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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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February 14th,
2008 - Judge Dismisses Renditions Lawsuit in San Jose |
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Judge Dismisses
Renditions Lawsuit in San Jose By Bob Egelko San Francisco Chronicle February 14, 2008 San Jose - A federal judge
dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that accused a San Jose flight-planning company
of helping the CIA transport prisoners to overseas dungeons for interrogation
and torture, agreeing with the Bush administration that the case risks exposure
of state secrets. U.S. District Judge James
Ware in San Jose said he had no authority to decide whether, as three current
prisoners and two freed inmates alleged, Jeppesen International Trip Planning
colluded with the CIA to violate their rights. The suit instead must be
dismissed at the outset because its subject is a secret program that cannot
be examined in a public proceeding, Ware said. Public and confidential
declarations filed by CIA Director Michael Hayden show that "proceeding
with this case would jeopardize national security and foreign
relations," Ware said. "At the core of
plaintiffs' case against defendant Jeppesen are 'allegations' of covert U.S.
military or CIA operations in foreign countries against foreign nationals -
clearly a subject matter which is a state secret," the judge said. It was the third straight
ruling by a federal judge to deny legal redress to alleged victims of the
so-called extraordinary rendition program, in which terrorism suspects have
been transported to countries beyond the reach of U.S. law for detention and
interrogation. The previous suits were
filed against the government by men who said they were mistaken for
terrorists, flown overseas and tortured, then released, without apologies or
compensation, when U.S. officials discovered their errors. Ben Wizner, an American
Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said he expects to
appeal Ware's ruling. "These kinds of
decisions give the CIA immunity to violate the most fundamental rights
without any judicial accountability," he said. "The CIA is not
trying to protect state secrets. It's trying to protect itself from
embarrassment." Jeppesen, a subsidiary of a
company owned by Boeing Co., provides a variety of flight-planning services,
including routing, fueling and arranging ground transportation. A Council of
Europe report in June identified the company as the CIA's aviation services
provider, and a court declaration by a former employee quoted a Jeppesen
director as telling staffers in August 2006 that the company handled
"torture flights." The suit accused Jeppesen of
arranging at least 70 flights since 2001, including those of the five
plaintiffs. Three of the men, still in prison, were tortured in Morocco and
Egypt, and the other two were abused at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan and
later freed, the suit said. After the government
intervened in the case and moved for dismissal, the ACLU argued that the
rendition program is not a secret, noting that President Bush and other top
officials have openly defended the program and that Hayden, the CIA director,
has provided numerous details in public appearances. But Ware said crucial
elements of the case - Jeppesen's alleged relationship with the CIA and the
agency's cooperation with foreign governments - have not been publicly
confirmed or denied by the government and can't be litigated without an
unacceptable risk of harm to national security. External link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/13/BAVIV270H.DTL |