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.
i can’t wait for the first conservative to expound on how it’s okay to inflict suffering on innocent people.
i love how conservatives proudly and gleefully send people to their deaths to save their own skins
i wouldn’t trust one to have my back, that’s for damned sure, they’ll sell you out in heartbeat.
I look forward to the day when we have a legitimate Supreme Court again… which will require a few untimely deaths and the other two branches of government to be controlled by liberals…
So I’m not holding my breath.
#1 grog – Normally I would be a fiscal conservative you would want to have your back but in your case I will make an exception.
My guy didn’t win. The government’s not legitimate. Waaa waaa waaa.
This case is really horrific. They won’t hear it because it might expose government secrets. What secrets? You mean like our government tortured an innocent person?
I sincerely hope that this gets tried in international court and we lose big time. This is thoroughly and completely unacceptable for any country claiming to be a democracy.
#4 – BillM,
I strongly suggest you at least watch the documentary ‘Hacking Democracy’ before deciding that Bush actually won anything anywhere.
Well, another INNOCENT CIA torture victim gets the business end of the pineapple. Poppy and Little Georgie sure done good, stacking the court with their lapdogs.
And in other breaking Supreme Court news, the “right” of former Viacom executive Tom Freston to charge taxpayers for his learning-disabled son’s high-priced private school, when Tommie decided that the programs offered by the public school system were not up to snuff.
Too bad there are so many Supreme Court justices; they’d be great in a remake of The Three Stooges. No Black Stooges though, so that’s one Affirmative Action that Clarence “The Groper” Thomas would not be able to benefit from. Seems like he was batting 1000 on the AA, before he went on his crusade to prevent subsequent generations to have the same opportunities he did.
Hmm, it seems OFTLO has joined Pat Robertson in wishing for the deaths of Supreme Court justices. Not too surprising.
I don’t see how the secrecy angle washes, since by that argument they should have killed Masri to keep him from talking.
While you’re whining about the Bush Administration, aren’t you going to complain about his recent executive order interfering with a prosecution in state court?
>>I don’t see how the secrecy angle washes, since by that
>>argument they should have killed Masri to keep him from talking.
I don’t think the spooks are that smart. They couldn’t even spell the guy’s name right in the first place, so they nabbed the wrong guy. Sheesh.
WIth the advent of Dumbya, the country is awash in idiocy.
Thank you, come again.
This is distressing to say the least.
The fact that the CIA is allowed to operate within the other countries mentioned is kinda strange too. I just can’t see the German and Albanian secret police ceding that much autonomy to the CIA. They would at least be involved with the abduction and torture of their nationals inside their own borders. But what do I know, I fix medical equipment for a living.
You would think the CIA would cough up some cash to just make him shut the f up. He was only asking for 75k. I would have sued them for 75 billion or so.
Don
Oh, like there were never ANY secret goings on when Bill Clinton was president. I hate to tell you people that things of this nature have been going on for decades. You can’t criticize one administration without including all the other administrations as well, conservative, liberal, republican AND democrat. This is a problem that has to be dealt with as a country, not as a party or division of the people.
Another example of a liberal just trying to pass the buck if you ask me.
#13
“Oh, like there were never ANY secret goings on when Bill Clinton was president.”
At least they were trying to hide them as much as they could rather than the way this current administration’s “The doctor said he was anemic so we hit him with an iron pipe” attitude.
>>Oh, like there were never ANY secret goings on when
>>Bill Clinton was president.
Sure there were. Hey, I’ve read Robert Ludlum too.
But when Bill Clinton was president, we didn’t have dimwitted GED dropouts pretending to be CIA operatives who couldn’t spell a terrorist’s name right kidnapping the wrong guy, torturing him, then trying to hide behind the shield of “national security” to cover up the fact that they’re now hiring people who flunked out of Special Ed.
I guess after President Cheney/ Rove outed Valerie Plame, any CIA agent with a double-digit IQ looked for other career opportunities. Nobody wants to be the last rat on a sinking ship.
Heckuva a job, Little King Georgie! You destroyed the Constitution, the BIll of RIghts, FEMA, the CIA, the CPSC, and America’s credibility in the world community, all the short span of 8 years. Wowie.
#4 – My guy didn’t win.
Actually, my guy did win. He just wasn’t selected.
#5 – I strongly suggest you at least watch the documentary ‘Hacking Democracy’ before deciding that Bush actually won anything anywhere.
He won the Nepotism Lottery 🙂
#7 – Hmm, it seems OFTLO has joined Pat Robertson in wishing for the deaths of Supreme Court justices. Not too surprising.
When I use the word “wish” then I’ll be wishing for their deaths. Until then read what I wrote and not what you want to believe I wrote.
#13 – Whoa… I think you can stop beating… That horse looks pretty dead to us.
Call me when this principle comes up more than every 54 years.
RBG
#17 – so what other injustices are acceptable as long as they are infrequent?
Interesting that I heard this story, with the addendum that the 1953 case, after the files were declassified, turned out not to be a secret mission, and did not involve testing classified materials.
J/P=?
#14
Oh, so it’s alright as long as we can’t see it? Does the ends justify the means also? Are we a nation of hypocrites who only say what we believe and not actually live by those maxims?
Perhaps Socrates was right when he said that rulers and politicians shouldn’t be allowed a normal family life. lol
#15 – he used Valerie Plame and double-digit IQ in the same sentence, heh heh, heh heh, heh heh….
>>heh heh, heh heh, heh heh….
Yeah, it’s hard to discuss Dumbya’s “administration” without referring to idiocy and moral/ ethical scandals, isn’t it?
Yeah, I guess Richard Jewell was guilty of the Olympic bombing then.
Of course they paid him millions, not sure why this guy couldn’t get 75k.
Shouldn’t this man be suing the U.S. govt in an international court not in an American court? I would guess ( and a guess it is ,I don’t know international law)that not being a citizen of the U.S. federal courts would have no jurisdiction for the acts committed against him. If what he says is true he deserves his day in court and compensation. I just think he chose the wrong courts
#20
“Oh, so it’s alright as long as we can’t see it? Does the ends justify the means also? Are we a nation of hypocrites who only say what we believe and not actually live by those maxims?”
For starters, it’s okay for you to become a soldier and go kill someone at the age of 18 but it’s not okay for you to drink beer until you become a 21yo.
“Perhaps Socrates was right when he said that rulers and politicians shouldn’t be allowed a normal family life. lol”
If you look at the Kennedy and the Bush families you actually see that they don’t have a normal family life.
The main problem here is that there isn’t a court that can try cases related to national security. I realize there are certain things like CIA agent identities that should be classifi…oops, nevermind.
FOX SNOOZE? Nice to see the coverage on “Dvorak.org/blog” is “fair and balanced. SHAME.
If “Dvorak.org/blog” knew anything at all about the Supreme Court, it would know that it can only grant Certiorari if lower court rulings are flawed or reached in violation of the Constitution. And the great majority of cases brought to the Supreme Court are denied certiorari.
Granting a writ of certiorari means merely that four judges feel the circumstances described in the petition are sufficient to warrant the full Court making a review of the case and of the lower court’s action.
So, if he couldn’t convince four of the most liberal members of the court, then perhaps his case was going nowhere in the first place.
#30 – Who are the liberal members again?
I want my Rubber Ducky..