Abu Ghraib victims still waiting for compensation

? Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in 2004 that he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered “grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Rumsfeld said. “And it is my intention to see that we do.”

Six years later, the U.S. Army is unable to document a single payment for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Nor can the more than 250 Iraqis or their lawyers now seeking redress in U.S. courts. Their hopes for compensation may rest on a Supreme Court decision this week.

The Army says about 30 former Abu Ghraib prisoners are seeking compensation from the U.S. Army Claims Service. Those claims are still being investigated; many do not involve inmate abuse.

The Army said that U.S. Forces-Iraq looked at its records and could not find any payments to former detainees. The Army also cannot verify whether any such payments were made informally through Iraqi leaders.

From the budget years 2003 to 2006, the Defense Department paid $30.9 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were killed, injured, or incurred property damage due to U.S. or coalition forces’ actions during combat. The Army has found no evidence any of those payments were used to compensate victims of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

So instead of compensation, the legacy of the most infamous detainee abuse episode from President George W. Bush’s tenure is lawsuits, and the court battle mirrors the Iraq war — a grinding, drawn-out conflict.

At the U.S. Supreme Court, the former detainees are asking the justices to step into a case alleging that civilian interrogators and linguists conspired with soldiers to abuse the prisoners. All the detainees, who allege they were held at Abu Ghraib or one of the other 16 detention centers in Iraq, say they were eventually released without any charges against them.

Their case presents a fundamental legal issue: Can defense contractors working side by side with military jailers be sued for claims arising in a war zone?

The U.S. government is immune from suits arising from combatant activities of the military during time of war.

The ex-detainees are suing CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and L-3 Services Inc. of New York, formerly called Titan Corp. of San Diego. Both companies say the suits fail to link any of their employees to abuse.

The Supreme Court considers the case in private today and could announce as early as Tuesday whether it will take the case.

“It’s really outrageous that there hasn’t been a widespread commitment to compensate the clear victims of this abuse, and it’s extremely troubling that the government doesn’t appear able to document any compensation for victims whatsoever,” said Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a private group overseeing lawsuits against the civilian contractors since 2004.

“The U.S. government seems to have failed miserably in securing at least one portion of the accountability for these actions,” he said.

Although the U.S. military used signs, pamphlets, broadcasts and word of mouth to let the Iraqi public know how to make claims against U.S. forces, “very few claims appear to have been made” related to Abu Ghraib inmate abuse, Lt. Col. Craig A. Ratcliff, an Army spokesman, told The Associated Press.

“We believe there could be several reasons for this, including the cultural and social stigma of having been detained or mistreated that could be a source of embarrassment preventing a former detainee from coming forward,” he said.

Ratcliff said that just 31 requests for compensation filed with the U.S. Army Claims Service “could involve possible detention at Abu Ghraib” and that many of the 31 involve allegations such as missing cash and lost personal items rather than physical abuse. All 31 “are pending investigation and action.”