Lawfare Daily: Accountability for Abu Ghraib
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2024
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's podcast, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett talks with Michael Posner, a professor of business and human rights at New York University, about the landmark verdict last month in Al-Shimari v. CACI. The case involved claims against a government contractor for its role in the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Iraq in 2004. It became the first case of its kind to make it to trial—and now a jury has returned a verdict finding the company liable and imposing $42 million in damages. They discuss how the case will affect private companies, government contractors, and the future of human rights litigation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.4 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare |
| 0:10.8 | at patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter, Lawfare No Bull, |
| 0:26.4 | and The Aftermath. |
| 0:31.0 | We had outsourced responsibility. |
| 0:34.7 | We had outsourced some measure of operationalizing this to private individuals. |
| 0:41.4 | There were a couple of people, kind of diabolical characters who brought their theory of how |
| 0:48.4 | you get people to fess up to what happened. |
| 0:53.1 | It's the Lawfare podcast. |
| 0:55.3 | I'm Natalie Orpet, executive editor of Lawfare, with Mike Posner, |
| 0:59.3 | director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School |
| 1:03.9 | of Business and a former Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, |
| 1:09.0 | and Labor. |
| 1:10.2 | The second jury, though, you know, made the decision that the defendants that Kaki had |
| 1:16.8 | conspired with the military police, and as they put it, to set conditions for interrogation, |
| 1:23.9 | which resulted in widespread torture. |
| 1:26.7 | Today we're talking about a landmark verdict in the case of Al-Shimari versus CACI, |
| 1:32.1 | where a government contractor working with the U.S. military and CIA was held liable for |
| 1:36.8 | torture and human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq back in the early 2000s. |
| 1:42.3 | So, Michael, I've asked you to join us today because there has recently been a really, |
| 1:48.8 | really remarkable ruling, which was a $42 million verdict against a government contractor |
... |
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