Rumsfeld Could Face Personal Liability On Torture

Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were Americans who worked for Shield Group Security, a privately owned Iraqi security service in Baghdad. Their civil suit alleges that they began cooperating with U.S. officials after suspecting their employer was acting illegally. For example, they reported that their supervisor, who called himself the "Director" of the "Beer for Bullets" program, gave liquor to American soldiers in exchange for weapons, which Shield Group Security then used or sold.After their employer became suspicious of their actions, the two men reached out to their official U.S. contacts for help. But rather than be protected as whistle-blowers, Vance and Ertel were detained and eventually taken in shackles to a U.S. military facility near Baghdad airport known as Camp Cropper where they were subjected to a range of abuses.Held incommunicado and in solitary confinement, their small, feces-smeared cells were kept intolerably cold. The men claim the lights were on at all times, loud music was piped in and guards would wake them if they fell asleep. They were often deprived of food and water, physically threatened and abused by being slammed into walls while blindfolded.Both were eventually released, Ertel after six weeks and Vance after three months. They were dropped off at Baghdad airport and told to make their way home. No charges were ever filed against them. From Reality Zone.