Abu Ghraib Settlement: Defense Contractor Engility Holdings Pays $5M To Iraqi Torture Detainees

[unhappycamper]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/abu-ghraib-settlement-defense-contractor-pays_n_2435226.html



Abu Ghraib Settlement: Defense Contractor Engility Holdings Pays $5M To Iraqi Torture Detainees
By PETE YOST
01/08/13 06:02 PM ET EST AP

WASHINGTON — A defense contractor whose subsidiary was accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to torture detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has paid $5.28 million to 71 former inmates held there and at other U.S.-run detention sites between 2003 and 2007.

The settlement in the case involving Engility Holdings Inc. of Chantilly, Va., marks the first successful effort by lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers to collect money from a U.S. defense contractor in lawsuits alleging torture. Another contractor, CACI, is expected to go to trial over similar allegations this summer.

The payments were disclosed in a document that Engility filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission two months ago but which has gone essentially unnoticed.

The defendant in the lawsuit, L-3 Services Inc., now an Engility subsidiary, provided translators to the U.S. military in Iraq. In 2006, L-3 Services had more than 6,000 translators in Iraq under a $450 million-a-year contract, an L-3 executive told an investors conference at the time.

[Victor_c3]

1. Seems like they got off easy just paying roughly $5,000,000 to 71 people

That means each person got $74,366.20 before their lawyers took their cut.

When civilians were killed when I was in Iraq in 2004, we gave them about $2,000 each (if I remember right). I know that the money will go a lot further in those countries than it will here, but it doesn't seem like a lot of money. On the other hand, US Soldiers by default had $250,000 term life insurance policies when I was there.

I guess American Soldier lives are more important than Iraqi civilian lives. It kind of shows in the numbers of US dead versus Iraqi civilian dead too and the command attitudes towards "force protection at all costs". When in doubt, shoot first and ask questions later.