WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Over 250 former detainees of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison have filed a suit against a private U.S. military contractor that they say participated in a conspiracy to commit torture.

    The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a U.S. human rights group involved in bringing the case to the court, said Tuesday that unchecked abuses of contractors in Iraq are tantamount to a "license to kill."

    The class action lawsuit, submitted Monday to a federal court here, asserts that employees from contractor CACI International Inc. routinely tortured, threatened and humiliated prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run facilities in Iraq.

    None of the former detainees involved in the case were ever charged, and all were later released.

    "Plaintiffs are 256 persons among the tens of thousands of persons swept up in the military raids for no reason other than shortage of military interpreters and interrogators," the suit states.

    "They were all eventually released without any charges being brought against them."

    In addition to the CCR, plaintiffs in the case are represented by the law firms of Burke O'Neil LLC and Akeel & Valentine, PLC.

    The same legal team brought suit against private security firm Blackwater USA for firing on Iraqi civilians in a September incident.

    U.S. judge orders CIA tape destruction inquiry

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge ordered a hearing Tuesday on whether the Bush administration violated a court order by destroying CIA interrogation videos of two al-Qaida suspects.

    In a court order, District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter.

    U.S. lawmakers to probe CIA destroying interrogation videotapes

    BEIJING, Dec. 17(Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Congress members vowed Sunday to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects despite Justice Department's advice to the agency not to cooperate in the matter, according to media reports Monday. 

    Lawmakers: CIA not fully inform Congress of interrogation tape destruction

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden stops to talk to reporters as he arrives for a closed-door session with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington Dec. 11, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) has not totally informed U.S. Congress of their intent to destroy the videotapes of interrogating terrorist suspects, a House committee said on Wednesday.  

    U.S. lawmakers unsatisfied with CIA testimony on destroyed tapes

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. lawmakers were unsatisfied with the explanation by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden on Tuesday about reasons for the agency to make and then destroy videotapes of interrogating two terrorist suspects.

    CIA director to testify in Congress as torture issue debate revives

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden is set on Tuesday to testify at Congress on the agency's destruction of videotapes of interrogating terrorist suspects, reviving the debate over the torture issue.