ACLU sueing Boeing for international law violation

[billcoe]

Discuss?

____________________________________________________________

 

"ACLU: Boeing Offshoot Helped CIA

 

 

May 30, 10:22 AM (ET)

 

By PAT MILTON

 

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it is suing Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Co. (BA), claiming it provided secret CIA transportation services to shuttle three terrorism suspects overseas, where they were tortured.

 

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.

 

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

 

Details of the claims were to be released later Wednesday at a news conference.

 

Calls and e-mails to spokesmen for Chicago-based Boeing and Englewood, Colo.-based Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, on Wednesday morning seeking comment were not immediately returned.

 

The lawsuit, which the ACLU said it would file Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges that Jeppesen knowingly provided direct flight services to the CIA that 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" under the agency's "extraordinary rendition" program.

 

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

 

The lawsuit involves a branch of the company called Jeppesen International Trip Planning, which the ACLU calls a "main provider of flight and logistical support services for aircraft used by the CIA in the U.S. government's extraordinary rendition program."

 

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. "

 

Link

[archenemy]

Wow. Like suing IBM for making the machines to count Jews.

[cj001f]

Wow. Like suing IBM for making the machines to count Jews.

 

the german industrial base was sued for their role.

[archenemy]

yes, hence my post.

[cj001f]

I'm never sure what's going on in the world, hence my post

[Seahawks]

We all know the ACLU has its orgin in communism

[archenemy]

I'm never sure what's going on in the world, hence my post

:lmao:I'm right there with you!

[dt_3pin]

Wow. Like suing IBM for making the machines to count Jews.

 

Not quite. Here, it looks like a Boeing did more than make planes. Instead, a Boeing subsidiary allegedly participated in the actual renditions.

Edited May 30, 2007 by dt_3pin

[archenemy]

and IBM did more than just make the machines. They made the cards that included very specific catagories for Jews (and other unwanteds) to make the decision of who lived and who died more effective.

[dt_3pin]

and IBM did more than just make the machines. They made the cards that included very specific catagories for Jews (and other unwanteds) to make the decision of who lived and who died more effective.

 

I didn't know that, and I'm not saying that IBM lacks culpability. Instead, I was trying to point out that the causal chain in the IBM example is a bit longer than it is here. IBM made stuff which made killing folks easier. Ultimately, however, IBM didn't flip the zyklon switch.

 

Here, in contrast, the causal chain is (allegedly) quite a bit shorter on account of the ACLU apparently argues that Boeing's subsidiary directly participated in illegal renditions.

[archenemy]

You are right, a person flipped that switch. And a person actually flew the plane that they are talking about having carried those people to be tortured, yes?

[ZimZam]

If their contracted to provide transportation services for the government, are they required to ask for what and why the prisoners are being transported to a foreign country?

[catbirdseat]

We all know the ACLU has its orgin in communism

That's just plain bullshit and you know it. That sort of talk began back in the McCarthy era.

 

The ACLU will defend the right to free speech, even if a person happens to be a communist. It doesn't make the ACLU a communist organization.

 

From the ACLU website:

 

"The ACLU believes in the freedom of thought, inquiry or advocacy by any individual or group regarding a specific economic, social or political philosophy. That position, grounded solely on the nation's tradition of free speech, means no governmental restriction unless there exists a clear and present danger of illegal action."

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2007 by catbirdseat

[ericb]

How about the parents of Rachel Corrie suing Caterpillar because they manufactured the dozer that the Israeli army was driving that crushed her during a peace protest in the Gaza strip?

 

 

[archenemy]

Folks treat lawsuits as if they are the lottery.

[ZimZam]

We all know the ACLU has its orgin in communism

That's just plain bullshit and you know it. That sort of talk began back in the McCarthy era.

 

He knows it. He just can't help himself.

 

 

[dt_3pin]

You are right, a person flipped that switch. And a person actually flew the plane that they are talking about having carried those people to be tortured, yes?

 

My point exactly. Employees of Boeing's subsidiary (allegeldy) flew the planes at issue. It wasn't some third party.

[archenemy]

But it isn't the individuals who are being sued.

[jjd]

We all know the ACLU has its orgin in communism

 

Partly true

[dt_3pin]

But it isn't the individuals who are being sued.

 

 

I surrender. Please forget I ever brought this up.

[archenemy]

Hell, I forgot what I brought up. My brain is withering faster than the rest of me.

[catbirdseat]

Here you go Seahawks. Is this is where you get your opinions about the ACLU?

 

World Net Daily

 

 

[Seahawks]

We all know the ACLU has its orgin in communism

That's just plain bullshit and you know it. That sort of talk began back in the McCarthy era.

 

The ACLU will defend the right to free speech, even if a person happens to be a communist. It doesn't make the ACLU a communist organization.

 

From the ACLU website:

 

"The ACLU believes in the freedom of thought, inquiry or advocacy by any individual or group regarding a specific economic, social or political philosophy. That position, grounded solely on the nation's tradition of free speech, means no governmental restriction unless there exists a clear and present danger of illegal action."

 

 

 

 

Unless your a christian.

 

The ACLU was founded on January 19, 1920. It grew out of a previous group, The National Civil Liberties Bureau which had grown out of the American Union Against Militarism, and a party that was held in New York City and attended by just about every radical from New York, such as Socialist Party notable Norman Thomas, future Communist Party chairman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Soviet agent Agnes Smedley. In 1920, Rev. Harry Ward, the RedDean of the Union Theological Seminary was Chairman, Baldwin was director, and Communist publisher Louis Budenz, who would later go on to testify against Communism, director of publicity.

 

Roger Nash Baldwin : the founder, and director of ACLU. At the time of the founding, he was deeply involved in the communist movement. In late 1935, he gave a speech that said his political goal was communism. Baldwin wrote the following in his college yearbook:

 

“I have been to Europe several times, mostly in connection with international radical activities…and have traveled in the United States to areas of conflict over workers rights to strike and organize. My chief aversion is the system of greed, private profit, privilege and violence which makes up the control of the world today, and which has brought it to the tragic crisis of unprecedented hunger and unemployment…Therefore, I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself…I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal”.”

 

Sound like the ACLU today

 

re is another quote from Mr. Roger Baldwin.

 

“Do steer away from making it look like a Socialist enterprise…We want also to look like patriots in everything we do. We want to get a good lot of flags, talk a good deal about the Constitution and what our forefathers wanted to make of this country, and to show that we are really the folks that really stand for the spirit of our institutions.”-Baldwin’s advice in 1917 to Louis Lochner of the socialist People’s Council in Minnesota.

 

Edited May 30, 2007 by Seahawks

[fenderfour]

You are right, a person flipped that switch. And a person actually flew the plane that they are talking about having carried those people to be tortured, yes?

 

My point exactly. Employees of Boeing's subsidiary (allegeldy) flew the planes at issue. It wasn't some third party.

 

I couldn't find this line in the article. Did you make an assumption, or do I have the reading comprehension of an eight year old?

 

What does Jeppeson do?

 

They produce the charts (maps), typical flight plans, fuel consumption info, etc... for ALL major players in the sky.

 

This isn't like suing IBM, this is like suing the company that provided maps of Europe. Since the ACLU can't directly impact the people doing the evil, they are looking for collateral impact.

 

Bull

Shit

[JayB]

This paper from Baldwin during his days as a Useful Idiot is classic.

 

http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/blog/baldwin.pdf

 

"Freedom in the USA and the USSR."

 

Key Quote:

 

"I champion civil liberties as the best means of building the power on which worker's rule must be based. If I aid the reactionaries now and then, if I go outside the class struggle to fight censorship, it is only because those liberties help to create a more hospitable atmosphere for working class liberties. The class struggle is the central conflict of the world; all others are incidental. When the power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means."

 

Emphasis in the original.

 

Thankfully, the same naive idiocy which enabled him to fawn over the Soviet Union during the worst of the Stalinist violence, prevented him from realizing that the means that he was envisioning to create a worker's paradise along the lines of the Soviet model in the US would not only *not* bring about the desired ends, but would prevent such an outcome from ever occuring so long as they - civil liberties - remained in place.

 

Hilarious.