March 2, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
ACLU Considers Supreme Court Appeal in Case of Khaled
El-Masri; Urges Congress to End Human Rights Abuses
NEW YORK – The
American Civil Liberties Union today expressed its disappointment with an appeals
court ruling upholding the dismissal of the case of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent
victim of the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary rendition.”
Although
El-Masri’s case has been discussed and investigated throughout the world, the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that it could not be either
discussed or reviewed in an American court because of the government’s
invocation of the “state secrets” privilege.
“Regrettably, today’s
decision allows CIA officials to disregard the law with impunity by making it
virtually impossible to challenge their actions in court,” said ACLU Executive
Director Anthony D. Romero. “With today’s ruling, the state secrets
doctrine has become a shield that covers even the most blatant abuses of
power.”
The ACLU said it was reviewing the opinion and will
consider an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
The ACLU
lawsuit charges former CIA director George Tenet, other CIA officials and
U.S.-based aviation corporations with violations of United States and universal
human rights laws. El-Masri was on vacation in Macedonia when he was kidnapped,
abused and rendered to a CIA-run “black site” in Afghanistan. After several
months of confinement in squalid conditions, he was flown from Afghanistan and
abandoned on a hill in Albania with no explanation, never having been charged
with a crime.
“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 Fourth Circuit last November. "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."
Wizner noted that El-Masri was allowed to travel to the
United States last November to attend the hearing and to meet with Congressional
officials. “Were there a shred of evidence linking Mr. El-Masri to
terrorism, he would not have been released from American custody, nor would he
have been permitted to enter the United States last November, observe judicial
proceedings in his case, and freely walk the halls of Congress,” Wizner
said.
Indeed, according to the Washington Post, at least
eight U.S. officials have confirmed that El-Masri spent months in a squalid
CIA-run prison because "a couple of CIA officials in Washington had a hunch he
was someone he was not" and "did not move fast enough when they found out he
wasn't."
At the November 28, 2006 hearing before the appeals
court, the ACLU argued that the government is invoking the state secrets
privilege to avoid accountability for the abuses it perpetrated against El-Masri
rather than to protect sensitive national security interests. Based on official
recognition of the rendition program and the volume of information on its
widespread use both generally and specifically in relation to El-Masri, the ACLU
argued that allowing El-Masri to litigate his claims further will not harm
national security.
To date, El-Masri’s case has been described in
literally hundreds of newspaper articles and television news programs – many of
them relying on sources within the U.S. government. It has been the
subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies,
including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in
El-Masri’s adopted country of Germany formally requested indictments against 13
CIA agents and contractors for their role in his kidnapping, abuse, and
detention.
Last month the ACLU sharply criticized the Bush
administration for its refusal to sign an international accord regarding secret
detentions and forced disappearances. “We urge Congress to shine a bright
light on our government’s use of secret detention and rendition,” said Caroline
Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The Bush
administration should stop stonewalling congressional efforts to examine these
abuses of basic due process and human rights. Congress must permanently shut
down these secret programs and facilities.”
More information on
El-Masri’s case is online at
www.aclu.org/rendition
