The Supreme Court Tuesday threw out a case against the US government brought by a Lebanese-born German, alleging he was kidnapped by the CIA and tortured for months before being freed without charge.
He was demanding an apology from the US administration and 75,000 dollars in compensation, alleging he was flown to a prison in Afghanistan for questioning before being released five months later in Albania, without any explanation.
“When we deny justice to an innocent victim of our anti-terror policies, we make America less safe and we provide the government with the most complete immunity for even the most shameful human rights abuses,” his lawyer told AFP.
When the Supreme Court rejected Masri’s case, then “the government may engage in torture, declare it a state secret and by virtue of that designation avoid any judicial accountability for conduct that even the government purports to condemn as unlawful under all circumstances.”
The Bush administration argued that if the case went to trial information concerning “highly classified methods and means of the program” would have to be revealed to the court.
What’s so secret about our government condoning kidnapping and torture? The whole world knows about it. It’s only a question on Fox Snooze and in the minds of the truly gullible.
The last time the principle of state secrets was examined by the Supreme Court was in 1953, when after a military plane crash it ruled the then government did not have to disclose a military report into the accident to the families of three civilians killed.
But, hey, that’s only 54 years ago. If Bush reached all his goals, we’d have a 19th Century Supreme Court.
>>My guy didn’t win. The government’s not legitimate. Waaa waaa waaa.
Your guy DIDN’T win. Yet, he’s still president.
Doesn’t sound legitimate to me.
(BTW — We all remember the four years of endless whining the conservatives did because Perot split the vote. )
#33 – Where is your daily outrage at policies concerning industrial and traffic deaths?
We had a meeting and when asked who wanted to be outraged about civil liberties and copyright law, I raised my hand. A guy named Robert Newbury is in charge of industrial and traffic deaths. Take it up with him.
Given how great the collective contempt for government should be, the only logical strategy is to divide the workload.
#35 – What, you think in the span of half a century it’s unlikely for any administration to have even one case where such a state secret principle must play in favor of the government?
Unlikely? There has never been, and never will be a situation that MUST play in favor of the government.
#40 – here’s a lot of crap going on for sure, BUT we’re still all much better off than if Algore or Frankenkerry had conned their way in.
That’s true… unless you factor in jobs, the economy, national security, trade, education, civil liberties… well, just about any aspect of life that the Fed can touch.
True, when you factor in all those items, we’re not “much” better off, we’re “extremely” better off.
#43 – We aren’t gonna be “better off” until we are done taxing you into the ground… Only then will there be a golden new utopia on Earth…
Democratia I shall call it and all educations and abortions will be free and we will all travel on skateboards because all motorized vehicles will be illegal.
#44 – I don’t doubt you at all but it won’t happen if I scorch the place to a cinder first. Besides when it’s 2 miles from the house to the edge of the yard, even getting the mail is a chore on a skateboard.
#45 – My government will grant you a waiver so you may use a jetpack instead of a skateboard based on the technicality that jetpacks don’t have internal combustion engines in them and because I just wanna watch as you learn to fly the damn thing
Chances are good that the jetpack accounts for HOW you scorch the place to a cinder.
#46 – I’m liking it – as long as the jetpack is properly designed so I scorch everything else instead of my ass.
#47 – Ahh… Just forget it
There’s just no way to make you happy…
Nice to see the Rush Limbaugh School of debate. Change the subject to anything, ANYTHING else besides the news that the neocon justices just told a German citizen we kidnapped and tortured to go screw himself.
Now, the political appointees of the executive can kidnap and torture and kill at will, and the victims or their families have no recourse for justice because it might reveal a national security secret — that they were mistakenly kidnapped, beaten, tortured, and sometimes killed. The “secret” is that we’re collectively random murderers — and don’t care.
There is no “conservative” line on this. This is fascism. This is the Reich.
38 Mr. F.
“a recent study reports that the “Bush administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in 23 cases since 2001.”
“The last time the principle of state secrets was examined by the Supreme Court was in 1953″
Obviously those 23 cases did not merit a court challenge by anyone.
RBG