Former Abu Ghraib prisoner details abuse allegations as long-awaited trial begins

At a long-awaited civil trial in Virginia, a former Iraqi detainee described being tortured by the U.S. military and civilian contractors at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, while a retired major general testified that his investigation into the detention site found widespread abuse. 

The case of Al Shimari et al v. CACI Premier Technology, first filed in 2008, finally went to trial this week at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., with Tuesday seeing the first day of witness testimony.  

Plaintiffs in the case seek to win compensation from CACI, a technology company and contractor for the U.S. military that had employed civilian interrogators in the early 2000s. The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 amid the war on terrorism and completed a withdrawal in 2011. 

The plaintiffs accuse CACI contractors of responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees at the prison in Iraq in the early 2000s. 

Asa’ad Hamza Hanfoosh Al-Zuba’e testified that he was first detained by U.S. forces on Nov. 1, 2003, and interrogated four times at Abu Ghraib, where he was held for two months before being transferred. 

Al-Zuba’e, who spoke through a translator during the trial, said he was held in a cell and at one point was deprived of a mattress, blankets and even his clothes, leaving him entirely naked for three days inside the cellroom.  

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “It was very cold. … My feet were swollen, I was crying, screaming, and nothing was provided.” 

Al-Zuba’e claimed that guards placed a hood over his head and took him to the interrogations, which sometimes took place in a “cold” and “windy” location outdoors. 

When he was interrogated, he said there were civilians carrying out the interrogation process, and they at one point threatened to rape his wife and harm his children.  

He also testified he was hit against a wall and twice mistreated by combat dogs, who bit him on his arms and legs.  

“I was in fear, crying, screaming,” he said at trial, saying he was handcuffed to a cell door while the dogs barked at him. 

Al-Zuba’e said he saw other detainees being mistreated, including naked prisoners piled “on top of each other.”

The plaintiff legal team at the trial showed photos of a pile of naked prisoners forced to clump together and of dogs intimidating detainees.

The former detainee said he still suffers mentally and physically from his time at Abu Ghraib. 

“My arm is still swollen,” he said. “I go through nightmares [and …] my interaction with my family is hard. … I start screaming and breaking stuff.” 

The defense team for CACI questioned Al-Zuba’e’s testimony and how he could be sure whether civilians or soldiers were torturing him. They also questioned if military guards acted on their own accord without instruction from a contractor.  

Al-Zuba’e said he understood the interrogators spoke with the guards before the interrogations, though he often had a hood over his head and has never identified anyone except for the guards directly around his cell. He was unaware of what CACI was at the time of his detention. 

Abu Ghraib, also called the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility, shut down in 2014 after years of accusations about the torture and abuse within its walls.

It has become a familiar name for those outraged by the U.S. military’s detention practices during the war on terror, along with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, which has released hundreds of prisoners over the years but still holds 34 detainees today. 

The accusations of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib became a scandal in 2004 after photos and videos of the alleged abuse were circulated. The U.S. military reviewed the prison site and found there was mistreatment there.

Retired Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who was in charge of an investigation that began in January 2004 into Abu Ghraib, testified on Tuesday that he found the claims from Al-Zuba’e and other detainees to be credible.  

Abu Ghraib, which was overseen by the 800th Military Police Brigade, the 320th Military Police Battalion and the 372nd Military Police Company, was managed poorly, Taguba testified, with poor communication and coordination and little oversight.  

Taguba found that civilian contractors were not properly supervised at the detention site. His report at the time found “numerous incidents of blatant, wanton criminal abuses,” including the punching and kicking of prisoners and threats with 9mm pistols.  

Prisoners were also beaten with broom handles and chairs, threatened with rape, arranged in sexually explicit positions and photographed while they were naked, according to the report. Dogs were also used to frighten them. 

Taguba testified that guards were “abusing” and “mistreating” the prisoners. 

“They were not following proper procedure,” he said, adding it was a “sad situation of having seen videos and photographs tantamount to illegal operations.” 

In the lawsuit against CACI, Al-Zuba’e is joined by two other plaintiffs, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari and Salah Hasan Nusaif Al-Ejaili.

All three Iraqi civilians, who were eventually released without ever being charged with a crime, are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Most of the worst alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib occurred from October to December 2003.

Ivan Frederick, a former military police officer and army reserve staff sergeant, was among 11 officers convicted and court-martialed for their role in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Frederick testified in a video deposition shown at the trial that he worked at the facility, including the “hard site,” a secure place for high-level targets. He oversaw a small team of military police along with around 1,000 prisoners.

He said civilian interrogators asked military police at Abu Ghraib, including a CACI official known as Steven Stefanowicz, or “Big Steve” as his nickname, to “soften up detainees” before interrogation.

“Treat them a little more harshly,” he described what the interrogators would say, or “withdraw food.”

Military police would strip the clothes from prisoners, force them into stress positions or play loud music for disruption. Some detainees were also forced to wear female clothes, including women’s underwear.

Frederick said at the time, the U.S. was trying to find the bodies of five Americans.

“We were led to believe we were doing the right thing,” he said. “We were led to believe we were saving America.”

While Frederick could not recall specific instructions from civilian interrogators in most instances, he did testify that one civilian contractor asked him to use pressure points on an individual.

Under cross-examination from the defense team, Frederick said some of the practices captured in infamous photos that leaked out of Abu Ghraib – including those of detainees stripped naked and forced to form a pyramid – were not carried out at the direction of civilian contractors.

Two additional former military police guards also testified in 2013 depositions that they had worked with civilian contractors to torture prisoners or that the contractors were present at the time of the abuse.

This story was updated at 7:13 p.m.