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Ever Vigilant

Paul Krugman, writing in the Times, notes that an employee of CACI International may be at the center of the abuse of Iraqi detainees:

According to reports in a number of newspapers, employees from two private contractors, CACI International and Titan, act as interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison. According to Sewell Chan of The Washington Post, these contractors are "at the center of the probe" into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

And that abuse, according to the senior defense analyst at Jane's, has "almost certainly destroyed much of what support the coalition had among the more moderate section of the Iraqi population."

We don't yet know for sure that private contractors were at fault. But why put civilians, who cannot be court-martialed and hence aren't fully accountable, in that role?

CACI International has its U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

A look at CACI's 2003 annual report (pdf) shows that CACI’s motto is “Ever Vigilant.”

At CACI, being Ever Vigilant means something to us and to those we serve:

To our customers… it means we are committed to their success.

To our employees… it means we are never complacent.

To our stockholders… it means we deliver performance and accountability.

To our culture .. it is who we are …

Ever Vigilant means the relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence. It means listening carefully and understanding our customer’s missions and objectives. It means exceeding their expectations. Year and year after year.

Given that CACI’s customer is the United States of America and given that our goal is to bring stability and democracy to Iraq and given that those goals can not be accomplished without winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, the participation in torture of Iraqis by CACI employees is hard to square with “listening carefully and understanding our customer’s missions and objectives” and being “committed to their success.”

The annual report also contains some other interesting information. For instance, with regard to performance standards and ethics, CACI claims:

CACI International consistently strives for the highest standards of performance and brings to bear a powerful legacy of straightforward business ethics in everything we do.

With regard to it employees, CACI claims:

Our employees turn the promise of vigilance into reality. These world-class professionals not only have excellent credentials, they have excellent attitudes as well. You won’t find a team that is more client focused. Or one that pays closer attention to detail.

CACI also claims that it acts “with unequaled integrity.”

Krugman notes that as a private contractor, neither CACI nor its employees are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and therefore can not be court-martialed. That does not mean that CACI can not be held accountable for the actions of its employees taken with the scope of their employment.

CACI is a publicly traded company. It is accountable to its shareholders. One thing that shareholder’s despise is having the company pay out large amounts of money as a result of the conduct of company employees. CACI is subject to American tort law in the courts of Virginia as well as in the Federal Courts.

I envision the cross examination of the CEO of CACI. The lawyer, while putting the photographs of Iraqi’s being tortured up on a large screen might ask the CEO whether that was what he had in mind when he stated that you won’t find a team “that pays closer attention to detail.”

The CEO could be asked whether or not torture constitutes “excellent attitudes,” the “highest standards of performance” and “a powerful legacy of straightforward business ethics in everything we do.”

Considering the damage done to the United States mission in Iraq by the torture of the Iraqi detainees and considering the revolting conduct shown by the photographs and reports, if it could be shown that CACI employees participated in such conduct, I suspect that any American jury would be Ever Vigilant in punishing CACI. That is a form of accountability that CACI will understand.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at May 4, 2004 02:39 PM | TrackBack