Abu Ghraib abuse firms are rewarded
As prison ringleader awaits sentence, defence contractors win multi-million Pentagon contracts
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday January 16, 2005
The Observer
Two US defence contractors being sued over allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon, despite demands that they should be barred from any new government work.
Three employees of CACI International and Titan – working at Abu Ghraib as civilian contractors – were separately accused of abusive behaviour.
The report on the Abu Ghraib scandal implicated three civilian contractors in the abuses: Steven Stefanowicz from CACI International and John Israel and Adel Nakhla from Titan.
Stefanowicz was charged with giving orders that ‘equated to physical abuse’, Israel of lying under oath and Naklha of raping an Iraqi boy.
It was also alleged that CACI interrogators used dogs to scare prisoners, placed detainees in unauthorised ‘stress positions’ and encouraged soldiers to abuse prisoners. Titan employees, it has been alleged, hit detainees and stood by while soldiers physically abused prisoners…
