Posted on 10/09/2007 10:21:42 AM PDT by chaos_5
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A German citizen who says he was kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured overseas by the CIA lost his appeal on Tuesday when the Supreme Court refused to review a decision dismissing the case because it would expose state secrets.
Attorneys for Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese descent, argued in the high court appeal that his lawsuit did not depend on the disclosure of state secrets and that it should be allowed to go forward in U.S. court.
His case, in which Masri said he was abducted in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan and tortured, has drawn worldwide attention to the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, in which terrorism suspects are sent from one foreign country to another for interrogation. Human rights groups have strongly criticized the program.
Masri's case sparked outrage in Germany and prompted a parliamentary inquiry to find out what authorities might have known about U.S. renditions.
Masri's attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union challenged what they called the Bush administration's increased invoking of national security secrets to prevent any judicial inquiry into serious allegations of misconduct.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Supreme Court won't hear appeal in CIA alleged torture case
Now that’s better.
Good thing there are different branches of government to check each other’s power in the event of abuse...
Another suggested title revision: “Bush Administration Legal Victory in WOT.” Just helpin’ ya out, Chaos.
Methinks this “victim” doth protest too much. I’m not buying his tale except under the “Where-there’s-smoke-there’s-fire” clause!
Nice! Much better.
Considering some of the atrocious rulings in the past, this one I agree with.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHeD5qOV6b7ML8H-oMRt8dKSmdsgD8S5OP300 has an interesting additional bit:
The state secrets privilege arose from a 1953 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the executive branch to keep secret, even from the court, details about a military plane’s fatal crash.
Three widows sued to get the accident report after their husbands died aboard a B-29 bomber, but the Air Force refused to release it claiming that the plane was on a secret mission to test new equipment. The high court accepted the argument, but when the report was released decades later there was nothing in it about a secret mission or equipment.
So now the ACLU is representing German citizens against us???
Using your tax dollars no doubt.
So if you were kidnapped and tortured by German agents because they spelled your name wrong, do you think the German courts should at least hear your case rather than hiding behind the secrecy excuse?
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