Attorney General
Obama Secrecy Policies Tested in Extraordinary Rendition Case
Posted Feb 9, 2009 11:19 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Lawyers representing the Obama administration will be asked today about their position on the state secrets privilege and extraordinary rendition.
The issues are before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco in a case that was dismissed a year ago at the urging of lawyers in the Bush administration who had intervened, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The plaintiffs are five men who claim a flight company transported them to overseas prisons where they were interrogated and tortured.
The defendant is Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subsidiary. The Justice Department had previously argued that the case could expose state secrets, including information about the alleged relationship between a private company and the CIA, and U.S. methods for questioning terrorist suspects, the story says.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of the five men. ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, who is arguing the case, says in a press release that it “presents the first test of the Obama administration’s dedication to transparency and willingness to act on its condemnation of torture and rendition.”
The ACLU has more information on its website.
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Comments
J.D.
Feb 9, 2009 12:39 PM CST
This must be so difficult for Obama. All the decades of liberal indoctrination Obama experienced in that echo chamber known as academia are suddenly going to be confronted with reality. He has so much to learn and analyze in such a short period of time.
But instead of producing a thesis—where he’s free to take illogical, and potentially-dangerous positions—he’s now required to actually act, with the repercussions falling squarely on his shoulders.
If he doesn’t take a rational position, and terrorism results, he risks damaging the Democrat party for decades to come. If he does take the rational route, he’ll alienate the radical base that elected him.
This is exactly the problem John Kerry ran into; by trying to appease both the rational and the irrational Dems, he had to be both “for the war and against it.” But that happened during the campaign. Because the media gave Obama a pass and asked no hard questions during his campaign, this vacillation is only now coming to light and will end up defining his presidency.
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B. McLeod
Feb 10, 2009 12:36 AM CST
It is an interesting problem. Mr. Obama is a lawyer as well as a President, and is confronted with this “rendition” practice which legally, does not exist. It appears, indeed, to be an illegal practice whereby the CIA randomly descends on individuals inside our country and elsewhere, and, like the Gestapo, or the Czarist secret police, simply causes these people to disappear (away to foreign dungeons to be tortured). Based on what, we don’t know. There does not seem to be any due process involved. Rather, it is at the discretion of the CIA, whose competence as a real intelligence organization in recent times seems highly doubtful. Obviously, some of our allies (who have fought wars and maintained intelligence organizations for a longer period than our country has even existed) have found this troubling. I also find it troubling. I do not see where there is any safeguard for an innocent person swept into this trap erroneously, and the entire notion of such secret police practices is anti-American to its very core. I hope that the President will have the courage to turn away from, and end, these abusive practices.
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