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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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May 31st,
2007 - ACLU Suit Alleges Firm is Profiting from Torture |
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ACLU Suit Alleges Firm is Profiting
from Torture By Henry Weinstein Los Angeles Times May 31, 2007 The American Civil Liberties
Union filed a suit Wednesday that accused a Boeing Co. subsidiary of helping
the Central Intelligence Agency facilitate “the forced disappearance, torture
and inhumane treatment” of three men the government suspected of terrorist
involvement. “This is the first time we
are accusing a blue-chip American company of profiting from torture,” ACLU
lawyer Ben Wizner said at a news conference in New York City. Since at least 2001,
Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. of San Jose “has provided direct and substantial
services to the United States for its so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’
program,” the suit, filed in San Jose federal court, alleges. Extraordinary rendition is a
highly secretive and extrajudicial practice of transferring terrorist
suspects to third-party countries that routinely practice torture and other
ill-treatment, according to Human Rights Watch. After years of denial, the
Bush administration now acknowledges the tactic but denies sanctioning torture. The suit was filed on behalf
of Binyam Mohammed, a 28-year-old Ethiopian citizen and British resident;
Abou Elkassim Britel, a 40-year-old of Moroccan descent naturalized in Italy;
and Ahmed Agiza, a 45-year-old Egyptian. But the suit said that Jeppesen
provided flight and logistical support services for more than 70
extraordinary renditions over a four-year period. “Corporations should expect
to get sued where they are making blood money off the suffering of others,”
said Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has been representing
Mohammed and is serving as co-counsel on the ACLU suit. Mike Pound, a Jeppesen
spokesman, said the company had not been served with the suit and
consequently had no comment on its merits. Tim Neale, a spokesman for
Chicago-based Boeing, declined to confirm whether Jeppesen worked for the
CIA. “The services Jeppesen provides are provided on a confidential basis for
all its customers,” he said. ACLU attorney Steven Watt
said his organization had obtained information about Jeppesen’s role in the
rendition program from a variety of sources, including investigations in
Spain, Sweden and Italy; other court cases; and media reports, in particular
a New Yorker magazine article by Jane Mayer, portions of which were quoted in
the lawsuit. Mayer wrote that a former
Jeppesen employee told her that he had heard a senior company official say at
a board meeting: “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights - you know
the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way.” The suit describes the
airplanes used to move the three men around, and states that Jeppesen played
a critical role by providing flight planning services, including itinerary,
route, weather and fuel planning, as well as customs clearance assistance,
ground transportation, food, hotels and security, the suit states. The suit goes into
considerable detail on what allegedly happened to each of the men. The
accounts include: - Mohammed was taken into
custody in Pakistan in April 2002, tortured by Pakistani agents and
interrogated by U.S. and British intelligence agents about his alleged ties
to Al Qaeda. Subsequently, Mohammed was
flown to Morocco, where he was detained, interrogated and tortured at a
series of detention facilities. “He was routinely beaten,
suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness due to the
beatings. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was
then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging
liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut,”
the suit says. Mohammed eventually was
flown to Afghanistan, then to Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, where he remains. - Britel, an Italian Arabic
translator, traveled from his home in Italy to Pakistan in March 2002 on
business. He was arrested by Pakistani police on immigration charges,
interrogated, beaten and subjected to sleep deprivation. In April 2002, he “succumbed
and confessed to what his interrogators had been insisting from the outset,
that he was a terrorist,” the suits says. Subsequently, U.S. officials in
Pakistan told Britel that the Pakistani interrogators would kill him if he
did not cooperate. In late May 2002, Britel “was handcuffed, blindfolded and
taken by car” to an airport on the outskirts of Lahore and flown to Rabat,
Morocco. In October 2003, Britel was
convicted and sentenced to 15 years for involvement in terrorist activities.
An observer from the Italian Embassy said “the procedures followed failed to
comport with universally accepted fair trial standards.” Britel remains
imprisoned in Casablanca. - The third plaintiff,
Agiza, was first arrested in 1982 in connection with the assassination of
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He moved to Iran, and in 1999 was tried in
absentia in Egypt for being a member of a banned organization and sentenced
to 25 years in prison. In 2000, Agiza sought asylum
in Sweden, where he was arrested by Swedish security police, handed over to
CIA agents, shackled, drugged and flown from Stockholm to Cairo. In Egypt, he
was repeatedly subjected to torture, which included the use of electric
shocks, the suit says. In April 2004, after a
military trial, Agiza was sentenced again to 25 years imprisonment, later
reduced to 15 years. He remains in prison in Egypt. The ACLU suit was filed
under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which authorizes foreigners to sue
in U.S. courts for human rights violations. The CIA was not named as a
defendant but may ask to have the case dismissed under the “state secrets”
doctrine. First recognized by the
Supreme Court 54 years ago, the states secret privilege bars disclosure in
court proceedings of information whose release threatens national security. Last March, a federal
appeals court in Richmond, Va., citing the state secrets doctrine, dismissed
a suit brought against the CIA by Khaled El Masri, a German citizen who said
he was abducted, flown to Afghanistan and tortured. ACLU lawyers said Wednesday
that they had filed a petition that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn
the El Masri decision. Romero said the Bush
administration had invoked the state secrets privilege in an attempt to
“avoid accountability and embarrassment” for torture and other government
misdeeds in its war on terrorism. In response to a request for
comment, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said, “The CIA does not, as a matter
of course, publicly discuss contractual relationships it may or may not have
with firms or individuals.” The renditions, he said,
“are a key, lawful tool in the fight against terror Gimigliano also said the
United States does not conduct or condone torture, or transport anyone to
other countries to be tortured. External link: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/31/local/me-rendition31 |