ACLU To Sue Boeing Subsidiary

American Civil Liberties Union Claims Jeppesen Dataplan Enabled CIA Torture Activities

(AP)  The American Civil Liberties Union said it is suing Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Co., claiming it provided secret CIA transportation services for three terrorism suspects who were tortured under the U.S. government's "extraordinary rendition" program.

The cases involve the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen, in July 2002 and January 2004; Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen, in May 2002; and Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian citizen, in December 2001, ACLU officials said at a Manhattan news conference.

Mohamed is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Britel in Morocco and Agiza in Egypt, the ACLU said in a statement.

The lawsuit, which the ACLU planned to file in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen enabled the clandestine transportation of the men to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other "forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."

Boeing itself is not named in the lawsuit.

Mike Pound, a spokesman for Englewood, Colo.,-based Jeppesen, said company officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

He said Jeppesen provides support services rather than the flights themselves. "We create flight plans, what the fuel requirements might be, where they might refuel, the airports that they might use."

He said the company's customers include airlines, private pilots and companies.

"We don't know the purpose of the trip for which we do a flight plan," said Pound. "We don't need to know specific details. It's the customer's business, and we do the business that we are contracted for. It's not our practice to ever inquire about the purpose of a trip."

ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said after the news conference: "Either they knew or reasonably should have known that they were facilitating a torture program."

Companies "are not allowed to have their head in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured," said Wizner.

Boeing spokesman Tim Neale said company officials "typically don't comment on lawsuits" and had not seen this one, "nor are we confirming the reports" that Jeppesen provided services to the CIA because "there's a confidentiality clause with all its customers."

The lawsuit says the company "furnished essential flight and logistical support to aircraft used by the CIA to transfer terror suspects to secret detention and interrogation facilities in countries such as Morocco and Egypt where, according to the U.S. Department of State, the use of torture is 'routine,' as well as to U.S.-run detention facilities overseas, where the United States government maintains that the safeguards of U.S. law do not apply.”

"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 CIA is not named in the suit. Wizner said the executive branch has evoked a state secrets defense in similar lawsuits.

The Bush administration has insisted it receives guarantees from countries receiving terror suspects that prisoners will not be tortured.

The ACLU said its lawsuit was being 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. It said the statute recognizes international norms accepted among civilized nations that are violated by acts such as enforced disappearance, torture and other inhuman treatment.

[prolegomena]

Boy, I sure hope they didn't have Starbucks Coffee on board...

Just another example of how a once noble institution such as the ACLU, has deteriorated into a domestic terror cell.

[infidel_us]

The ACLU stands a ZERO chance of having this case heard. What a bunch of tier 12 law school losers!

[gkc99]

So now Infidel is an expert on US law? Why shouldn't this case be heard?--it's a civil suit against a private party. No sovereign immunity here!

If someone in the CIA kidnaps Proleg and straps his nuts to an electrical generator, you can bet he'll be singing another tune about the ACLU. Sounds like a foreign name to me! Maybe Iranian!

[gunownerdan]

WHO WOULD JESUS TORTURE?

[rickstas]

I thought all the idiots were reading Fox News.

[zorlacskates]

hey, retreads. what does suing jeppesen have to do with god? unless god's a big fan of torture, which i tend to doubt. save your stupid anti-aclu talking points for a circumstance where they might be at least remotely relevant.

[truthelusive]

Jeppesen is being sued for providing a service to the CIA to plan the technical aspects of flights (fuel, route, time, cost, efficiency). Why should they be sued? The CIA agents wear shoes, so shouldn't we sue the shoe makers, too? The ACLU is ridiculous.

[toolmangler-2009]

WHO WOULD JESUS TORTURE?
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:58 PM : May 30, 2007


He wouldn't. He will look you in the eye and you will tell everything you ever did.

[zorlacskates]

bingo, shurch. most people (certainly anybody who watches fox) don't understand the mission of the aclu. what the aclu does is criticlly important to protecting the freedom that bushies and "patriots" are always bleating on about so endlessly.

and if those flightplanners knew they were putting together trips specifically so people could be tortured,that's a problem. do you think nike knows what each pair of shoes they sell is going to be used for? dumb.

[xzavierbrown]

I am sure the ACLU will, when caught, make sure Osama's civil rights are not violated.

[gkc99]

The comments show all too well the threat to freedom in the USA--a satanic coalition of bible-thumping cult members and goose-stepping authoritarian fascists, who want to suppress all belief that they don't endorse, murder all who doubt their fantastic beliefs (world only a few thousand years old, rapture coming, yatta yatta), and establish a theocracy that makes the ayatollahs look like kindergarten teachers.

Fortunately some freedom lovers called the ACLU will resist this group of misfits and sadists as long as courts have any validity. This is why the neocon bornagains want to destroy our court system as well, packing the ranks with true believers. Far, far more dangerous than the Nazis.

Freedom lovers should arm themselves for self-defense against this band of vicious scum.

[omega39-2009]

Hey what do you know, Bush is privatizing the CIA.

[infidel_us]

We should all get together and sue the ACLU.

[gunownerdan]

I have never seen any ACLU members burning down churches or telling anyone they can't worship the god they want to worship or believe the religion they want to believe.
If the ACLU ever tried anything foolish like that it would be time to use our second amendment right of self defense and they know it.
What I have seen is people who claim to love God and have faith use their faith as an excuse to murder and bomb innocent civilians.
These religious extremists are the people who pose a real threat to freedom, liberty, and civilization itself.
Just my observation.