Judge: contractor can face Iraqi torture suit

As pointed out over at the link, the judge implied if the interrogators had not had civilian management, but only US military management, the suit would have been invalid. Now that's a pretty strange ruling.

At any rate, at last at least one defense contractor is going to have to defend itself.

Iraqi torture victims and their relatives can proceed with a lawsuit against a defense contractor that provided interrogators to the U.S. military in Iraq, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004 on behalf of Iraqi nationals who say they or their relatives had been tortured or mistreated while detained by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq.

The plaintiffs sued CACI International Inc, which provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib, and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.'s Titan unit, which provided interpreters to the U.S. military in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson dismissed the claims against Titan because the translators performed their duties under the direct command and under the exclusive operational control of military personnel.

But he ruled the lawsuit against CACI can go forward. He said CACI interrogators were subject to a dual chain of command involving company and military officials, with significant independent authority retained by CACI supervisors in Iraq.

Via The Sign.