Iraqis sue over alleged inmate abuse

WASHINGTON – Eight Iraqis filed a federal class action lawsuit Wednesday claiming that employees of two American contractors subjected them to abuse in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, including electric shocks, rape, and torture that led to one death.

The lawsuit alleges that interrogators with San Diego-based Titan Corp. and Virginia-based CACI International, working under government contract, systematically tortured prisoners to extract better intelligence and increase the company’s chances of winning future contracts.

“We have not heard everything yet,” said Shereef Akeel, a Michigan attorney who filed the lawsuit along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit group that specializes in human rights cases. “The stories are coming out now as more Abu Ghraib prisoners are coming out.”

Both companies denied any wrongdoing.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that none of their clients had been able to identify the people who allegedly tortured them or say whether they worked for contractors or the U.S. government. Their clients were hooded or their abusers concealed their identity, the lawyers said.

The lawyers based their suits on a report by U.S. Army Gen. Anthony Taguba that identified several contractor employees knowingly encouraging the abuse seen in the now-infamous photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison.

The lawyers said none of their clients were pictured in the photos, but that their status as detainees had been confirmed through personal interviews and prisoner identification records.