Judge dismisses renditions lawsuit in San Jose
When is a government founded on the rule of law (versus, let's say autocratic fiat) beyond the law? When it claims (by autocratic fiat) immunity from legal oversight and accountability on the basis of state secrets.
The SF Chronicle report, reading like a montage of Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka and George Orwell.
U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose said he had no authority to decide whether, as three current prisoners and two freed inmates alleged, Jeppesen International Trip Planning colluded with the CIA to violate their rights. The suit instead must be dismissed at the outset because its subject is a secret program that cannot be examined in a public proceeding, Ware said.
Public and confidential declarations filed by CIA Director Michael Hayden show that "proceeding with this case would jeopardize national security and foreign relations," Ware said.
"At the core of plaintiffs' case against defendant Jeppesen are 'allegations' of covert U.S. military or CIA operations in foreign countries against foreign nationals - clearly a subject matter which is a state secret," the judge said.
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