Court Dismisses Lawsuit on Secret Kidnapping
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge, saying the case involved a state secret, dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a unit of Boeing Co that charged the firm helped fly terrorism suspects abroad to secret prisons.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint in May accusing Jeppesen Dataplan Inc of providing flight and logistical support to the U.S. government with at least 15 aircraft on 70 “extraordinary-rendition” flights.
“In sum, 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,” Judge James Ware wrote in a ruling issued on Wednesday evening.
The court “grants the United States’ motion to dismiss on the ground that the very subject matter of the case is a state secret.”
The complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleged Jeppesen “falsified flight plans to European air traffic control authorities to avoid public scrutiny of CIA flights.”
The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of five men who say the CIA had them flown to foreign prisons for interrogations and torture. The plaintiffs are an Ethiopian living in Britain; an Italian who was working in Pakistan; an Egyptian citizen living in Sweden; a Yemeni; and an Iraqi who is a British resident.
The government argued the case should be dismissed because they could not confirm details of the operations.
Those details “include whether any private entities or other countries assisted the CIA in conducting the program; the dates and locations of any detentions and interrogations; the methods of interrogation employed in the program; and the names of any individuals detained and interrogated by the CIA (other than fifteen individuals whose identities have been divulged so that they can be brought to trial),” the U.S. government said in its filing last year.
The judge mentioned he had reviewed a classified declaration from Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, in its assessment of the case.
“The Court’s review of General Hayden’s public and classified declarations confirm that proceeding with this case would jeopardize national security and foreign relations and that no protective procedure can salvage this case,” Ware wrote.
Reporting by Adam Tanner; Editing by Peter Cooney
© 2008 Reuters
Ref: last paragraph: the only thing full disclosure in a court of law would jeopardize would be the administration’s defense against charges related to war crimes.
Swell, War Crimes ‘R U.S.
its not so secret anymore…the USA kidnaps, tortures and disappers people like a south american tinpot dictatorship
Where is the Exit door from this nightmare?
Hope the ACLU will continue its good work.
Maybe now looking seriously into what may constitute a state secret. Seems Bush never runs out of them - very, very broad.
It is not a secret that these flights occurred. What is a secret are the details of who is guilty. The US itself did not contest the allegations, and a summary judgment against it is in order, presumably including significant punitive damages as compensation for failing to prosecute serious felony crimes.
I notice that Hayden’s “declaration” was not characterized as a deposition under oath. It would seem irresponsible to accept any such statement under those conditions. Bad judges would be a dime a dozen, but unfortunately they cost us all much more than that.
By the way, if information vital to the defense being classified is grounds for dismissal of a civil suit, wouldn’t it also be grounds for dismissal of a criminal case, where the legal burden of proof is so much higher? Perhaps that is why this case was sent to the more liberal 9th Circuit rather than another one, which would not be bound by this decision.
It’s absolutely amazes and saddens me to witness this country become more and more like the Soviet Union I was taught throughout the 70s and 80s to blindly fear and loathe.
The Idiot in Chief has surely packed the federal courts. Lifetime jobs and not one has the guts to do the right thing.
This should be appealed to the highest court in the land.
In the meantime the lawyers should try this case in the world media….Photo spreads with lurid details of the tortures utilized on these kidnapped innocent victims.
These stories maybe as revealing, of the CIA Inquisitions atrocities of Brother Michael Hayden; as the tales of Nazi SS information extraction methods under Heinrich and Himmler back the late 1930’s and 1940’s.
How many of the kidnapped detainees have disappeared into these secret hell holes, never to be heard from again????
If the American people allow this type of NAZI torturing to be covered up, in the name of State Security, then we are guilty. The blood and guilt will be on us and our children for the rest of history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to corporate Amerikka. This is the gift we hand our children–poverty, servitude, injustice,a dying planet, poison air, food and water. Isn’t that special? Great.
Exactly when do we stand up?
Here’s an idea. How about we get together, we talk to our friends, we talk to our families, we take out ads in the paper, and we take JUST ONE DAY and NOT BUY A THING. Bush tells us all to consume. Amerikka tells us we are only consumers, NOT citizens. What happens if FOR ONE DAY WE STOP PLAYING THE GAME? WE are the elephant in the living room!!! STAND UP!!!
Again..and again and again…
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” — Mario Savio.
It is time for the American people to STAND UP.
Oh, for this judge all you have to do is declare something secret and you can do anything you want.
There is, apparently, a higher power than the U.S. Constitution.
This ruling is one of the worse imaginable.
STATE SECRET???!!!!
Everything criminal that this corporate state does is a freakin’ state secret. Damn despots. Traitors to the ideals of the Founders and to the Constitutional Republic they founded to end rule by such powerful, corrupt rulers!
“- clearly a subject matter which is a state secret,” Judge James Ware…”
1984. We can’t tell you if we are doing something illegal because that information could reveal that we are doing something that is illegal and that information is a secret. We must protect our freedoms against the terrorist who hate us because we are free.
Got it.
The law is meaningless. Judges like this one won’t enforce the law. And it’s a consistent pattern among the judicial fraternity to act in this way, so far.
The real ticking time bomb is not some fictional terrorist scenario. It’s how long we tolerate this bushit before we strike back in open rebellion.
No one knows when it will happen. Each outrageous act like this one brings us a little closer. They’ve got the guns, we’ve got the numbers.
“The Court’s review of General Hayden’s public and classified declarations confirm that proceeding with this case would jeopardize national security and foreign relations and that no protective procedure can salvage this case,” Ware wrote.
Well, if Mike Hayden says that proceeding with this case would jeopardize national security, we certainly must not proceed! He’s the director of the CIA and his word is gold, right?
Let’s see…Judge Ware reviewed “classified declarations.” That would seemingly indicate that he has a security clearance. Typically, the FBI handles the background investigations necessary for granting the clearance. I suppose that the FBI is too busy to do the work for all those ACLU attorneys. But that wouldn’t be a good thing to do, because the court proceedings would need to remain classified - a secret court! And we just can’t have something like that going on in this country.
Can we?
Someone needs to send the judge knee-pads.
Seems to me that if the CIA can’t share this information because it is a state secret, that they have basically just admitted guilt.
Problem be, how can you serve justice on the guilty parties when the judge just became complicit in the crime?
War crimes - fascism - totalitarian state - USSA.
Remember, die Democrats are complicit in everything that has been happening.
State Secret == Government Crimes.
This decision gives legal weight to the Bush administration’s policy of covering up all their atrocities by calling them state secrets. We can’t stop injustice, because justice interferes with our precious freedoms.