Supreme Court Won't Consider Iraq Lawsuit Against Contractors
June 27 2011 - 10:48AM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a
lower-court ruling that said two private U.S. military contractors
could not be sued for allegedly abusing Iraqis who were detained
and interrogated at the Abu Ghraib prison.
A group of Iraqi plaintiffs alleged that they or their relatives
were beaten, electrocuted, raped and subjected to other kinds of
abuse by private contractors working as interpreters and
interrogators at Abu Ghraib.
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled 2-1 in 2009
that wartime considerations required the lawsuits against CACI
International Inc. (CACI) and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.'s
(LLL) Titan unit to be thrown out.
The majority said such lawsuits can't go forward when a private
contractor is integrated into combatant activities over which the
military retains command authority. The dissenting judge said no
law barred suits against contractors who aren't soldiers.
The Supreme Court, without comment, let the lower-court ruling
stand.
Members of the military faced court-martial proceedings for
events at Abu Ghraib, but no private contractors faced criminal
charges.
The case is Saleh v. Titan Corp., 09-1313.
-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222;
brent.kendall@dowjones.com
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