Two American men can go ahead with civil lawsuit over allegations they were tortured in Iraq at the hands of US forces.

Donald Rumsfeld, the former US secretary of defence, must face a lawsuit filed against him by two American men claiming they were wrongfully held and tortured by US forces in Iraq.


The US Court of Appeals in Chicago on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling last year allowing the men, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, to pursue claims that Rumsfeld and unnamed others should be found personally liable for their treatment - despite efforts by the former Bush and current Obama administration to get the case dismissed.

The two men worked for a private security company in Iraq in 2006 and said they became concerned the firm was engaging in illegal bribery or other corruption activities. They notified US authorities and began co-operating with them.

Emotional abuse

In early 2006, they were taken into custody by US military forces and eventually taken to Camp Cropper near Baghdad's airport. Vance and Ertel claimed they were subjected to harsh interrogations and physical and emotional abuse.

Months later they said they were unceremoniously dropped at the airport and never charged with a crime.

They sued, seeking unspecified damages and saying their constitutional rights had been violated and US officials knew they were innocent.

"Having judges second guess the decisions made by the armed forces halfway around the world is no way to wage a war"

David Rivkin, lawyer

The appeals court ruled that while it may have been unusual for Rumsfeld to be personally responsible for the treatment of detainees, the two men had sufficiently argued that the decisions were made at the highest levels of government.

"We agree with the district court that the plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to show that Secretary Rumsfeld personally established the relevant policies that caused the alleged violations of their constitutional rights during detention," the court ruled in a split decision.

The three-judge panel voted 2-1 to affirm the lower court ruling. Judge Daniel Manion dissented, saying Congress has yet to decide whether courts should have a role in deciding whether such claims against the US military can be pursued.

A lawyer representing Rumsfeld said the appeals court decision was a blow to the US military.

"Having judges second guess the decisions made by the armed forces halfway around the world is no way to wage a war," attorney David Rivkin said in a statement on Monday.

"It saps the effectiveness of the military, puts American soldiers at risk, and shackles federal officials who have a constitutional duty to protect America."

A spokesman for the US Justice Department, which has been representing the former defense secretary, had no immediate comment. The Justice Department could appeal to the full appeals court or to the US Supreme Court.

There have been other lawsuits against Rumsfeld and the US government over allegations of abuse and torture overseas, but most involved foreigners, not US citizens, so federal courts have typically dismissed those cases.

A district judge in Washington last week allowed a similar case to proceed involving an American translator who worked in Iraq with the US military and who said he was later detained and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques and abuse.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/08/20118923045869251.html

4.5 Million Orphans in Iraq: Protests Over Food and Shelter

Orphans join Iraq protests over food, shelter. Orphans join protests in Iraq to call for a better standard of living. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

BAGHDAD — Fadel Mohammad Ra'ad, 10, is one of thousands of children who have lost their parents to the endless violence that has been gripping Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"My parents were killed in an explosion at the center of Baghdad last year, leaving me and my sister to no one," the child told IslamOnline.net in a Baghdad orphanage. "I have relatives but all of them have refused to take us in," he added choking at the memory. "We were forced to work to survive."

Children, like many other civilians, are the silent victims of violence in war-torn Iraq. "Violence in Iraq has vast characteristics. Sectarian violence, resistance against US troops, traditional behaviors and the fight against the hungry," explains Haydar Hassan Kareem, a sociologist.

Sources - http://brutalconvictions.blogspot.com/2011/03/45-million-orphans-in-iraq-protests.html

Tortured Iraqi civilians demand inquiry

As David Cameron announced the details of an inquiry into the UK's role in rendition and torture, more than 100 Iraqi civilians who were detained and allegedly tortured by British troops embarked upon the first round of their campaign to secure a public inquiry into the orders and policies that governed their treatment.

Lawyers representing the former detainees asked the high court for permission to seek a judicial review of the refusal by Liam Fox, the defence secretary, to establish an inquiry into the British army's use of torture after the invasion of Iraq. The court reserved its judgment.

The Iraqis say that they were tortured before or during interrogation at one or more of 14 separate British military detention centres in south-east Iraq. The allegations span a period of more than five years, from immediately after the March 2003 invasion until December 2008.

Their lawyers say they have documented evidence of systemic abuse, including 59 allegations of detainees being hooded, 11 cases of electric shocks, 122 separate allegations of individuals being subjected to sound deprivation through the use of ear muffs, 52 cases of sleep deprivation, 131 separate complaints of sight deprivation using blackened goggles, 39 complaints of enforced nakedness and 18 allegations from detainees that they were kept awake though the use of pornographic DVDs played on laptop computers.

They argue that the government has an obligation to investigate this mistreatment because it breaches the detainees' rights under article 3 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), which prohibits torture and inhumane treatment, and that a public inquiry is the only appropriate way to meet that obligation.

Michael Fordham QC, for the detainees, told the court that "the state is implicated, actively or passively" in the mistreatment, and that there was ample evidence that the detainees were not the victims of "rogue soldiers" but had been subjected to "abuse that has some underlying cause which requires investigation".

Solicitors who have examined the former detainees' allegations of widespread abuse in UK military custody believe that only an inquiry can establish at which point along the military or political chain of command a decision was taken to authorise abusive interrogation techniques.

The Ministry of Defence accepts that it is obliged, under the terms of the ECHR, to investigate the allegations, but argues that an inquiry is unnecessary. The court heard that the MoD has set up a team of military police, headed by a civilian, which could spend two years investigating the allegations. After that an inquiry could be considered.

Lawyers for the former detainees questioned the ability of the Royal Military police to conduct an effective and impartial investigation. Fordham added that a criminal investigation might establish what happened to the Iraqis, but would not uncover why it happened. "There is a crying and obvious need to complete the picture," he said.

If the former detainees win their court battles, they will have secured the third inquiry into the abuse of Iraqis by British troops. One is already under way into the torture of a group of detainees in September 2003. One of those men, Baha Mousa, died after suffering 93 separate injuries. A second inquiry is to examine allegations that 20 Iraqis were murdered and others tortured at a British army base north of Basra in May 2004. The MoD says all 20 men died on the battlefield.

Source

Turning Iraq and the Middle east to Christians, Baptist ones

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