Twenty years have passed since the media broke the story that U.S. forces and the CIA were torturing “war on terror” detainees at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. But for the men who were tortured, it feels like only yesterday. The physical and mental scars they carry serve as daily reminders of the abuse they suffered.
Still, several of these men told me they hold out hope that the U.S. government will apologize and give them the redress they deserve.
The U.S. government hasn’t created any official compensation program or other avenues for redress for those who allege they were tortured or abused. Nor are there any pathways available to have their cases heard.
On April 15, a federal court in Virginia will hear the case of Al Shimari et al. v. CACI, a lawsuit brought by the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of three Iraqi torture victims. The suit asserts that CACI, a private security company which the U.S. government hired in 2003 to interrogate prisoners in Iraq, directed and participated in torture and other abuse at Abu........