December, 11 2009, 11:24am EDT
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 on 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) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
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Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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