US Appeals Court Rules Rumsfeld Possibly Accountable for US Civilian Torture in Iraq
US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit refused last Monday to dismiss a lawsuit against former US War Minister Donald Rumsfeld, accusing him of creating policies that caused American civilians to be tortured by the US military in Iraq.
The court decided that the lawsuit filed by American citizens Donald Vance and
Nathan Ertel, who were tortured at the US military prison in Iraq in 2006, have provided adequate evidences that Rumsfeld was personally responsible for their maltreatment.
"If the plaintiffs allegations are true, two young American civilians were trying to do the right thing by becoming whistleblowers to the US government, but found themselves detained in prison and tortured by their own government, without notice to their families and with no sign of when the harsh physical and psychological abuse would end", the court decision read.
In their field of discovery in 2006, Vance and Ertel were working for a private US government contractor, Shield Group Security, when they witnessed the sale of US government weapons to Iraqi rebel groups for money and alcohol.
Later, both plaintiffs began working with the FBI, and shared with US officials some documents they had for their former employer, reporting their observations of corruption and illegal activities taking part in Iraq.
Shortly afterwards, the two Americans were arrested, handcuffed, blindfolded, and transferred to Camp Prosperity, where they stated to have been threatened with excessive force.
Furthermore, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were later transferred to the US-run Camp Cropper prison, where they were subject to extreme sleep deprivation, hours-long interrogations, and food and water deprivation, marking high physical and psychological torture throughout their imprisonment in cold cells.
Eventually, the two men were released, but were not charged with any crime of other allegations.
After returning to the United States, both filed a lawsuit against Rumsfeld and other unnamed US figures.
On the same level, one of the US court judges stated that another lawsuit was filed against Rumsfeld for similar accusations, where the plaintiff in that case said he was abducted by US military troops in 2005 as he was due to return to the US from Iraq.
The plaintiff added in his lawsuit that he was beaten and interrogated for a period of nine months, and was later released without explanation, and without any charge issued against him.
Source: News Agencies
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