By Kenneth J. Theisen
On October 9, 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent victim of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. Khaled, a German citizen, was kidnapped, detained, and tortured in a CIA secret prison as part of the so-called “war on terror.” He sued the former CIA head George Tenet and others involved, seeking compensation and an apology for his ordeal. The Court’s refusal to hear his case allows a U.S. Court of Appeal’s decision, based upon the Bush regime’s assertion of the “state secrets” privilege, to stand. It also allows a cover-up of the Bush regime’s crimes to continue.
According to ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner who argued El-Masri’s case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last November, “This is a sad day not only for Khaled El-Masri, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation’s reputation in the world. By denying justice to an innocent victim of this country’s anti-terror policies, the Court has provided the government with complete immunity for its shameful human rights and due process violations.”
El-Masri was traveling to Macedonia when he was kidnapped, abused, and rendered to a CIA-run “black site” in Afghanistan. He was denied contact with a lawyer or his family. After several months of imprisonment in horrific conditions, he was flown from Afghanistan and abandoned on a hill in Albania with no explanation. He was never charged with a crime. According to the ACLU, even after realizing El-Masri was innocent, the CIA continued to hold El-Masri for two more months. The ACLU’s lawsuit charged Tenet and other CIA officials with violations of U.S. and universal human rights laws.
The Bush regime has repeatedly asserted “state secrecy” to justify the refusal to disclose information about its rendition program, the NSA surveillance program, the use of torture, and other violations of domestic and international law. In this case, the Bush regime argued that the case could not be allowed to proceed to court for fear that state secrets about the rendition program, the locations of its secret prisons, and it methods of interrogation would be revealed. But what the regime really fears is that once the public knows the full extent of its crimes, that the fascistic nature of the regime will be fully revealed.
It is clear that the Supreme Court is complicit in the crimes of the regime. The case of El-Masri vs. U.S. is an exposure of the failure of the judicial system to halt the continuing crimes of the regime. With the acceptance of the “states secrets” justification, the Bush regime has been given the green light to continue extraordinary renditions (kidnapping), enhance interrogation techniques (torture), electronic surveillance (massive spying on Americans and others throughout the world), and the denial of basic due process. This is what the “justice system” in the U.S. has come to under the Bush regime.