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Boeing unit sued over CIA renditions

Henry Weinstein Los Angeles Times

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit Wednesday accusing a Boeing subsidiary of helping the CIA to facilitate “the forced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment” of three men the government suspected of terrorist involvement.

“This is the first time we are accusing a blue-chip American company of profiting from torture,” said ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, speaking at a news conference in New York City.

Since at least 2001, Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., of San Jose, Calif., “has provided direct and substantial services to the United States for its so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ program,” the suit, filed in San Jose federal court, alleges.

The suit was filed on behalf of three men: Binyam Mohammed, a 28-year-old Ethiopian citizen and British resident; Abou Elkassim Britel, a 40-year-old man of Moroccan descent naturalized in Italy; and Ahmed Agiza, a 45-year-old Egyptian citizen.

The suit claims Jeppesen provided flight and logistical support services on more than 70 extraordinary renditions over a four-year period.

“Corporations should expect to get sued where they are making blood money off the suffering of others,” said Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has been representing Mohammed and is serving as co-counsel on the ACLU suit.

Mike Pound, a spokesman for Jeppesen, said the company had not been served with the suit and consequently had no comment on its merits.

Tim Neale, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, declined to confirm whether Jeppesen worked for the CIA. “The services Jeppesen provides are provided on a confidential basis for all its customers,” he said.

ACLU attorney Steven Watt said his organization had obtained information about Jeppesen’s role in the rendition program from a variety of sources, including investigations in Spain, Sweden and Italy, other court cases and media reports, in particular a New Yorker magazine article by Jane Mayer, portions of which were quoted in the lawsuit.

Mayer wrote that a former Jeppesen employee told her he heard a senior company official say at a board meeting: “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.”

The suit describes the airplanes used to move the three men around and states that Jeppesen played a critical role by providing flight planning services, including itinerary, route, weather and fuel planning, as well as customs clearance assistance, ground transportation, food, hotels and security.

The ACLU suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, which authorizes foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for human rights violations. The CIA was not named as a defendant but may ask to have the case dismissed under the “state secrets” doctrine. First recognized by the Supreme Court 54 years ago, the privilege bars disclosure in court proceedings of information whose release threatens national security.

Last March, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., citing the state secrets doctrine, dismissed a suit brought against the CIA by Khaled El Masri, a German citizen who said he was abducted, flown to Afghanistan and tortured.

ACLU lawyers said Wednesday they had filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the El Masri decision. Romero said the Bush administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in an attempt to “avoid accountability and embarrassment” for torture and other government misdeeds in its war on terrorism.

In response to a request for comment, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said, “The CIA does not, as a matter of course, publicly discuss contractual relationships it may or may not have with firms or individuals.”

The renditions, he said, “are a key, lawful tool in the fight against terror … subject to close review and have been employed far less frequently than some press accounts suggest.”

Gimigliano also said the United States does not conduct or condone torture nor transport anyone to other countries to be tortured.