"Judge allows Abu Ghraib torture claims to go to trial", 27 Feb 2019

After 10 years of delay, a federal judge has ruled that three former inmates who say they were tortured at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison can go forward with their lawsuit against a military contractor,…CACI Premier Technology,…which supplied the Army with civilian interrogators…

[The company] argued that the government's refusal to declassify key facts is making it impossible to defend itself. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema acknowledged CACI's frustration but said the lawsuit can move forward…The case is now slated to go to trial in April…

The lawsuit, first filed in 2008, has previously been tossed out on multiple occasions, but each time the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Richmond has revived the case and ordered the district court to take a closer look. The inmates say they were beaten and tortured by military police officers who were acting at the direction of civilian interrogators who wanted the inmates "softened up" for questioning. [They]…filed the lawsuit, with assistance from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights…

CACI says none of its interrogators are linked to the abuse suffered by the inmates who are suing. CACI's lawyers have expressed concern that they will be unfairly tarnished in front of the jury by the worst of what occurred at Abu Ghraib when they say it was military police who conducted the worst abuse…