Bush administration challenged on detention abuses

Despite recent revelations about the torture and abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, lawyers representing detainees, both in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, have obtained disturbing new first-hand accounts that human rights abuses haven't ended. Detainees says they have been kicked, beaten, intimidated with dogs, urinated on, insulted about their religious practices, and denied medical treatment for their injuries. Lawyers with the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have also collected accounts that Americans in Iraq engaged in looting money, jewellery and other valuables from people's houses during night time raids. The accusations have led to a federal class action suit on behalf of the Iraqi detainees against the CACI and Titan corporations, two private contractors operating in Iraq. "We filed the suit because it doesn't look like Congress is going to do anything," says Jeffrey Fogel, legal director for CCR, one of several firms representing the plaintiffs. "We want to use the lawsuit to find out what's really going on at the US detention centres."  [more ]

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