Thanks to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit against CACI Premier Technology today, for the corporation's role in torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
CCR lawyers note that prior dismissal of Al Shimari v. CACI et al. represented a return to the widely discredited Bush-era legal theories of Torture Memo author John Yoo. Today's ruling repudiates application of immunity for private contractors: "The military cannot lawfully exercise its authority by directing a contractor to engage in unlawful activity."
"The prohibition on torture and inhuman treatment is a universal and absolute legal requirement; it is not a policy judgment left to the discretion of the military or its contractors," said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy.
