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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet and several CIA employees by a German of Lebanese origin who says he was abducted and tortured by the American spy agency.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis agreed with government arguments that moving forward with Khaled el-Masri's case would risk national security by exposing state secrets about CIA activities vital to the U.S. war on terrorism.
"While dismissal of the complaint deprives el-Masri of an American judicial forum for vindicating his claims .... el-Masri's private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets," Ellis wrote in a 17-page ruling.
Ellis said the government provided documents to him that showed "damage to the national security could result if the defendants in this case were required to admit or deny el-Masri's allegations."
The case has drawn worldwide outrage and led to investigations in Europe, where critics decry the U.S. extraordinary rendition policy and say it allows the CIA to fly terror suspects abroad to face possible torture and other abuses.
Defendants included Tenet, 10 unnamed CIA agents, 10 employees of three private companies, and the companies, which Masri said owned the airplanes used to transport him between Europe and South Asia.
Masri said Macedonian authorities abducted him on December 31, 2003, and he was held prisoner in a Skopje hotel room for 23 days and beaten, stripped and sodomized.
He said he was then taken by members of a CIA "black renditions" team and flown by the CIA to Afghanistan, where he was held as a terrorism suspect. Masri said he was beaten in Afghanistan and went on a hunger strike to protest his confinement. On May 28, 2004, Masri was flown to Albania where he was dumped on the side of an abandoned road.
Masri said that the CIA knew soon after his arrival in Afghanistan that he was innocent, but he was still held until the end of May.
Masri is seeking unspecified damages of at least $75,000 but has said he would consider settling in exchange for an apology from Tenet, who ran the CIA when he was detained.
Ellis said his ruling was not a comment on the merit of Masri's complaint.
It is certainly great news that a few radical judges won't prevent the necessary operations for our national security.
Perhaps now all the whiners can rest a bit easier now that the policy has been subjected to judicial review.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet and several CIA employees by a German of Lebanese origin who says he was abducted and tortured by the American spy agency.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis agreed with government arguments that moving forward with Khaled el-Masri's case would risk national security by exposing state secrets about CIA activities vital to the U.S. war on terrorism.
"While dismissal of the complaint deprives el-Masri of an American judicial forum for vindicating his claims .... el-Masri's private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets," Ellis wrote in a 17-page ruling.
Ellis said the government provided documents to him that showed "damage to the national security could result if the defendants in this case were required to admit or deny el-Masri's allegations."
The case has drawn worldwide outrage and led to investigations in Europe, where critics decry the U.S. extraordinary rendition policy and say it allows the CIA to fly terror suspects abroad to face possible torture and other abuses.
Defendants included Tenet, 10 unnamed CIA agents, 10 employees of three private companies, and the companies, which Masri said owned the airplanes used to transport him between Europe and South Asia.
Masri said Macedonian authorities abducted him on December 31, 2003, and he was held prisoner in a Skopje hotel room for 23 days and beaten, stripped and sodomized.
He said he was then taken by members of a CIA "black renditions" team and flown by the CIA to Afghanistan, where he was held as a terrorism suspect. Masri said he was beaten in Afghanistan and went on a hunger strike to protest his confinement. On May 28, 2004, Masri was flown to Albania where he was dumped on the side of an abandoned road.
Masri said that the CIA knew soon after his arrival in Afghanistan that he was innocent, but he was still held until the end of May.
Masri is seeking unspecified damages of at least $75,000 but has said he would consider settling in exchange for an apology from Tenet, who ran the CIA when he was detained.
Ellis said his ruling was not a comment on the merit of Masri's complaint.
It is certainly great news that a few radical judges won't prevent the necessary operations for our national security.
Perhaps now all the whiners can rest a bit easier now that the policy has been subjected to judicial review.
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