Request the ICC to prosecute CACI
2011 | 18.06.2009 11:46 | Iraq
CACI are awarded senistive government contracts throughout Western Europe because they have never been prosecuted for their employees war-crimes at Abu Ghraib. I've requested the International Criminal Court do prosecute those crimes. I believe there is enough evidence here to justify that, and I hope others also email the ICC Information and Evidence Unit.
Example CACI crime
otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int Dear Information and Evidence Unit,
I would like you to prosecute war crimes carried out in Iraq by private contractors. Specifically, breaches of the UN Convention on Torture and the 3rd and 4th Geneva Conventions commited by Steven Stephanowicz and Daniel Johnson and their employer CACI in Abu Ghraib in 2003.
There is existing evidence against these two in the US army investigations commonly known as the Taguba Report [1] and the Fay report [2], and the US Army called for their prosecution. Victim testimony has been used in US civil cases brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights who I am sure would make it available to an I.C.C. prosecution [3].
The CCR claim "Among the heinous acts to which the four Plaintiffs were subjected at the hands of the defendant and certain government co-conspirators were: electric shocks; repeated brutal beatings; sleep deprivation; sensory deprivation; forced nudity; stress positions; sexual assault; mock executions; humiliation; hooding; isolated detention; and prolonged hanging from the limbs."
After six years, there is no indication that the US Department of Justice are going to prosecute these crimes, despite the rapid prosecution of low-ranked soldiers involved in the same crimes.
sincerely,
[1] Taguba Report:
http://www.npr.org/iraq/2004/prison_abuse_report.pdf [2] Fay Report:
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/dod/fay82504rpt.pdf [3] Al Shimari v. CACI lawsuit”
http://ccrjustice.org/files/5.20.08_First_Amended_Complaint15.pdf "Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, Contract US Civilian Interrogator, CACI, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, be given an Official Reprimand to be placed in his employment file, termination of employment, and generation of a derogatory report to revoke his security clearance for the following acts which have been previously referred to in the aforementioned findings:
• Made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses.
• Allowed and/or instructed MPs, who were not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by “setting conditions” which were neither authorized and in accordance with applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse".
- Major General Antonio M.Taguba, Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade
"A photograph created circa early December 2003 depicts an unidentified detainee being interrogated by Daniel Johnson, CACI, Interrogator, and Etaf Mheisen, Titan, linguist. The detainee is squatting on a chair which is an unauthorized stress position. Having the detainee on a chair which is a potentially unsafe situation, and photographing the detainee are violations of the ICRP.
Finding: Daniel Johnson, Interrogator, CACI employee. A preponderance of evidence supports that Daniel Johnson did, or failed to do, the following:
- Detainee abuse.
- He encouraged SSG Frederick to abuse Iraqi Police detained following a shooting incident (IP Roundup). SSG Frederick twisted the handcuffs of a detainee being interrogated; causing pain.
- He failed to prevent SSG Frederick from covering the detainee’s mouth and nose restricting the detainee from breathing:
- Threatened the Iraqi Police “with SSG Frederick.” He told the Iraqi Police to answer his questions or he would bring SSG Frederick back into the cell.
- Used dogs during the IP Roundup in an unauthorized manner. He told a detainee, “You see that dog there, if you do not tell me what I want to know, I’m going to get that dog on you.”
- Placed a detainee in an unauthorized stress position. Daniel Johnsonis photographed facing a detainee who is in a stress position on a chair with his back exposed. The detainee is in a dangerous position where he might fall back and injure himself.
Failed to prevent a detainee from being photographed.
Recommendation: This information should be forwarded to the Army General Counsel for determination of whether Daniel Johnson should be referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution. This information should be forwarded to the KO for appropriate contractual action.
- Major General George R. Fay, AR 15-6 Investigation of the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility and 205th Military Intelligence Brigade
2011
Homepage:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/14/contractor/
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CCR vs CACI, Susan Burke interview
18.06.2009 19:16
Susan Burke is the Center for Constitutional Rights lead counsel in it's litigation against CACI, is co-founder Burke and O Neil, and was named "Women of the Year" by The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly in May of 2008. She agreed to be interviewed about the CCR case against CACI.
> You have a civil lawsuit against CACI, and another against Titan. How many Iraqis do you represent in each case?
- We have three lawsuits pending at the moment, representing approximately three hundred victims in total. One is pending in the District of Columbia, one in Virginia and one in Maryland. We are bringing several more in the next few months..
> Abuse at Abu Ghraib and the other Iraqi prisons and mobile facilities is blamed on a few low-ranking rogue soldiers who have been punished. No charges were brought against any of the civilian contractors despite General Tagubas recommendation that they did. Why not?
- The Bush administrations 'bad apples' strategy is no longer working. The Senate Armed Services committee of Congress just released a lengthy paper describing all the high-level officials who participated in the conspiracy to torture. The report also identifies many officials who refused to participate in the conspiracy, and instead tried unsuccessfully to stop it. The report makes clear that under Bush, top lawyers at the Department of Justice were key participants in the conspiracy. Now, we anticipate the department will return to it's true function, and begin to investigate those who broke United States and international law. We have confidence in our new Attorney General Eric Holder, a man of integrity and character.
> CACI tried to dismiss your case claiming corporate impunity under the 'government contractor defense'. How did you convince judges to allow the case to progress?
- We explained that the courts are the safeguards for the rule of law. The courts defend and apply the rule of law even when high-level politicians are involved.
> Your deposition against CACI describes a harrowing level of abuse. From having read all the victims interviews, if you were a public prosecutor which charges would you bring against the contractors from the evidence you have witnessed?
- War-crimes, torture, assault, rape, many others.
> Are these acts a breech of the 3rd and 4th Geneva Conventions in your
opinion?
- Yes, without any doubt.
> Legally, why are the CACI and Titan corporations responsible for the actions of their employees in Iraq?
- The corporations were well aware of, and encouraged their employees' bad acts. The corporations took no steps to properly train their employees to abide by the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. The corporations failed to ensure compliance with law.
> Apart from the testimony of victims, you already had the evidence from the relatively prompt military tribunals. Yet your case has taken years to progress this far. Did you expect this would take so long? What factors have delayed it?
- We are still in the stage pre-dating discovery, the 'investigatory' stage. Civil litigation in the United States always go much more slowly than criminal matters, so we expected it to take some time.
> You once said "It would be better if there were criminal prosecutions for these actions, but with Alberto Gonzalez in charge of the Department of Justice, I am not holding my breath." There seems to mixed signals coming from the new administration. CIA agents are not to be prosecuted but lawyers who advised politicians may be. In your opinion what are the prospects of the new administration prosecuting the private contractors at Abu Ghraib? Is this being discussed at all by administration officials?
- Well, to date, the Department has not done anything to prosecute the perpetrators. We are very concerned about the lengthy inaction.
> What do you think of reports of the Spanish judiciary considering prosecuting Alberto Gonzalez and other US officials for offences at Guantanamo Bay?
- Excellent news.
> Perhaps the most iconic image of Abu Ghraib is a man with out-stretched arms standing on a box dangling electrodes. Do you know who this person is?
- Sadly, there are multiple images of this, and several people who suffered from this type of mock execution. We do know several of these victims. One of them we have met with several times is Haj Ali. He told us a terrible story of being tortured by Graner and the others in the Hard Site, of having been tortured with electricity, and of other terrible deprivations. The thing that is so wonderful about Haj Ali is that he has taken all of his pain and started a human rights group in Iraq. He is a most optimistic and hopeful man.
Senate Armed Services Committee Conclusions
Conclusion 1: On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. Following the President’s determination, techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions, used in SERE training to simulate tactics used by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions, were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody.
Conclusion 2: Members of the President’s Cabinet and other senior officials participated in meetings inside the White House in 2002 and 2003 where specific interrogation techniques were discussed. National Security Council Principals reviewed the CIA’s interrogation program during that period.
Conclusions on SERE Training Techniques and Interrogations
Conclusion 3: The use of techniques similar to those used in SERE resistance training – such as stripping students of their clothing, placing them in stress positions, putting hoods over their heads, and treating them like animals – was at odds with the commitment to humane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. Using those techniques for interrogating detainees was also inconsistent with the goal of collecting accurate intelligence information, as the purpose of SERE resistance training is to increase the ability of U.S. personnel to resist abusive interrogations and the techniques used were based, in part, on Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to elicit false confessions.
Conclusions on Interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan
Conclusion 15: Special Mission Unit (SMU) Task Force (TF) interrogation policies were influenced by the Secretary of Defense’s December 2, 2002 approval of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at GTMO. SMU TF interrogation policies in Iraq included the use of aggressive interrogation techniques such as military working dogs and stress positions. SMU TF policies were a direct cause of detainee abuse and influenced interrogation policies at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq
2010