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April 29, 2009

Rejecting “State Secrets” Assertion, Appeals Court Reinstates Torture Suit
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A federal appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit accusing a Boeing
subsidiary of helping the CIA secretly transport prisoners to torture
chambers overseas. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel rejected the Obama
administration’s assertion of so-called “state secrets” privilege and
said the case can proceed. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed
the suit against Jeppesen International Trip Planning on behalf of five
former prisoners. Jeppesen is accused of arranging at least seventy
flights since 2001 as part of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.
The Obama administration’s opposition to the case carried over from the
Bush administration, which had previously won the case’s dismissal. In
its new ruling, the federal appeals court says the government’s
assertion of secrecy should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. ACLU
attorney Ben Wizner said, “Today’s ruling demolishes once and for all
the legal fiction, advanced by the Bush administration and continued by
the Obama administration, that facts known throughout the world could be
deemed ‘secrets’ in a court of law.”



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