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Two American military contractors who say they were held and tortured by American forces in Iraq have received permission from a U.S. court to sue former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld over their treatment. “We agree with the district court that the plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to show that Secretary Rumsfeld personally established the relevant policies that caused the alleged violations of their constitutional rights during detention," the Court of Appeals in Chicago said in a 2-1 decision. The men, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, said they reported their own private-security company for corruption in 2006. They claimed they were then taken into custody, interrogated, subjected to emotional and physical abuse, held for months, and eventually dropped off at an airport without being charged with a crime. The Justice Department, which has been representing Rumsfeld, can now appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.