ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Boeing Over CIA Rendition
May 31, 2007
The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Company, on behalf of three victims of the United States government’s unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program.
The lawsuit charges that Jeppesen knowingly provided direct flight services to the CIA that enabled the clandestine transportation of Binyam Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel and Ahmed Agiza to secret overseas locations where they were subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
“American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable.”
The complaint, to be filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Jeppesen, through its travel service known as Jeppesen International Trip Planning, has been a main provider of flight and logistical support services for aircraft used by the CIA in the U.S. government’s extraordinary rendition program. The CIA rendition flights transfer terror suspects to countries where the U.S. government knows detainees are routinely tortured or otherwise abused in contravention of universally accepted legal standards. The complaint also alleges that Jeppesen has facilitated flights to U.S.-run detention facilities overseas where the U.S. government maintains that the safeguards of its laws do not apply. According to the lawsuit, since December 2001, Jeppesen has provided flight and logistical support to at least 15 aircraft that have made a total of 70 rendition flights.
As described in the complaint, Jeppesen’s participation in the rendition flights has included furnishing aircraft crew with flight planning services including itinerary, route, weather, and fuel planning; responsibility for the preparation of pre-departure flight plans with air traffic control authorities; procurement of over-flight and landing permits from foreign governments; facilitation of customs clearance and arrangements for ground transportation, catering, and hotel accommodation for aircraft crew upon landing; and provision of physical security for aircraft and crew.
“Jeppesen’s services have been crucial to the functioning of the government’s extraordinary rendition program,” said Steven Watt, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Human Rights Program. “Without the participation of companies like Jeppesen, the program could not have gotten off the ground.”
Specifically, the complaint alleges that Jeppesen provided crucial support services to the CIA for the following flights involving the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit:
- In July 2002, Ethiopian citizen Binyam Mohamed, while in CIA custody, was stripped, blindfolded, shackled, dressed in a tracksuit, strapped to the seat of a plane and flown to Morocco where he was secretly detained for 18 months and interrogated and tortured by Moroccan intelligence services.
- In January 2004, Mohamed was once again blindfolded, stripped, and shackled by CIA agents and flown to the secret U.S. detention facility known as the “Dark Prison” in Kabul, Afghanistan where he was again tortured and eventually transferred to another facility and then to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he still remains.
- In May 2002, Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel was handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped, dressed in a diaper, chained, and flown by the CIA from Pakistan to Morocco where he was tortured by Moroccan intelligence agents and where he is now incarcerated.
- In December 2001, Egyptian citizen Ahmed Agiza was chained, shackled, and drugged by the CIA and flown from Sweden to Egypt where he was severely abused and tortured and where he still remains imprisoned.
According to published reports, Jeppesen had actual knowledge of the consequences of its activities. A former Jeppesen employee informed The New Yorker magazine that, at an internal board meeting, a senior Jeppesen official stated, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights - you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way.” (Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, Oct. 30, 2006.)
The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute, which permits aliens to bring claims in the United States for violations of the law of nations or a United States treaty. The statute recognizes international norms accepted among civilized nations that are violated by acts such as enforced disappearance, torture and other inhuman treatment described in the lawsuit.
In furtherance of efforts to hold Jeppesen accountable, the ACLU of Northern California and other advocacy groups will hold a rally at noon today (Pacific Time) outside Jeppesen’s offices in San Jose to protest the company’s participation in immoral and illegal renditions. For further information, please contact the ACLU of Northern California.
Khaled El-Masri
The ACLU today also petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review the case of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German citizen who was also a victim of the government’s unlawful rendition program. Although the story of El-Masri’s mistaken kidnapping and detention at the hands of the CIA is known throughout the world, his lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after the government invoked the so-called “state secrets” privilege. That decision was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in March 2007.
“This administration has invoked the state secrets privilege not to protect national security, but to protect itself from embarrassment and accountability,” said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who argued El-Masri’s case before the Fourth Circuit last November. “Mr. El-Masri’s case should be a powerful reminder that when our government abandons the rule of law, innocent victims suffer the consequences.”
More information on the Jeppesen lawsuit, including a copy of the complaint, as well as information on El-Masri’s case and a copy of the ACLU’s brief to the United States Supreme Court, can be found online at www.aclu.org/rendition
In addition to Watt and Wizner, attorneys on the Jeppesen lawsuit are national ACLU Legal Director Steven Shapiro, Alexa Kolbi-Molinas and Jameel Jaffer of the national ACLU, Ann Brick of the ACLU of Northern California, Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP, and Hope Metcalf of the Yale Law School Lowenstein Clinic. Clive Stafford-Smith and Zachary Katznelson also represent Binyam Mohamed.
Khaled El-Masri is represented by Watt, Wizner, Shapiro, Jaffer and Melissa Goodman of the national ACLU, Rebecca Glenberg of the ACLU of Virginia and Victor Glasberg of Victor M. Glasberg & Associates.
Source: ACLU
Barack Obama Lays Out Specifics Of Health Care Plan
May 30, 2007
During a speech at the University of Iowa today, Barack Obama rolled out a plan to lower health care costs and ensure affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans.
Under the Obama plan, the typical family will save up to $2,500 every year through:
- Health IT Investment, which will reduce unnecessary and wasteful spending in the health care system that results from preventable medical errors and inefficient paper billing systems.
- Improving prevention and management of chronic conditions.
- Require competition in the insurance industry to reduce administrative costs and lower premiums for individuals and investigate the increasing monopolization of the insurance industry.
- Providing reinsurance for catastrophic coverage that will reduce insurance premiums.
- Making health insurance universal, which will reduce spending on uncompensated care.
Obama’s coverage plan will make available a new national health plan that will allow individuals without access to affordable insurance coverage. The plan focuses on the following key parts:
- A new public health plan that will give individuals the choice to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to federal employees. The new public plan will be open to individuals without access to group coverage through their workplace or current public programs.
- A National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase an insurance plan for themselves. The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible
- Requiring all employers to make a meaningful contribution towards health coverage for their employees.
- Mandating all children have health care coverage and expanding the number of options for young adults up to age 25 to continue coverage through their parent’s plans.
- Obama will expand eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs and ensure that these programs continue to serve their critical safety net function.
- Building on the successful efforts of states to take the lead in reforming the health care system. Under Obama’s plan states can continue to experiment, provided they meet the minimum standards of the national plan.
Source: barackobama.com
Britney Spears Writes A Lengthy Letter To Her Fans
May 30, 2007
Say what you want about Britney Spears, but she’s certainly not shy when it comes to word counts in her letter writing. She recently penned an 875-word letter on her official website to her fans that covers life, rehab, God, kids, and Tyra Banks.
That pretty much covers it all, doesn’t it? Here’s what Britney had on her mind:
Dear Fans,
I just wanted to reach out to all of you and explain some of the things I have been faced with recently.
It’s so funny how many stories are put out there about people. It’s like we all want our side of the story out there, but at the end of the day only a few people care to hear what is really going on since the bad is always so much more interesting than the truth. I don’t know why, but this is so weird to me. I used to be angry at the tabloids for printing horrible things about me, but now I try to just be numb to what I see. I saw Tyra Banks once get really upset and cry on her show because they made her look fat. We all want a certain image of ourselves out there, and at some point we all do really care what other people think or we wouldn’t be here.
Recently, I was sent to a very humbling place called rehab. I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don’t think it was alcohol or depression. I was like a bad kid running around with ADD. I had a manager from a long time ago come in and try to direct me and my life after I got my divorce. I was so overwhelmed I think that I was in a little shock too. I didn’t know who to go to. I realized how much energy and love I had put into my past relationship when it was gone because I genuinely did not know what to do with myself, and it made me so sad. I confess, I was so lost.
This letter is to not place blame on anyone, although I do see the world with a completely different set of eyes now. Being in that vulnerable state and taken to dinners and parties with friends and finding out later you paid for everything was a huge learning lesson for me. I think the whole problem was letting too many people into my life. You never know another persons intentions or what another person wants. I feel I was too open and looking for answers when I had it all to begin with. I have had to cut so many people out of my life. It is so sad, because if anyone is a family person…it is me. When I was little I remember every night watching movies with my family and feeling so at peace.
Dancing and singing all the time just like a little girl should. Now recently I find with my children that I want them to have that feeling all of the time. I am having to face a lot of things right now since I have children of my own. A lot of insecurities from when I was little are coming up again. It is like we are never good enough.
I know everyone thinks that I am playing the victim, but I am not and I hate what is going on right now so much. Maybe this is the reason for this letter…to maybe allow people to look at me differently. It is like when you are a real woman and say what you feel and how you think things are supposed to be, that people just say you are a “bitch.”
I feel like some of the people in my life made more of some issues than was necessary. I also feel like they knew I was beginning to use my brain for a change and cut some ties, so they wanted to be in more control of my life than me. I think it is actually normal for a young girl to go out after a huge divorce. I think it was a bigger issue because I had not gone out in such a long time. I am 25 and I do still have a lot to learn, and I am going to make mistakes everyday, and I am sure every mistake I make will probably be on CNN or Good Morning America. I am only human people and I love you for still loving me.
I am sitting here at home and it is 6:25 and both of my sons are asleep. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. Every day is so surreal. Life in general is so surreal and crazy.
I just hope this letter made some of you think a little bit more of me and where I am coming from. I just want the same things in life that you want…and that is to be happy. It is just so weird because everyone has their own perception of me and how they think I really am. It is so weird how stories are told. There is your side, my side, and the truth. Somebody has to figure it out. I guess we will never really understand or figure out life completely. That’s God’s job. I can’t wait to meet him…or her.
Love, Britney
Quote of the month…
It is ok to disagree with people regarding certain issues. You’re not being true to yourself if you succumb to others opinions because you feel guilty.”
Source: britneyspears.com