The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit Wednesday that accused a Boeing Co. subsidiary of helping the Central Intelligence Agency facilitate "the forced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment" of three men the government suspected of terrorist involvement.
"This is the first time we are accusing a blue-chip American company of profiting from torture," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said at a news conference in New York City.
Since at least 2001, Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. of San Jose "has provided direct and substantial services to the United States for its so-called 'extraordinary rendition' program," the suit, filed in San Jose federal court, alleges.
Extraordinary rendition is a highly secretive and extrajudicial practice of transferring terrorist suspects to third-party countries that routinely practice torture and other ill-treatment, according to Human Rights Watch. After years of denial, the Bush administration now acknowledges the tactic but denies sanctioning torture.
The suit was filed on behalf of Binyam Mohammed, a 28-year-old Ethiopian citizen and British resident; Abou Elkassim Britel, a 40-year-old of Moroccan descent naturalized in Italy; and Ahmed Agiza, a 45-year-old Egyptian. But the suit said that Jeppesen provided flight and logistical support services for more than 70 extraordinary renditions over a four-year period.
"Corporations should expect to get sued where they are making blood money off the suffering of others," said Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has been representing Mohammed and is serving as co-counsel on the ACLU suit.
Mike Pound, a Jeppesen spokesman, said the company had not been served with the suit and consequently had no comment on its merits.
Tim Neale, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, declined to confirm whether Jeppesen worked for the CIA. "The services Jeppesen provides are provided on a confidential basis for all its customers," he said.
ACLU attorney Steven Watt said his organization had obtained information about Jeppesen's role in the rendition program from a variety of sources, including investigations in Spain, Sweden and Italy; other court cases; and media reports, in particular a New Yorker magazine article by Jane Mayer, portions of which were quoted in the lawsuit.
Mayer wrote that a former Jeppesen employee told her that he had heard a senior company official say at a board meeting: "We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights -- you know the torture flights. Let's face it, some of these flights end up that way."
