the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 16, 2024
Three Iraqis who were tortured in the U.S. prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq more than 20 years ago finally won a lawsuit against the private military contractor which tortured them, CACI.
Fruit vendor Asa’ad Zuba’e, middle school principal Suhail Al Shimari, and journalist Salah Al-Ejaili along with many others were stripped naked, forced to engage in group masturbation, attacked with dogs, and knocked unconscious by blows to their heads. After invading Iraq in March 2003, the U.S. military hired CACI to “soften up” detainees before interrogations.
Some surviving prisoners, that is, many more than the three who just won this lawsuit, later sued the company. But even though the military’s own investigation in 2004 had exposed the torture, CACI tried to have the lawsuit dismissed more than 20 times over 16 years.
And the liability—three million dollars each in compensation plus $11 million in punitive damages—is nothing for CACI, with its military contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars every year. More than 1,000 Wall Street investment firms including Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Morgan Stanley own stock in CACI, which reports profits of over 120 million dollars a year on revenues of over two billion dollars.
The U.S. military does not go to war to liberate or help people, but to help predatory companies like this make more profit.