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Iraqi group files 200 lawsuits against Rumsfeld, US security firms
for torture
AFP
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008
A Jordan-based Iraqi rights group said on Monday it has filed
200 lawsuits against US former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and American security firms for their alleged role in torturing
Iraqis.
Ali Qeisi, head of the group the "Society of Victims of
the US Occupation in Iraq," said the cases, relating to torture
and abuse of Iraqi prisoners, have been recently filed in federal
courts in Virginia, Michigan and Maryland.
"Around 30 lawsuits have been accepted so far," Qeisi
told AFP. The others are still under consideration.
"The torture was systemic, and those responsible for it
should be punished and the victims should be compensated,"
he said.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
Qeisi said he himself was tortured by US troops in Iraq during
a six-month detention, though he refused to elaborate.
Last year, French, US and German rights groups filed suits for
torture against Rumsfeld, who was accused by a US bipartisan Senate
report last Thursday of being to blame for abuse of detainees
in US custody.
"Rumsfeld's authorisation of aggressive interrogation techniques
for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse
there" and "influenced and contributed to the use of
abusive techniques... in Afghanistan and Iraq," the report
concluded.
In a high-profile case involving private security guards, five
Blackwater guards were last week charged with killing 14 unarmed
Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others with gunfire and grenades
in September 2007.
A sixth guard has pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter
and attempt to commit manslaughter.
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