Boeing accused of enabling CIA torture activities

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union sued a subsidiary of Boeing Company, claiming it provided secret CIA transportation services for three terrorism suspects who were tortured under the US government’s ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme.

The cases involve the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen, in July 2002 and January 2004; Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen, in May 2002; and Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian citizen, in December 2001, ACLU officials said. Mohamed is currently being held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Britel in Morocco and Agiza in Egypt, the ACLU said in a statement.The three have claimed through their family and lawyers that they have been tortured and abused against universally accepted legal standards.Their attorneys appealed to the ACLU for assistance.The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in US District Court in California, charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.enabled the clandestine transportation of the men to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other “forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”Mike Pound, a spokesman for Jeppesen, said company officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.He said Jeppesen provides support services, rather than the flights themselves, for airlines, private pilots and companies.”We don’t know the purpose of the trip for which we do a flight plan,” he said.”We don’t need to know specific details.It’s the customer’s business, and we do the business that we are contracted for.It’s not our practice to ever inquire about the purpose of a trip.”Boeing itself is not named in the lawsuit and would not confirm the reports of a Jeppesen-CIA link, said spokesman Tim Neale, adding that customers have a confidentiality clause.Companies “are not allowed to have their head in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured,” said Wizner.Neither the CIA nor the US government is named in the lawsuit.Nampa-APMohamed is currently being held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Britel in Morocco and Agiza in Egypt, the ACLU said in a statement.The three have claimed through their family and lawyers that they have been tortured and abused against universally accepted legal standards.Their attorneys appealed to the ACLU for assistance.The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in US District Court in California, charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.enabled the clandestine transportation of the men to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other “forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”Mike Pound, a spokesman for Jeppesen, said company officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.He said Jeppesen provides support services, rather than the flights themselves, for airlines, private pilots and companies.”We don’t know the purpose of the trip for which we do a flight plan,” he said.”We don’t need to know specific details.It’s the customer’s business, and we do the business that we are contracted for.It’s not our practice to ever inquire about the purpose of a trip.”Boeing itself is not named in the lawsuit and would not confirm the reports of a Jeppesen-CIA link, said spokesman Tim Neale, adding that customers have a confidentiality clause.Companies “are not allowed to have their head in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured,” said Wizner.Neither the CIA nor the US government is named in the lawsuit.Nampa-AP