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<font size=3>ACLU Sues Boeing Subsidiary for Participation in CIA
Kidnapping and Torture Flights (5/30/2007)<br>
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/29920prs20070530.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/29920prs20070530.html</a><br><br>
<br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br>
CONTACT: <a href="mailto:media@aclu.org">media@aclu.org</a> <br><br>
<b>Group Also Appeals to United States Supreme Court in Khaled El-Masri
Lawsuit<br><br>
</b>NEW YORK - 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.<br><br>
"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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
"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."<br><br>
Specifically, the complaint alleges that Jeppesen provided crucial
support services to the CIA for the following flights involving the three
plaintiffs in the lawsuit:
<ul>
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<br><br>
</ul>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 corporate 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.)<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Khaled El-Masri<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
"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."<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/rendition">www.aclu.org/rendition</a><br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
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