Donald Vance Donald Vance ( born c . 1976 ) is an American Navy veteran who was held in detention at Camp Cropper , the United States military ' s maximum - security detention site in Baghdad for 97 days beginning in April 2006 . On December 18 , 2006 , Vance filed suit against the US government and the former US Secretary of Defense , Donald H . Rumsfeld , on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated . He won the 2007 Ron Ridenhour Truth - Telling Prize for coming forward with his story on April 4 , 2007 . Background . Vance was a 29 - year - old Navy veteran from Chicago when he went to Iraq as a security contractor . Vance became an unpaid informant for the F . B . I . , passing them evidence that seemed to suggest that the Iraqi security firm at which he worked might be engaged in illegal weapons trading , particularly to officials from the Iraqi Interior Ministry . However , when American soldiers raided the firm , he was treated as a suspect . Another American who worked for the company but had resigned over the alleged weapons trading , Nathan Ertel , was also detained . Vance was held for three months at Camp Cropper , America ’ s maximum security prison site in Baghdad . Incarceration . Vance claims he was subject to interrogations , inhumane treatment and sleep deprivation techniques during his time at Camp Cropper . A Pentagon spokesperson , First Lt . Lea Ann Fracasso , claimed the men had been " treated fair and humanely " , and that there was no record of either man complaining about his treatment . Though officials were informed by his F . B . I . handler that he was an informant after his first three weeks of detention , they decided that he still " posed a threat " . He took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible . Although denied legal representation at his detainment hearing on 24 April , he was allowed to attend it because he was an American . Two weeks into his detention , he was allowed to phone his fiancee in Chicago , who had already informed her Congressional representative of his apparent disappearance . He wrote ten letters home , one of which arrived in November 2006 dated 17 July . After three months , officials decided to release him after further review of his case . Legal case . On December 18 , 2006 , Vance filed suit against the US government and the former US Secretary of Defense , Donald H . Rumsfeld , on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated . He is being represented by Arthur Loevy , Jon Loevy and Michael Kanovitz of the law firm Loevy & Loevy . His suit against the US government and Donald Rumsfeld allege that he was subject to the following unlawful procedures : On September 21 , 2007 , Vance testified before a Senate Democratic Policy Committee on abuses in private security and reconstruction in Iraq during a hearing on Capitol Hill . He spoke about several events such as Shield Group Security brokering a deal with the South Korean government for small arms . He also spoke about Shield Group selling small arms to people operating within the U . S State Dept . During the proceeding Senator Byron Dorgan who chaired the committee asked Vance to turn over documents reflecting these weapon sales . Vance stated he would do so and also include hundreds of other pages including emails , photos and other documents reflecting SGS ' s criminal activities . On September 26 , 2007 during an Appropriations Committee hearing , Senator Byron Dorgan asked Secretary of Defense , Robert Gates to investigate the detention of Donald Vance . Senator Dorgan also relayed during the committee hearing that he has submitted a request to the inspector generals office for a complete investigation . Sen . Dorgan called Vance ' s detention by the U . S military " frightening " . On August 8 , 2011 , the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago ruled that Vance and Nathan Ertel may proceed to sue Rumsfeld . Unless overturned , the ruling will allow these two plaintiffs to subpoena government documents and to compel sworn testimony about U . S . torture policies . In the past , courts have generally refrained from allowing such suits related to federal government conduct in zones of military conflict , granting government agents qualified immunity under the Bivens doctrine . In its opinion , the Court asked , " On what conceivable basis could a U . S . public official possibly conclude that it was constitutional to torture U . S . citizens ? " With reference to the defendants ' arguments for immunity , the Court wrote that " The [ defense ] theory would immunize every enlisted soldier in the war zone and every official in between … for deliberate torture and even coldblooded murder of civilian U . S . citizens . " In October 2011 , however , the 7th Circuit agreed to rehear the case en banc , vacating the prior opinion . The 7th Circuit Court dismissed the case in November 2012 .