Challenging immunity

Lower courts to hear Iraqi civilians' claims of beatings, forced nudity, broken bones, and rape

Center for Constitutional Rights reports (May 15^th): Today, a federal appellate court dismissed the appeals of two private military contractors who had argued they were immune from litigation when they engage in torture. The corporate defendants, CACI and L-3, have argued that they should receive the same protections as the United States government and that, therefore, any of their wartime activities - including torture - are similarly beyond review of the courts.

The corporate defendants in the consolidated cases, who were hired to provide interpretation and interrogation services, are alleged to have subjected the plaintiffs to electric shocks, rape and other forms of sexual assault, forced nudity, broken bones, and deprivation of oxygen, food and water. The two cases were brought on behalf of 76 Iraqis who were subjected to brutal, sadistic acts in detention centers Iraq by employees of the corporate defendants.

http://warisacrime.org/content/lower-courts-hear-iraqi-civilians-claims-beatings-forced-nudity-broken-bones-and-rape-hands-

From the BRussells Tribunal

Tribunal hears witness testimonies of horrific torture

BRussells Tribunal reports (May 8th): The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal heard the testimony of the prosecution’s third witness Jameelah Abbas Hameedi, who used to be the Head Chief of the Cooperation Unions in Kirkuk. The 57-year-old Iraqi told of her torture in the Baghdad Airport and Abu Ghraib prisons in 2004.

She told the 5-member tribunal panel via a translator that on 13 January 2004, the American military broke into her home by force in Kirkuk and rounded up her whole. She told the tribunal she was dragged by her hair outside of the house into the winter rain in her nightclothes and her hands were tied very tightly at the back with a wire. They destroyed all her belongings in the house and alleged that the car battery charger they had found is used to explode bombs.

She further told the tribunal she was taken to the Kirkuk military airport via a military vehicle and in the process was hooded, kicked like an animal, pushed out of the Hummer onto the road, dragged on the paved road and later left standing at a wall. Jameelah further related that she was placed in a tiny wooden cell with no windows with her daughter and her female guest. They were not fed for two days and not allowed to use the toilet. She said that she was eventually taken to an individual 2 metres by 2 metres cell with no amenities. She was told that if she did not confess her other son would be put in prison and her daughter raped.

She revealed to the tribunal that she was taken to a black room, her clothes removed and asked to sit on her knees and hands and icy water poured on her. She related that she was then beaten with a plastic tube inserted with wood and when she dropped on the floor she was kicked until she was bleeding on her shoulders, back, arms and legs.

http://criminalisewar.org/?p=1018

The Children of Iraq

Bie Kentane reports to the BRussells Tribunal May 9^th): For two decades, Iraqi children, along with the rest of the population, have been subjected to grave human rights violations, caused by decades of war, foreign occupation and international sanctions.

Iraq has turned into one of the worst places for children in the Middle East and North Africa with around 3.5 million living in poverty, 1.5 million under the age of five undernourished and 100 infants dying every day.

This report will focus on the violations by the occupying forces and the Iraqi government of theConvention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Geneva, 12 August 1949[2], and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30760