We recently reported on a lawsuit charging three Virginia companies with involvement in torturing detainees in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Now it's a Florida firm that finds itself in hot water over alleged torture -- and this time the allegations don't involve brutality in Middle East war zones but rather questionable techniques taught to police fighting criminal drug cartels in Mexico.

Last week, videos emerged in the Mexican press showing employees of a U.S. security firm subjecting police trainees to questionable techniques. In one, the trainer drags the volunteer through his own vomit as punishment; in the other, the instructor squirts liquid up the nose of a trainee and shoves his head into a hole that supposedly contains rats and feces. The disturbing videos are available online here and here.

Their discovery has sparked an uproar in Mexico, where human rights investigators are looking into them.

The Narcosphere website has since identified the trainers as employees of Risks Inc. The website for the company -- which specializes in bodyguard services, weapons training and corporate investigations -- lists phone numbers in Miami and the United Kingdom.

Mexican newspaper El Universal previously identified the two instructors involved as Gerardo Arrechea and Jerry Wilson. Narcosphere suggests that Wilson is the man who's been listed variously as Orlando and Andrew and who reportedly served with the British Army in Northern Ireland and trained with U.S. Special Forces.

Identified on Risks Inc.'s site by the Anglicized "Jerry," Arrechea is a martial arts champion and stuntman. Narcosphere adds more details to his bio:

While Risks Incorporated's current website does not give a last name for Jerry, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's January 17, 2006, archive for Risks Incorporated's website does: Arrechea. The United States Muay Thai Association (USMTA) lists Jerry Arrechea as the coach of the Muay Thai Athletic Club of Mexico, located in Naucalpan, Mexico state, which is considered within the Mexico City metropolitan area. The USMTA site says that Arrechea's email address is jerryarrechea@hotmail.com.

However, Arrechea's colorful resume doesn't stop there. The Miami-based anti-Castro terrorist organization Comandos F4 lists a Jerry Arrechea with the email address jerryarrechea@hotmail.com as its Mexico contact. The same page lists Marine Captain Gerardo Arrechea as an "International Delegate" and a member of the Comandos F4 board of directors. The Comandos F4 have openly stated to US media that they are prepared to carry out armed attacks against the Cuban government.

The controversial videos surfaced the day after President George Bush authorized the first year of the Merida Initiative, known by its critics as Plan Mexico. This three-year program will provide $1.6 billion to help the Mexican military and police fight drug cartels.

(The image, a screen grab from the training videos, shows a trainee being forced to roll in his own vomit.)

Labels: drug policy, Florida, merida initiative, mexico, plan mexico, Risks Inc., torture

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a legal team that last year filed suit against North Carolina-based private security contractor Blackwater for its role in the mass shooting of Iraqi civilians.

Now the nonprofit law firm is targeting three other contractors based in the South -- this time over torture inside Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Yesterday CCR announced that it was suing CACI International and CACI Premier Technology Inc. of Arlington, Va., along with an Alexandria-based division of L-3 Communications Corp. It's also suing three individual contractors: Adel Nakhla of Maryland, a translator with L-3, then known as the Titan Corp.; Timothy Dugan of Ohio, a CACI screener and interrogator; and Daniel E. Johnson of Seattle, also a CACI interrogator.

"Private military contractors and the individuals they employ cannot act with impunity," said CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher in a statement. "Contractors must act within the bounds of law and must be held accountable for their participation in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and the other facilities in Iraq. We believe their actions and the acts of torture of their employees clearly violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual, and the laws of the United States."

The lawsuits were filed in federal court on behalf of the following Iraqi civilians:

* Mohammed Abdwaihed Towfek Al-Taee, a 39-year-old taxi driver who alleges abuse during a nine-month detention and who later learned that he was probably turned in by a customer seeking U.S. payment for intelligence tips.

* Wissam Abdullateef Sa’eed Al-Quraishi, a 37-year-old who was allegedly hung on a pole for seven days and subjected to beatings, forced nudity, electrical shocks, humiliating treatment, mock executions and other forms of torture.

* Sa’adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old Arabic teacher and shopkeeper who was allegedly held for a year during which he was caged, abused, stripped and kept naked, and who for a time was hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

* Suhail Najim Abdullah Al-Shimari, a farmer who was held for more than four years and allegedly caged, menaced with dogs, subjected to beatings and electrical shocks, and threatened with death and being sent to a "far away" place.

CCR was founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South. Other firms involved in the lawsuit over contractor torture are Burke O'Neil of Philadelphia and Akeel & Valentine of Troy, Mich. For more details on the allegations, click here.

Labels: blackwater, CACI, center for constitutional rights, contracting, iraq, L-3, military, torture, virginia