Iraqis Sue John Israel (Titan/CACI), but Where is the Los Angeles Times Coverage?

http://www.the-signal.com/News/ViewStory.asp?storyID=4810

Iraqis Sue SCV Translator


6/10/2004
Leon Worden City Editor


Former Iraqi prisoners who were stripped and beaten at Abu Ghraib prison have filed a lawsuit alleging that a Santa Clarita man conspired with others to torture them.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Diego, accuses John B. Israel, 48, of Canyon Country, as well as Steven Stephanowicz of Philadelphia and Adel Nakhla of Maryland, of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment upon detainees last fall at the prison outside Baghdad.
Co-defendants are the companies that provided the three civilians to the Army?s 205th Military Intelligence Brigade ? Virginia-based CACI International Inc. and San Diego-based Titan Corp., whose spokesman termed the lawsuit frivolous.
Filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and four other law firms, the 52-page lawsuit claims that Israel, Stephanowicz and Nakhla ?conspired with certain United States officials to engage in a series of wrongful and illegal acts, including but not limited to summary execution, torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional interference with religious practices.?
It doesn?t identify the ?certain United States officials.?
The lawsuit accuses Titan and CACI of violating federal racketeering laws on grounds that the two publicly traded companies profited from their employees? wrongful acts.
It further alleges that the so-called ?torture conspirators? violated two applicable Geneva conventions and several amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of seven named and two unnamed Iraqi citizens who were held at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq. It seeks class-action status on behalf of as many as 1,000 additional ex-detainees.
The lawsuit identifies Israel as an associate of CACI, but Israel?s employer is SOS Interpreting Ltd., a subcontractor to Titan.
Israel was accused in an Army report of sharing overall responsibility for the abuse of prisoners and of contradicting witness statements about interrogations. Stephanowicz, a CACI interrogator, was accused of instructing prison guards to soften up detainees for questioning, while Nakhla, a Titan translator, was listed as a suspect in abusive incidents. Titan subsequently fired Nakhla.
Israel, Stephanowicz and Nakhla have not been charged with crimes. An Army investigation of intelligence practices at Abu Ghraib is under way.
Israel?s attorney, Christopher Darden, did not return phone messages Wednesday and has not replied to any of The Signal?s inquiries. Stephanowicz?s attorney and CACI officials could not be reached, and Nakhla?s whereabouts are unknown.
Titan spokesman Ralph ?Wil? Williams said his company is girding for battle.
?In regard to Titan, we believe the lawsuit to be frivolous and we will defend ourselves against it vigorously,? Williams said.
He said no government agency has accused Titan of wrongdoing, ?nor is there any charge against our single former employee,? meaning Nakhla.
?Titan has never provided interrogators or interrogation support to anyone,? Williams said. ?We provide only linguists, whose job is translating or transcribing from one language to another.?
Williams said the company has about 12,000 employees. According to published news reports, about 8,800 have government security clearances and there are about 4,200 Titan employees in Iraq, including indigenous Iraqi workers.
Susan Burke, an attorney for the prisoners, said each plaintiff individually retained one of the law firms.
Citing what purports to be a joint advertisement for linguists, the lawsuit claims Titan and CACI acted together as ?a joint enterprise known as ?Team Titan.??
Williams characterized the two companies as competitors and said Titan has no contractual relationship with CACI in Iraq.
The lawsuit alleges Titan and CACI sent interrogation teams from Guantanamo Bay ? where the U.S. government determined Geneva convention protections didn?t apply to stateless al-Qaida terrorists and Taliban fighters ? to Iraq, where the third and fourth Geneva conventions were supposed to apply to prisoners of war and civilian detainees.
?In or around October 2003, five interrogation teams ... who had been conducting interrogations in Guantanamo were sent to Iraq to set up a ?Gitmo-style? prison at Abu Ghraib,? the lawsuit states. Gitmo is a nickname for Guantanamo Bay.
Israel reportedly told Army investigators he arrived at Abu Ghraib on Oct. 14. His previous whereabouts are unknown.
The lawsuit alleges that, in addition to inflicting serious physical injuries, the defendants ?summarily executed at least 15 persons? and ?caused as many as 50 suicides.?
It alleges that the specific instances of wrongful death, torture, rape and humiliation violate international law and are covered under the federal Alien Tort Claims Act.
Dan Guttman, an expert in government contracting and procurement processes at John Hopkins University, said the claims under the tort act may prove significant.
?The Alien Tort Claims Act was one of the first laws Congress passed in 1789,? he said. ?It basically says U.S. courts are available for folks who want to make claims for rights under the law of nations or treaties that have been violated.?
?People from other countries can use U.S. courts because courts in their countries don?t exist or are not adequate,? he said.
But it might be difficult to prove Titan and CACI broke laws ?if the company is working hand-in-glove with the government,? he said.
?One individual might violate the Geneva Convention,? he said, but ?for RICO (racketeering), one of the critical things that will have to be shown is conspiracy, people acting together.?
?Even if CACI tortured someone,? he said, ?was it an individual acting alone??

Signal staff writer Judy O?Rourke contributed to this story.

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http://www.the-signal.com/News/ViewStory.asp?storyID=4798

Interior: Army Never Reported Abuse


6/9/2004
Leon Worden City Editor


The federal government didn?t crack down on an intelligence firm that provided civilian interrogators to Abu Ghraib prison last fall because the Army never reported any kind of problem, an official said Tuesday.
The U.S. Interior Department administers the contract between the Army and CACI International Inc., an information technology firm in Virginia that supplied some of the intelligence experts who have been blamed for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
If the Army has a problem with the personnel or services provided by CACI, it is supposed to tell Interior Department officials, who would then deal with the company, Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby said.
?At no point during these two delivery orders did the Army indicate there was a problem,? Quimby told The Signal. ?They still haven?t.?
An Army spokeswoman in Washington didn?t have an immediate explanation Tuesday.
The Interior Department?s Inspector General is conducting a review of the agency?s contracting procedures.
CACI supplied interrogators and ?human intelligence support? to the Army at Abu Ghraib prison under Interior Department delivery orders that were signed in August and December, covering the period when the abuse took place. Two supposed CACI contractors, including a Santa Clarita translator, were named in Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba?s report on abuse at the prison.
One, John B. Israel, 48, of Canyon Country, is accused of sharing overall responsibility for the abuse, and of saying he didn?t watch prisoners being maltreated despite ?several witness statements? to the contrary.
The other, Steven Stephanowicz of Philadelphia, is accused of lying about his knowledge of abusive interrogations, and of prompting prison guards to soften up detainees for questioning in violation of Army regulations.
Israel?s employment through CACI has not been verified. In one section of his report, Taguba identifies Israel as a CACI employee, while in two other places he identifies him as an employee of Titan Corp., another information technology company based in San Diego.
The Signal has established that Israel works for SOS Interpreting Ltd., a New York subcontractor that provided translators to Titan. A Titan official said his company?s contract is directly with the Army.
?We have one contract in Iraq, and it is to provide linguists,? Titan spokesman Ralph ?Wil? Williams said. He said Titan has held the contract since 1999.
Quimby confirmed that the Interior Department does not administer Titan?s contract.
Quimby said the Interior Department assumed some ? not all ? contract administration functions for the Army, Homeland Security, Justice, Commerce and Defense during a period of government reform in the late 1990s.
On Jan. 14, 2001, the Interior Department took over the management of a particular information technology contract that the Army had previously handled itself at Ft. Huachuka, Ariz.
The contract was with Premier Technologies Group. CACI bought the contract from Premier in 2003. It was a blanket purchase agreement under which the Army would fill out a new delivery order whenever it needed more services or personnel.
Since 2001 there have been 81 delivery orders under the blanket Premier-CACI contract, including 11 for Coalition Joint Task Force 7 in Iraq, of which two were for interrogation and intelligence analysis at Abu Ghraib, Quimby said.
He did not know specifics about the personnel provided under the two delivery orders for Abu Ghraib.
The two delivery orders are valued at $41.7 million, but only about $3.4 million has been paid out on them so far, he said.
Quimby said all three parties to the contract ? CACI, the Army and the Interior Department ? have certain legal responsibilities.
?CACI?s responsibility is to provide the services at a (negotiated) price,? he said. ?The Interior Department is responsible for administering the contract,? which includes functions such as issuing checks to the contract firms.
?The Army is to provide the specifications, (determine the) pay, and supervise the contract work and contract workers,? he said.
?They have the legal responsibly to provide the supervision of the contractors by Army officers, who report up the chain of command,? he said.
After the release of the Taguba report in April, the Interior Department took it upon itself to ask Army officials in Baghdad whether there were any problems with CACI?s services, Quimby said.
Three weeks ago, ?We got the response: no problem,? he said.
?The Army apparently doesn?t have a problem with the contract yet,? he said.
The Army would have to report problems before the Interior Department could compel CACI to take corrective measures, he said.
?We can only act when we?re told there is a problem,? Quimby said.
He said Interior Department?s Inspector General is conducting an independent audit and review to determine whether a blanket contract for information technology was an appropriate vehicle for providing interrogators to Abu Ghraib prison.
?In the summer of 2003, the Army was ... trying to house troops by the thousands. The Army was sorely pressed for intelligence personnel,? and it could get some quickly under the CACI contract, Quimby said.
An contract for information technology was deemed a proper fit ?because a significant portion of the work involved information technology work,? he said. Interrogators would have to record their entries into computer databases.
The Interior Department won?t execute any more delivery orders under CACI?s blanket contract, Quimby said.
CACI said in a May 25 statement that it is ?confident with respect to the continuation of (CACI?s) services in support of clients served throughout the current contract,? and that its ?U.S. military customers continue to report their satisfaction with CACI?s performance.?
Brig. Gen. George R. Fay is conducting a full inquiry in Baghdad into the intelligence practices of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, to which CACI?s contractors at Abu Ghraib were assigned.