The CIA, Torture, & The Law

MSNBC is running a story that should chill the blood of any American patriot who believes in the rule of law.

Judge dismisses rendition lawsuit against CIA
Private interests must give way to national security, federal judge says
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:47 p.m. PT May 18, 2006

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a German man who said he was illegally detained and tortured in overseas prisons run by the CIA, ruling that a lawsuit would improperly expose state secrets.

Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III makes no determination on the validity of the claims by Khaled al-Masri, who said he was kidnapped on New Year’s Eve 2003 and detained for nearly five months before finally being dumped on an abandoned road in Albania.

The ruling hands a victory to the Bush administration, which intervened in the civil lawsuit to prevent exposure of its tactics in the war on terrorism.

During his detention, al-Masri said he was beaten and sodomized with a foreign object by his captors. He also alleges that a CIA team forced him to wear a diaper and drugged him before a flight to an Afghan prison and refused to contact German authorities about his arrest.

Ellis said he was satisfied after receiving a secret written briefing from the director of central intelligence that allowing al-Masri’s lawsuit to proceed would harm national security.

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