Judge Dismisses Renditions Case, Cites State Secrets Concerns
A federal judge has cited the state secrets privilege in dismissing a lawsuit that contends a Boeing subsidiary helped the CIA transport prisoners to overseas prisons for torture.
U.S. District Judge James Ware of San Jose, Calif., said the suit against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. “would jeopardize national security and foreign relations,” Business Week reports. “No protective procedure can salvage this case,” the judge wrote.
The ruling was the third by a federal judge turning aside challenges to the government’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which detainees are flown outside the United States for interrogation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The ACLU had filed the lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of five men, including three who are still imprisoned, claiming they were flown overseas where they were subjected to torture or other degrading treatment. ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner told the two publications he would file an appeal.
