Torture profiteer's suit against Air America goes forward

Posted by Joshua Holland at 9:54 AM on January 3, 2007.

I've been following the exploits of the "torture profiteer" CACI International -- the firm's employees were named in two government reports on the abuses at Abu Ghraib -- for some time now (see here for background).

The company has an infamously aggressive attorney, and its management has decided that the best way to keep their brand from being further tainted by one of the worst military scandals in U.S. history is to try to shut up the media with threatening letters and, if need be, lawsuits -- a counterproductive strategy if ever there was one (Dear CACI: Get a clue -- I wouldn't be writing this post if you'd simply owned up to your role in the abuses and pledged to exercise greater oversight of your employees and agents instead of trying to intimidate people who report on your exploits).

Anyway, they sued Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes a while back, claiming that she had defamed the company on her program. A judge threw the case out -- as one might expect -- but the firm appealed the summary judgment. And this week, a bankruptcy court allowed the appeal to continue, despite AAR's seemingly chronic financial woes:

A federal bankruptcy court in New York ruled Thursday that the case could proceed despite the fact that Air America has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Under federal law, legal proceedings against a company are frozen when the company declares bankruptcy.

The company sued Air America and its parent company, Piquant LLC, as well as Rhodes in the fall of 2005 for defamation. The suit stemmed from comments Rhodes made Aug. 25-26, 2005 on her radio show. According to CACI's complaint, she accused CACI employees of raping and murdering Iraqi civilians at Abu Ghraib prison, claims that CACI said were "false and defamatory."

CACI is seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. A phone call to Air America seeking comment was not immediately returned.

A U.S. District Court dismissed the case, but CACI appealed that ruling. The bankruptcy court's decision allows the appeal to proceed.

Shares of CACI dropped 38 cents on Friday to close at $56.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

This is profoundly stupid -- they're only keeping their name in the news. Having received my own letter from CACI's lawyers, it's clear that they're trying to weasel out of taking responsibility for their part in what happened by relying on the fact that the reports released by the government were incomplete. In this case, the suit against Rhodes is based on the fact that the Taguba report named at least one CACI employee in the abuse, and also alleged that unnamed private contractors were guilty of raping and killing at least one prisoner. So CACI's case is based on the fact that Rhodes said CACI interrogators were guilty of rape and murder, when the government's investigation(s) didn't state that it was their man specifically. But I imagine the firm's getting off lucky in that department; the only other contractor that's been cited by name in Abu Ghraib is Titan, and that firm denies having sent any interrogators to the infamous prison.

Tagged as: iraq, torture, caci, abu ghraib, detentions

Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.