Vol. 73/No. 9      March 9, 2009

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case on behalf of five individuals held as “terror” suspects by Washington. They charged Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, with providing aircraft to the Central Intelligence Agency for the “extraordinary rendition” program.

One of the plaintiffs, Binyam Mohamed, a native of Ethiopia who is also a British resident, states in court papers that after being picked up in Pakistan he was flown to Morocco where he was imprisoned and tortured for nearly two years. He was just released from the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after being held in U.S. custody for nearly seven years.

Another plaintiff, Ahmed Agiza, was awarded $450,000 in damages by the Swedish government, which helped the CIA transport him for incarceration in Egypt. Two other plaintiffs have been released without charges, and another one is still imprisoned in Morocco.

The lawsuit details the torture these individuals faced in secret prisons. While being detained in Morocco, it says, Mohamed “was routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body… . He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution and death.”

The ACLU lawsuit, filed in May 2007, alleges that Jeppesen helped transport “terrorism” suspects on more than 70 flights to countries where they were tortured. Government lawyers for the Bush administration argued at the time that this case should not be allowed to proceed because it would damage “national security” by disclosing “state secrets.” The trial judge agreed, dismissing the case in February 2008. A federal appeals court panel is now hearing arguments about whether to reinstate the lawsuit.

The Wall Street Journal reported the following courtroom exchange between one judge and a lawyer for the Obama Justice Department: “Judge Mary Schroeder asked leadingly, ‘Is there anything that might have happened’ to cause Justice to shift its views? ‘No, your honor,’ the Justice attorney, Douglas Letter, replied.

“A startled Judge Schroeder tried again. ‘The change in Administration has no bearing?’ Mr. Letter reiterated that his positions had been ‘authorized’ and ‘thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new Administration.’”

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said, “This is not change. This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue.”

In a February 13 editorial, the Journal hailed what it described as “laudable signs” of Obama’s “antiterror progress.” “During his campaign Mr. Obama talked as if he really believed that the Bush Administration was uniquely wicked on national security,” the Journal stated. “Now it seems that the Bush Administration’s antiterror architecture is gaining new legitimacy… . Now the [Obama] Administration has endorsed the same secrecy posture that he once found so offensive, merely saying that it will be used less frequently. We’ll see.”
 
 
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