The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Rachel Myers, ACLU National, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org
Rebecca Farmer, ACLU of Northern California, (415) 621-2493 x374

ACLU in Court Tuesday in Extraordinary Rendition Case

Government Claiming 'State Secrets' to Have Case Against Boeing Subsidiary Thrown Out

SAN FRANCISCO

The
American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal appeals court in San
Francisco tomorrow, Tuesday, December 15 at 10:00 a.m. PST to argue
that a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. for its
role in the Bush administration's unlawful "extraordinary rendition"
program should go forward. The government has repeatedly misused the
state secrets privilege in an attempt to have the case thrown out. To
this day, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture
policies has had his day in court.

The ACLU and the ACLU of Northern
California brought the lawsuit in May 2007 on behalf of five men who
the CIA kidnapped, forcibly disappeared and secretly transferred to
U.S.-run prisons or foreign intelligence agencies overseas, where they
were interrogated under torture. The lawsuit charges that Jeppesen
knowingly participated in the forcible disappearance and torture of the
men by providing critical flight planning and logistical support
services to the aircraft and crews used by the CIA to carry out their
"extraordinary rendition." The Bush administration intervened in the
case, improperly asserting the state secrets privilege to have the
lawsuit thrown out, but in April a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the government can only
invoke the state secrets privilege with respect to specific evidence -
not to dismiss an entire suit. The Obama administration's appeal of
that decision will be now be heard by an en banc panel of 11 judges.

WHAT:
Arguments in Mohamed, et al. v. Jeppesen,
the ACLU's lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan for its
role in the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" program.
The government is appealing an earlier ruling allowing the case to go
forward.

WHO:
Ben Wizner, staff attorney for the
ACLU National Security Program, will argue before an en banc panel of
11 judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

WHEN:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
10:00 a.m. PST

WHERE:
James R. Browning Courthouse, Courtroom 1
95 7th Street
San Francisco, California 94103

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666