Emad Khudhayir Shahuth al-Janabi ( ar, عماد خضير شهوته الجنابي) (born c. 1965) was an
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
detained in
Abu Ghraib prison
Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...
where he alleges he was abused by American military personnel and defense contractors.
Imprisonment
Al-Janabi claimed that in the September following the
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
, his home was raided at 2:00 a.m. by "persons dressed in American military uniforms and civilian clothing" who beat him and his family. Al-Janabi was told he would face execution with his brother and nephew and was then interned in the
Abu Ghraib prison
Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...
in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. His arrest initially unexplained, Al-Janabi said an interrogating soldier eventually "told me I was a terrorist ... preparing for an attack against the U.S. forces" and he gave
forced confessions
A forced confession is a confession obtained from a suspect or a prisoner by means of torture (including enhanced interrogation techniques) or other forms of duress. Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession is not valid in re ...
.
Al-Janabi later described that while detained he was punched, kicked, stripped, chained, hung upside down from a bedframe, kept naked and handcuffed in his cell, and repeatedly deprived of food and sleep. He also claimed to have been threatened with rape, violent death, and execution and witnessed a mock execution of his brother and nephew. He said that after being discovered by the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
during a surprise inspection in October, he was thereafter hidden with
contractor help from future inspections as a "ghost detainee".
After over 10 months, Al-Janabi was released without charge in July 2004, at which time photographs and reports of abuses and torture in the prison had become public.
Lawsuit
While in
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, Turkey in May 2008, Al-Janabi filed suit against U.S. military contractors
CACI
CACI International Inc. (originally California Analysis Center, Inc., then Consolidated Analysis Center, Inc.) is an American multinational professional services and information technology company headquartered in Northern Virginia. CACI provi ...
and
L-3 Communications
L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training d ...
, accusing them of "torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy". CACI had provided interrogators to Abu Ghraib and all interpreters were employees of Titan Corporation. L-3 was named as a defendant since it had acquired Titan in 2005, in an effort to boost its intelligence portfolio.
Al-Janabi was seeking unspecified monetary damages. The complaints allege that the contractors participated in abuse, destroyed evidence, blocked reports to the Red Cross, hid prisoners, and misled government and military officials.
Al-Janabi was represented by the
Capital Research Center
Capital Research Center (CRC) is an American conservative non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. Its stated purpose is "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthr ...
called CCR "the terrorists' legal team" because it had been pushing "to give due process rights to America's terrorist enemies."Steven Stefanowicz of CACI was specifically named in the case as directing prisoner torture. A statement from a CACI spokesperson denied Al-Janabi's claims, asserting that no CACI employee had been charged with misconduct as an interrogator in Iraq. The case was filed in Los Angeles, USA where Stefanowicz lived, in the federal district court, as "Emad Khudhayir Shahuth Al-Janabi v. Steven A. Stefanowicz, et al" (CV 08-02913). After CCR filed four similar cases the next month, CACI responded that these lawsuits were "vexatious" and the CCR's was "politically driven", with "an ongoing 'big lie' propaganda campaign to keep their lawsuits in the public eye and their personal political agendas in the public light."
Similar class-action lawsuits had been filed against the companies in 2004, with the suit against Titan being dismissed. There remains some debate over which legal system, if any, had jurisdiction over American contractors acting overseas.
See also
*
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the CIA committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including Physical abuse, physical and sexu ...