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.

ITT/ EDO Corp Directors in Abu Ghraib Torture,War Crimes,Conspiracy Case

X | 07.05.2008 10:01 | Anti-militarism | Terror War | South Coast

Two ITT/ EDO Corporation directors, James Roth and Robert M. Hanisee are also directors of L3 Titan Corporation and are implicated in a new law suit being brought in the US against military contractors CACI and L3 Titan by an Iraqi civilian tortured at Abu Ghraib prison.



Roth and Hanisee, as L3 Titan Corp directors, are implicated in a new claim brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Emad Al-Janabi, and Iraqi civilian and former 'ghost' prisoner at Abu Ghraib.

While several reports have blamed L3 Titan and CACI international for a large part the war crimes at the prison no corporate employee or director has ever been prosecuted. A handful of low ranking US military staff at the prison were convicted of the abuse.

In 2008 declassified memos showed that approval for several torture techniques at the prison had been given by the Bush Administration.



=====
CCR Press Release

CCR Files New Abu Ghraib Torture Claims Against Military Contractors

 http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-files-new-abu-ghraib-torture-claims-against-military-contractors

Attorneys Say New Book by Defendants Shows Company Internal Investigations Bogus

Contact:  press@ccrjustice.org

Los Angeles, California, May 5, 2008 – New torture claims have been leveled at two U.S. military contractors by a former Abu Ghraib “ghost” detainee who was wrongly imprisoned and later released without charge, according to a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles federal court by his U.S. legal team.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Emad Al-Janabi, a 43-year-old Iraqi blacksmith, who alleges that he was beaten and forced from his home by people in U.S. military uniforms and civilian clothing in September 2003. He was released from Abu Ghraib without charge in July 2004.

The defendants are CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CAI) and CACI Premier Technology, Inc., of Arlington, Va.; L-3 Communications Titan Corporation (NYSE: LLL), of San Diego, Calif.; and former CACI contractor Steven Stefanowicz, a Los Angeles resident known at Abu Ghraib as “Big Steve.”

According to the Complaint, Mr. Al-Janabi was:

• Subjected to physical and mental torture in sessions where the defendants acted as interrogators and translators;

• Transported to a detainee site in a wooden box and covered with a hood;

• Scarred on his face when his eyes were clawed by an interrogator;

• Exposed to a mock execution of his brother and nephew, and told by defendant translators that he would be executed or crushed by a helicopter or a tank;

• Hung upside down, with his feet chained to the steel slats of a bunk bed until he lost consciousness, and hung by his arms;

• Repeatedly deprived of food and sleep; and

• Threatened with dogs.

On Oct. 2, 2003, during a surprise inspection of Abu Ghraib, the International Committee of the Red Cross discovered Mr. Al-Janabi naked, chained and bruised in a cell in the “hard site” of the prison. He was a so-called “ghost detainee” who was intentionally hidden from the Red Cross on subsequent inspections and held without appearing on the prisoner lists.

The lawsuit – which alleges multiple violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes, and civil conspiracy – notes that CACI provided interrogators used at Abu Ghraib and that L-3 employed all translators used there. Mr. Stefanowicz was linked to Abu Ghraib abuses in military court martial proceedings and was said to have directed low-level U.S. military personnel in detainee interrogations.

Mr. Al-Janabi and other former Abu Ghraib detainees are represented by attorneys Susan L. Burke, William F. Gould, and Katherine R. Hawkins of Burke O’Neil LLC, of Philadelphia; Michael Ratner and Katherine Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Shereef Akeel, of Akeel & Valentine, PLC, of Birmingham, Mich.

Mr. Al-Janabi stated, “We want the complete truth about Abu Ghraib to be told. The world must know what happened.”

The lawsuit also allees that a newly published book, Our Good Name, by CACI Chairman J.P. (Jack) London, reveals that CACI’s internal investigation failed to include any interviews of detainees or of a former employee whistleblower.

According to the lawsuit, “CACI has repeatedly made, and continues to make, knowingly false statements to the effect that none of its employees was involved in torturing prisoners. In fact, co-conspirators have admitted that Big Steve and several other corporate employees were involved in the torture,” and at least one publicly released Abu Ghraib photograph shows a former CACI employee interrogating a prisoner in a dangerous and harmful stress position not authorized by relevant military regulations governing interrogation.

Susan L. Burke, of Burke O’Neil LLC, stated, “Contrary to the revisionist history some are propagating, the defendants are not victims of anything when it comes to Abu Ghraib. No pseudo-patriotic book campaign will change that fact. The real victims, the people who were senselessly tortured and are now pursuing legal claims – just as Americans rightly would if they or their families suffered these abuses – look forward to having their day in court.”

Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Katherine Gallagher stated, “Private military contractors can’t act with impunity outside the law. They have to be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities. We believe what they and their employees did clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual, and the laws of the United States.”

Shereef Akeel, of Akeel & Valentine, PLC stated, “This lawsuit represents another voice for the innocent victims of Abu Ghraib but also for decent people throughout the world who decry torture. Mr. Al-Janabi and others like him have suffered enough. They deserve the right to hold the defendants accountable for their conduct.”

The case is Emad Khudhayir Shahuth Al-Janabi v. Steven A. Stefanowicz, et al, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (CV 08-02913).


Attached Files
CACI_II_Torture_Complaint.pdf

 http://www.ccrjustice.org/files/CACI_II_Torture_Complaint.pdf


-----

Further links between EDO and war crimes.


The current board of ITT/EDO Corp also includes former US military commander General Paul Kern.

In 2004 US General Paul Kern was picked by Donald Rumsfeld to oversee an investigation into Military Intelligence involvement in the Abu Ghraib war crimes which eventually led to the publication of the Fay Report.

The report criticised contractor L3 Titan corporation's involvement in torture but did not recommend any legal action should be taken against the firm, or against US military intelligence, putting the torture down to an isolated event by a few bad apples.

Kern retired from the military shortly after the report came out and a little later in January 2005 joined ITT/EDO Corporation as a director sitting on the same board as James Roth and Robert M. Hanisee who helped get him the job.

---


X

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

this is improved version

07.05.2008 10:24

imc admin folks

please delete previous version

ta

x


ITT Contractors in Iraq Cash In

07.05.2008 10:40


Military Contractors Are Hard to Fire

WASHINGTON (AP) — ITT Federal Services International, a defense contractor hired to maintain battle gear for U.S. troops in Iraq , repeatedly failed to do the job right.

Combat vehicles ITT declared as repaired and ready for action flunked inspections and had to be fixed again. Equipment to be sanitized for return to the United States was found caked with dirt. And ITT's computer database for tracking the work was rife with errors.

Formal "letters of concern" were sent to the contractor. Still, the Army didn't fire ITT. Instead, it gave the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company more work to do. Since October 2004, ITT has been paid $638 million through the Global Maintenance and Supply Services contract.

The Army's ongoing arrangement with ITT, detailed in an audit from the Government Accountability Office, shows how captive the military has become to the private sector for overseas support. Even when contractors don't measure up, dismissing them may not be an option because of the heavy pace of operations.

 http://ap.google. com/article/ ALeqM5jqI79nj9rs RVp7o14wzSwnkCTM tQD8UI31200

Army Sustainment Command:  http://www.aschq. army.mil

ds


Bob and Jim, Corporate War Criminals

07.05.2008 13:02

James Roth
James Roth

Robert Hanisee
Robert Hanisee

for the record

x


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