The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 74/No. 36      September 27, 2010

 
Appeals court upholds
‘state secrets’ in CIA case
 
BY CINDY JAQUITH  
Five men who say they were kidnapped, flown to another country, and tortured through the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program have no right to sue, said a federal court September 8. In a 6-5 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that all of the plaintiffs’ claims, “even if taken as true,” concern government activities that are “absolutely protected by the state secrets privilege.”

The five had sued Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary that provided logistical support to the CIA to fly the men to various countries for torture and interrogation. The Barack Obama administration, arguing “state secrets” were at stake, appealed a lower court decision allowing the suit to proceed.

The lead plaintiff is Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who is a legal resident of the United Kingdom. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, interrogated by British secret police, then flown by the CIA to Morocco, turned over to Moroccan cops, held for 18 months, and tortured. Next, he was flown to a CIA prison in Afghanistan for more torture. Finally he spent nearly five years at the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Mohamed has now been freed. Some of the other four plaintiffs, who have similar stories, remain imprisoned.

The ruling accepted the Justice Department’s argument that “state secrets” include evidence of private companies’ or foreign governments’ cooperation with the CIA, information about CIA interrogation programs, and information about clandestine agency operations.

At the same time the judges ordered the government to pay all the plaintiffs’ legal costs, and suggested it pay reparations to the five men it tortured.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home