Court Nixes Suit Alleging CIA Tortured Man

Appeals Panel Refuses To Reinstate Detained German's Lawsuit Claiming CIA Tortured Him

(CBS)  By CBS News producer Phil Hirschkorn.

---

Khaled El-Masri, an unemployed German car salesman who sued the United States for allegedly ordering his abduction and secretly detaining him for months in a dingy Afghanistan prison, has been dealt another setback in the U.S. courts.

On Friday, the Fourth Circuit federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., rejected arguments made by the American Civil Liberties Union to reinstate his lawsuit for damages.

A three-judge panel was unanimous in a 24-page ruling that the suit could jeopardize national security by disclosing "state secrets" - sensitive military intelligence information that remains classified.

"We must reject El-Masri's view that the existence of public reports concerning his alleged rendition (and the CIA's rendition program in general) should have saved his complaint from dismissal," the appeals panel wrote, "because the public information does not include the facts that are central to litigating his action."

Presenting those facts, the court said, would expose how the CIA organizes, staffs and supervises its most sensitive intelligence operations; the existence and details of CIA espionage contracts; and the means and methods by which the CIA gathers intelligence and makes its personnel assignments.

The appeals court noted President Bush's speech last September acknowledging secret CIA-run prisons overseas and last June's European Parliament report finding that El-Masri's story was "substantially accurate." But the judges said their hands were tied.

"El-Masri envisions a judiciary that possesses a roving writ to ferret out and strike down executive excess,” the judges wrote. "We decline to follow such a course, and thus reject El- Masri's invitation to rule that the state secrets doctrine can be brushed aside on the ground that the President’s foreign policy has gotten out of line."

The order upheld last May's ruling by a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, who dismissed the case for virtually the same reasons.

"Regrettably, today's decision allows CIA officials to disregard the law with impunity by making it virtually impossible to challenge their actions in court," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a written statement. "With today's ruling, the state secrets doctrine has become a shield that covers even the most blatant abuses of power."

The ACLU is considering an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Three years ago, El-Masri was snatched while traveling by bus to Skopje, Macedonia. After being locked in a hotel room for 23 days, he was flown secretly to Kabul, Afghanistan — beaten, bound, and drugged, he says — and then detained, incommunicado, in a CIA-run former brick factory known as the Salt Pit. It was four months before he was sent back — dropped off in Albania with a commercial plane ticket home but no explanation.

Besides CIA officials, including former CIA director George Tenet, El-Masri sued three U.S.-based aviation corporations that his attorneys believed to be involved in the prisoner traffic.

As CBS News reported last November, if the case were to be green-lighted, the ACLU was considering adding aviation giant Boeing as a defendant because Spanish flight records reveal a Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen, handled numerous rendition trips, including El-Masri's Boeing 737 flight from Macedonia to Afghanistan. Many rendition flights and crews made rest stops in Mallorca, Spain, the records show.

German prosecutors relied on those records in levying criminal charges last month against 13 CIA agents and contractors — 11 men and 2 women — for false imprisonment and serious bodily injury.

"Today the appeals court gave the CIA complete immunity for even its most shameful conduct," said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who argued El-Masri’s case before the 4th Circuit last November, which El-Masri traveled to the U.S. to attend. "Depriving Khaled El-Masri of his day in court on the ground that the government cannot disclose facts that the whole world already knows only compounds the brutal treatment he endured."

El-Masri, 44, who was born in Kuwait to Lebanese parents, has lived in Germany for the past 20 years.

[lars008-2009]

Thomas Jefferson knew about fascist nazi islam..... he killed plenty of them....

In 1786 Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves. Jefferson reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.[1]

[lars008-2009]

nope...... fascism is alive and well in the fascist nazi islamic nations......

ISLAM / PERFECT EXAMPLE OF FASCISM!!!
islam is intent on killing or enslaving all nonmuslims......

The most notable characteristic of a fascist country is the separation and persecution or denial of equality to a specific segment of the population based upon superficial qualities or belief systems.

Simply stated, a fascist government always has one class of citizens that is considered superior (good) to another (bad) based upon race, creed or origin. It is possible to be both a republic and a fascist state. The preferred class lives in a republic while the oppressed class lives in a fascist state.
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm

[mh4cbs1]

If the CIA can 'rendition' one person without any recourse or meaningful oversigtht, then they can do this to WHOEVER they want to.

Watch what you say. Fascism is alive and well in the USA.

[p-syrus]

then i guess FDR really broke the constitution by locking up all the japanese in america....

Posted by lars008

Actually he did. The issue was ducked at the time because it was politically popular although clearly unconstitutional. Another instance of "politics trumping law". FDR conveniently died before the issue could be dealt with legally and the whole thing was glossed over after the war with an "official apology" & "reparations".

[toolmangler-2009]

Nevermind -008, I can see that you can't see because it went right by you. I wish you well anyway.

[lars008-2009]

then i guess FDR really broke the constitution by locking up all the japanese in america....

has bush locked up all the fascist nazi islamic muslims in america????....

maybe he should......

[toolmangler-2009]

Open your eyes -008. You allude to being in the military so you of all people should know the the 'Tail still wags the DOG'!

[lars008-2009]

since when did the constitution apply to the whole world skippy?

[toolmangler-2009]

"There is no provision in the US Constitution or military law for government agents to kidnap and torture people. Nor is there a provision that prohibits them from being brought to justice for doing so.

Even in times of war."

Posted by tuckerndfw at 05:42 PM : Mar 03, 2007

"Absoposislutley!!!!" But what does exist is language that allows the current Administration to interpret the law as they see fit. (Where is Habeas Corpus?) You had best look deeper into what has been removed than what has been put in.

[bellal-2009]

You are incorrect.
Posted by tuckerndfw at 05:42 PM : Mar 03, 2007

The court rejected the appeal. Hello.

[lars008-2009]

Appeal for Redress
Sign this Appeal.
This site is an Appeal For Redress in support of our mission in Iraq.
An Appeal For Redress is an authorized means for active duty military to submit a grievance to Congress. It can be signed by Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard military personnel.
It is authorized by DoD Directive 1325.6 and DoD Directive 7050.6.
The wording of the Appeal for Redress is:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
If you are active duty, reservist or national guard, please Sign this Appeal.
Most service members fully support the war in Iraq and feel calls to retreat by Congress and attacks by our media on our conduct and mission act to motivate our enemy while demoralizing our support at home, directly increasing the threat we face and resulting in greater American casualties. This Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to Congress to fully support us and actively oppose media attacks on our mission and our morale.
This Appeal will be delivered to members of Congress.
http://www.appealforcourage.org/

[lars008-2009]

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

[tuckerndfw]

defendliberty, all of that would take precedent if we weren't at war. The guy definately had something going on otherwise they wouldn't have wasted the time and energy on him.

Posted by bellaL at 09:50 AM : Mar 03, 2007

That is incorrect.

The US Constitution is never suspended, even during times of war.

The president, even during times of war, does not have the authority to violate the law. The UCMJ (military law) does not provide for detaining people without charges or trial. Nor does it provide for torturing them while they are detained.

You are repeating GOP propaganda. GOP propaganda is based on fascism, not constitutional government.

There is no provision in the US Constitution or military law for government agents to kidnap and torture people. Nor is there a provision that prohibits them from being brought to justice for doing so.

Even in times of war.

You are incorrect.

[lars008-2009]

%u201CIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.%u201D Theodore Roosevelt

"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894) Theodore Roosevelt

To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing. - The Outlook December 21, 1895 Theodore Roosevelt

[lars008-2009]

peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt

[toolmangler-2009]

"Just remember that this unsupervised power you have given up to a PERSON will one day reside in the hands of someone with whom you do not agree (perhaps the next President). Then you may cry "foul" but it will be too late to change the legal foundation upon which we are slowly building a dictatorship."

Posted by DefndLiberty at 10:09 PM : Mar 02, 2007

You would do well to watch Chavez and consider Schwarzenegger's possible positioning as a future President. Yes I know that he cannot be President under current law, but you can see what Bush has done to the constitution by looking at what we do to enemy combatants. Tell me one more time that power doesn't corrupt.

[mbcsmith]

Where is the OUTRAGE against the ACLU Virginia President who has been arrested on CHILD pornography chages. This ANIMAL fought for unrestricted internet access in public libraries. His personal motives are now evident!

[bellal-2009]

defendliberty, all of that would take precedent if we weren't at war. The guy definately had something going on otherwise they wouldn't have wasted the time and energy on him.

[grumpas]

What do you expect from an Administration made up of of thugs and greedy cut throats who have no respect for human life????? Good deeds???? This bunch has a lot of room to talk about fanatical muslims! They never have had an ounce of principle's! Look how Bush won the 2000 election! That should have been alarm bells going off in every part of this country! That we weren't dealing with an ethical man but a criminal! He makes Tricky *** look like an angel!

[dallison7]

It is a very sad day for America. Our country is on 'Human Rights' watch by the rest of the world. Never did I ever think I would see a time when the United States of America resorted to torture. It is very simply the result of an administration with no moral compass enjoying the rubber stamp of a do-nothing congress for six years. Things can change so quick. Nixon was a criminal with misdirected goals, but Bush/Cheney are truly evil.