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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 28th,
2006 - Appeals Court Hears Case Alleging CIA Torture of German Man |
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Appeals Court Hears Case Alleging
CIA Torture of German Man By Larry O'Dell Associated Press Writer November 28, 2006 Richmond, Va. - Courts can
consider a German man's claim that the CIA tortured him in a prison in
Afghanistan without divulging secrets about the U.S. government's war on
terror, the man's lawyer told a federal appeals court Tuesday. Attorney Ben Wizner of the
American Civil Liberties Union urged a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate Khaled el-Masri's lawsuit against
former CIA director George Tenet and others. A judge dismissed the case in
May, ruling that a trial could expose state secrets and harm national
security. The Lebanese-born el-Masri
listened to the appeals court's 50-minute hearing from the front row of a
packed courtroom. "I have confidence in
the American judicial systems and its courts," el-Masri, speaking
through a translator, said after the hearing. "What I really want is
that they admit to me that an injustice was done to me. I would like an
explanation and I would like an apology." At the heart of the case is
the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, in which terror
suspects are captured and taken to foreign countries for interrogation. The
program has been heavily criticized by human rights groups. "The world is watching
this case--not to learn intelligence secrets but to see whether we give
justice to an innocent victim of our anti-terror policy," Wizner told the
appeals court. He said the basics of the
rendition program already are common knowledge and provide the necessary
framework for determining whether el-Mazri's due process and human rights
were violated. "Khaled el-Masri is the
public face of a publicly acknowledged program," Wizner said. Greg Katsis, a lawyer for
the U.S. Department of Justice, argued that the government properly invoked
its privilege to protect state secrets outlined in a classified affidavit
that Judge T.S. Ellis III read before dismissing the lawsuit. "Just because some
facts are in the public domain does not eliminate protection of other facts
not in the public domain," Katsis said. Katsis acknowledged that the
director of central intelligence must justify his assertion of the state
secrets privilege, adding that "he has done that in spades in this case
in the classified affidavit." Appellate Judge Robert King
suggested Wizner faced an uphill battle in challenging a ruling that a judge
based largely on a secret affidavit. "He knew things you
didn't know," King told Wizner. In his lawsuit, el-Masri
alleges he was mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11
hijackers and was kidnapped while attempting to enter Macedonia on Dec. 31,
2003. He claims he was flown to a CIA-run prison known as the "salt
pit" in Kabul, where he was beaten and sodomized with a foreign object
during five months in captivity. "It is not exaggerated
to say the conditions were not fit for human beings at all," el-Masri
told reporters outside the courthouse. "After five months, they simply
took me back and dropped me like a piece of luggage in the woods of Albania
and said they didn't want to know anything about this, they didn't want to
hear anything about this anymore." Katsis noted that the
government has neither confirmed nor denied el-Masri's account. "This is a situation
where there may be a wrong without a remedy - or without a judicial
remedy," King said, noting that Ellis said in his ruling in May that any
relief for el-Masri might have to come from the executive or legislative
branch. After the hearing, Wizner
told reporters: "If we shut the courthouse doors to Khaled el-Masri,
that will have a terrible effect on the willingness of other countries to
cooperate with our government and the belief of other countries that we are a
model of democracy and fair play." The lawsuit seeks damages of
at least $75,000. Along with Tenet, defendants include corporations that
allegedly owned and operated the airplanes used to transport el-Masri and
several unknown employees of those corporations and the CIA. King was joined on the panel
by Judges Allyson Duncan and Dennis Shedd. The appeals court usually takes
several weeks to issue its ruling. Associated Press writer
Michael Felberbaum contributed to this report. External link: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--cotap-cialawsuit1128nov28,0,3210410.story |