“A lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of personal responsibility for U.S. forces allegedly torturing two American whistleblowers who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm will be allowed to move forward, a federal appeals court ruled Monday [August 8, 2011]. …Monday’s ruling rejected arguments that Rumsfeld should be immune from such lawsuits for work performed as a Cabinet secretary. The U.S. Supreme Court sets a high bar for those suing a top government official, mandating that they show the acts in question are tied directly to a violation of constitutional rights and that the official clearly understood they were violations. ‘There can be no doubt that the deliberate infliction of such treatment on U.S. citizens, even in a war zone, is unconstitutional,’ U.S. Circuit Judge David Hamilton wrote in Monday’s opinion. …In their lawsuit, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel claim U.S. forces detained them in 2006 after they alleged illegal activities by the Iraqi-owned company they worked for, Shield Group Security. Among the methods of torture used against them during several weeks in military camps was sleep deprivation and a practice known as ‘walling,’ in which subjects are blindfolded and walked into walls, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges Rumsfeld personally participated in approving the methods for use by the U.S. military in Iraq, making Rumsfeld responsible, it argues, for what happened to Vance and Ertel.”
– “Court Clears Way for Torture Suit Against Rumsfeld,” Agence France-Presse, Aug. 8, 2011