A Maryland man is one of four defense contractors being sued by former prisoners of Abu Ghraib.

Federal lawsuits were filed by three Iraqis and a Jordanian yesterday. The men say they were tortured by the defense contractors while being detained at the prison in 2003 and 2004. One of the employees named in the suit is Adel Nakhla, a Montgomery Village resident who worked as a translator in the prison.

Nakhla is being accused by the Jordanian plaintiff, Wissam Abdullateff Sa’eed Al-Quraishi. Al-Quraishi claims that Nakhla held him down while someone else poured feces on him; stripped him and other prisoners of their clothes, then piled the prisoners on top of each other; and held a 14-year-old boy down while someone else sodomized him with a toothbrush.

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs said: “These men came to U.S. courts because our laws, as they have for generations, allow their claims to be heard here.” The defense responded by calling the claims “baseless allegations.”

All four plaintiffs were released from Abu Ghraib without being charged, after being detained for as long as four years. Although eleven soldiers have been convicted in response to allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib, no private contractors have been charged with crimes so far.

The accusations against Nakhla are not even the most disturbing ones presented in the lawsuit. If they are in fact “baseless allegations,” these men were pretty creative when dreaming up torture scenarios.

So what are your thoughts on this lawsuit: an attempt at justice, an attempt to get paid, or a justifiable attempt at both?

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