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Saturday, November 04 2006 @ 07:32 AM CST
The U.S. government filed a motion Friday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an aspiring American filmmaker who spent two months in an Iraqi prison without being charged.
The American Civil Liberties Union of California filed the federal lawsuit in July on behalf of Cyrus Kar, 45, of Los Angeles. It alleges the filmmaker's detention violated his civil rights, the Geneva Convention and the law of nations. Defendants include Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other military officials.
In response to the lawsuit, U.S. attorneys cautioned the court to carefully consider getting entangled in military operations overseas and said Kar cannot challenge the government's policies without "a realistic threat that he will again be subject to detention in Iraq by the United States military officers."
The lawsuit is the first civil case challenging detention policies in Iraq, said ACLU legal director Mark Rosenbaum, who called the government's response to the lawsuit troubling.
"I found it disturbing that their position is that American citizens can be treated with impunity by American officials without a recognition that the constitution applies," Rosenbaum said.
Kar, an Iranian-American, was taken into custody in May 2005 after visiting Iraq to make a documentary about the Persian king who wrote the world's first human rights charter. Potential bomb parts were found in a taxi in which Kar was riding.
While imprisoned, Kar said he was at times hooded, threatened and taunted by U.S. soldiers. One soldier slammed Kar's head into a concrete wall, the lawsuit said.
Military officials have said Kar was properly detained as "an imperative security threat" and that the matter had been handled and resolved appropriately.
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