CACI, a
In recent years, the
But U.S. District Judge
“I think you overread Nestle,” Brinkema said at Friday's hearing.
She did not immediately reject CACI's motion, and took it under advisement after Friday's hearing. But she said she sees major differences in the allegations against
In the CACI case, for example, company personnel were assigned directly to
In fact,
Brinkema also mentioned an email from a CACI employee assigned to
But as described in generic terms in court papers and by Brinkema, it was sent by a CACI employee to his boss outlining abuses he had personally witnessed. The employee apparently resigned in protest, Brinkema said.
Brinkema said she was “amazed” that no one at CACI seemed to follow up on the employee's concerns.
O'Connor disputed that the email was incriminating. He said the email took note of improper interrogations conducted by inexperienced Army soldiers, not by CACI interrogators or supervisors.
CACI has strongly denied that any of its employees engaged in or sanctioned torture. And the three inmates who filed the suit, with the assistance of the
But the lawsuit alleges that CACI was complicit and aided and abetted the torture by setting up the conditions under which soldiers conducted the brutal treatment that shocked the world when photographs of the abuse were made public in 2004.
CACI's legal arguments are just the most recent in a string of challenges to the lawsuit. On two prior occasions a judge did in fact toss out the lawsuit, only to see it reinstated on appeal.
Most recently, CACI argued it had immunity from a lawsuit in the same way that the
In June, the
The plaintiffs are suing under a law called the Alien Tort Statute that is among the first laws passed by
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