Govt. lawyers seek to quash rendition lawsuit

The long road to the proverbial day in court just got longer for five men who claim they were "disappeared" and tortured by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The men, who say they were victims of the extraordinary rendition program conducted during the administration of President George W. Bush, have been trying since 2007 to get their cases heard on the merits. But it is now far from clear that the merits of these cases will be heard any time soon–if ever. The reason is that the Department of Justice–first through Bush administration lawyers, now through Barack Obama administration lawyers - has invoked the so-called "state secrets" privilege, claiming that a public trial would endanger U.S. national security. The latest development in the case came last week, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals set aside an earlier ruling by three of its own judges and said a majority of its judges had voted to refer the case to an 11-judge panel for a new hearing. The request to rehear the case, now scheduled for Dec. 15, came from the Obama administration. That decision put on hold the earlier findings of the three-judge panel, which had reinstated the Mohamed suit in April. That 3-0 ruling rejected arguments by the Bush and Obama administrations that the case concerned secrets too sensitive to disclose in court. In its tortuous journey toward justice, the Jeppesen case has taken on many aspects of an international spy thriller–involving high courts, senior diplomatic officials in two countries, prisoner abuse and threats to withhold intelligence-sharing among allies if the abuse was publicly disclosed.