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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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February 9th,
2009 - Obama Lawyers Maintain Bush Position in Suit News article from the
Associated Press News article from Agence
France Presse |
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Obama Lawyers
Maintain Bush Position in Suit From the Associated Press February 9, 2009 San Francisco - An Obama administration
lawyer is urging a federal appeals court panel to throw out a lawsuit
accusing a Boeing Co. subsidiary of illegally helping the CIA secretly fly
terrorism suspects overseas to be tortured. The Justice Department said
Monday that national security would be threatened if the lawsuit moved
forward. In arguing for the suit to
be tossed, the Obama White House maintained the same position as the Bush
administration on the case disappointing the American Civil Liberties Union
and others, who had called on the Obama administration to change its
position. The lawsuit alleges the San
Jose-based subsidiary, Jeppesen DataPlan Inc., provided airplanes and crews
to the CIA to carry out an "extraordinary rendition" program that
included torture. © 2009 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. External link: http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Boeing_CIA_Lawsuit_384578C.shtml Rights
activists attack Obama over ‘rendition’ case From Agence France Presse February 9, 2009 San Francisco - The US
government argued against a lawsuit on behalf of CIA "rendition" victims
here Monday, angering activists who accused President Barack Obama of
following the policies of George W. Bush. Lawyers from the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked California appeals court judges to reopen a
case brought by five men who say they were kidnapped and sent to secret
overseas sites where they were tortured. The case against Boeing
subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, accused of knowingly providing services that
enabled rendition flights for the Central Intelligence Agency, was thrown out
last year after the Bush administration invoked the state secrets privilege. Rights groups sought to
reopen the case after Obama signed an executive order banning the use of
torture by the United States and ordering the closure of CIA detention
facilities. On Monday, however, the
Obama administration said it remains opposed to the case moving forward -
maintaining the Bush administration's position in a case involving what has
become known as "extraordinary rendition." "This case cannot be
litigated," Department of Justice attorney Douglas Letter argued.
"The judges shouldn't play with fire in this national security
situation." Asked by Judge Mary
Schroeder whether the change in the White House had led to any changes in the
government's legal arguments in the case, Letter said it "remains the
position" of the government that the case should not proceed. ACLU attorney Ben Wizner,
who represented the five men at Monday's hearing, said he was disappointed at
the new administration's refusal to change course after public vows to end
rendition. "Today, the (Obama)
administration blocked the door to torture victims having their day in
court," Wizner said outside the court following the hearing before a
three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. "And if those words in
the executive order can't be enforced, then it's much more likely those types
of abuses will be continued." The suit accuses Jeppesen of
arranging at least 70 flights for the CIA since 2001, including those of the
five men - one now imprisoned in Egypt, one in Morocco, one at the US
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and two who have been released without
charges. The Bush administration said
it never took a prisoner to a foreign country without first being assured no
torture would be used. Wizner argued before the
appeals panel that the rendition program is no longer a secret, and that
Jeppesen is listed as a provider of CIA flight services in a report prepared
by the Council of Europe. And he said it should be up
to a judge, not the CIA, to decide what evidence can be used in court. "Our clients did not
ask to be abducted, chained to the floor of planes, dressed in diapers and
taken to a foreign country," Wizner told the judges. "If you affirm (the
judge's dismissal of the case), plaintiffs will forever be shut out of their
day in court." The judges did not
immediately issue a ruling. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gbPI3cDC_uCBNNMFYH-2jp5vMG6Q Justice
Department to review all state secrets claims By James Vicini Reuters February 9, 2009 Washington - U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder ordered on Monday a review of all claims of state secrets
used to block lawsuits into warrantless spying on Americans and the treatment
of foreign terrorism suspects. Holder, who was appointed by
President Barack Obama and took office last week, directed senior Justice
Department officials to review all Bush-era claims of state secrets to make
sure they are invoked only in legally appropriate situations, a spokesman
said. "It is vital that we
protect information that, if released, could jeopardize national security.
But the Justice Department will ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide
from the American people information about their government's actions that
they have a right to know," spokesman Matt Miller said. The U.S. government has in
some cases invoked state-secret claims that allowing a lawsuit to proceed
could jeopardize national security. Such cases include legal challenges to
the domestic spying program using wiretaps that President George W. Bush
began after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Holder's review was
disclosed the same day as Justice Department lawyers repeated a Bush
administration state-secret claim in a lawsuit against a Boeing Co unit. The
suit claims the company helped fly terrorism suspects abroad to secret
prisons. In arguments before a U.S.
appeals court in San Francisco, the Obama administration opted not to change
the government's position in the case, instead saying the entire subject
matter of the case involved a state secret. The American Civil Liberties
Union filed the lawsuit accusing Boeing's Jeppesen Dataplan Inc of providing
flight and logistic support to the U.S. government with at least 15 aircraft
on 70 "extraordinary-rendition" flights. The ACLU brought the case on
behalf of five men who say the CIA had them flown to foreign prisons for
interrogations and torture. A federal judge dismissed
the lawsuit, ruling the heart of the case involved allegations of covert U.S.
military or CIA operations in foreign countries against foreign nationals, a
subject matter which qualified as a state secret. The ACLU then went to the
appeals court in arguing the lawsuit should be allowed to go forward. The ACLU's Ben Wizner, who
argued the case, said, "We are shocked and deeply disappointed that the
Justice Department has chosen to continue the Bush administration's practice
of dodging judicial scrutiny of extraordinary rendition and torture." Miller cited the department
policy of not commenting on pending litigation and specific cases. But he added, "It is
the policy of this administration to invoke the state secrets privilege only
when necessary and in the most appropriate cases." Editing by Randall Mikkelsen
and Anthony Boadle. © Thomson Reuters 2008. All
rights reserved. External link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE5187SK20090209 |