuses U.S. civilian contractors at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq of conspiring to execute, rape and torture prisoners to boost corporate profits from military payments.

CACI rejected and denied the allegations as ``a preposterous lie.'' Titan called the lawsuit ``frivolous.'' Both companies have promised to fight the charges.

The alleged abuse occurred in the same prison where Saleh, a 42-year-old car dealer, says he was tortured in the 1980s for opposing Saddam Hussein. He fled to Sweden, but returned to Iraq last year following the U.S.-led invasion to invest in a car dealership or mechanic's shop.

Upon arrival in September, he was arrested and spent three months in U.S. custody, according to his lawyers.

In November, Saleh says in the lawsuit that he saw guards shoot randomly into a crowd of Abu Ghraib detainees. Saleh said he saw two men wounded in the shooting die slowly, without receiving medical treatment, according to the lawsuit.

The Army's investigative report into Abu Ghraib by Maj. Gen. Anthony Taguba notes that in November three detainees were killed and nine wounded when guards opened fire to quell a riot in the prison. Nine U.S. soldiers were injured.

On another occasion, Saleh claims in the lawsuit, he watched as an unidentified man wearing a T-shirt and military fatigues stripped two young male detainees naked, bound their hands and raped them in front of Saleh and 30 other detainees, Akeel said. Saleh and the others were warned that if they told anyone they would be raped too, the lawsuit said.

The abuses Saleh allegedly suffered in Abu Ghraib included:

A belt tied around his neck and he was dragged 70 feet;

Left naked and hooded for extended periods of time;

Urinated on and sodomized while his hands were tied over his head;

Shot in the chest with plastic bullets as he tried to pray;

Roped by the genitals to 12 other naked prisoners;

His penis was stretched with a rope and beaten with a stick.

Saleh did not want his full name used because of the shame he feels, Akeel said.

At night, Saleh says in the lawsuit that he heard the screams of female prisoners whom he believes were being raped.

The lawsuit calls for payments for the alleged victims, a ban on future government contracts for Titan and CACI and triple damages allowed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the 1970 law that often is used by government prosecutors to go after organized crime.

Wil Williams, a Titan spokesman, accused the lawyers of ``fraud'' for cutting-and-pasting information about a job description and an unrelated contract from Titan's Web site to form one exhibit in the lawsuit. The exhibit was removed Thursday.

Saleh, who has returned to Sweden, also has filed an administrative claim against the U.S. Army, Akeel said.

His allegations were first reported by National Public Radio in May. His lawyers declined to make him available for comment Thursday.

``He's just keeping to himself right now,'' Akeel said. ``He's gone through so much.''


(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


 http://kcal9.com/california/CA--PrisonerAbuse-Law-kn/resources_news_html

SETH HETTENA Associated Press Writer

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Anti-Semitism. — Moshe.
  2. on your guard... — Captain Wardrobe
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech