US Attorney Says Proceedings Could Threaten National
Security
An unusual federal lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan by five
terrorism suspects who want compensation for the company's role in
their alleged torture was dismissed during the Bush administration,
but was appealed in a hearing Monday before a three-judge panel of
the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
KPIX-5 in San Francisco reports the five -- who are citizens of
Ethiopia, Egypt, Italy, Iraq and Yemen -- all say they were
tortured in foreign countries where they were sent by the US
Central Intelligence Agency before winding up as detainees at
Guantanamo Bay.
As ANN reported in June 2007, the suspects
seek to sue Jeppesen for its role in providing logistical support
for the CIA flights which took them to Egypt, Morocco, and
Afghanistan.
Thirty-year-old Ethiopian Binyam Mohamed says that during 18
months in Morocco after his arrest in 2002, he was routinely beaten
unconscious, and cut all over his body with a scalpel. Then, he
says he was taken to a CIA-run facility in Afghanistan called "the
Dark Prison," where he was further beaten, hung from a pole by his
arms, deprived of sleep, blasted with noise and lost 40 to 60
pounds.
So far, the Justice Department says it will continue its motions
to dismiss, based on the premise that state secrets would be
revealed in a trial, and the greater public good is served by
dismissal of the lawsuit.
The
American Civili Liberties Union, which is representing the
plaintiffs, is hoping President Obama will hold true to his
campaign rhetoric. As ACLU attorney Ben Wizner puts it, "This case
presents the first test of the Obama administration's dedication to
transparency and willingness to act on its condemnation of torture
and rendition."
It doesn't appear the Obama administration will take a
notably different view of the case than the previous administration
did. On Monday, the US Attorney opened with a statement saying the
federal goverment's position hasn't changed since the case was last
tried in 2007 -- that allowing the case to proced could compromise
national security, so it should be thrown out.
"This was an early test of how far the Obama Administration is
willing to go to rollback its predecessor's penchant for secrecy,"
noted Andrew Cohen, legal analyst for CBS News, "and the answer is,
'not much."
The ACLU disputes the secrecy argument. "Government officials at
the highest levels have spoken publicly, repeatedly and in detail
about the CIA's rendition and detention program."
The court is expected to consider the case and issue a ruling at
a later date.
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