The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a Boeing subsidiary for supposedly aiding the CIA in torture activities. Jeppesen Dataplan allegedly helped the CIA transport terrorism suspects overseas where they were eventually tortured.
Representatives for Jeppesen said the company doesn’t provide actual flights, just flight services such as flight plans. They have not admitted to working with the CIA and said they do not make a practice of asking clients about the purpose of their trip.
But the ACLU said that companies “are not allowed to have their heads in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured.”
Posted by Andie Clum
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30 Comments
In business, one of the first things you learn is to mind your own business. People who learn get paid. People who don’t learn get canned or get run out of business by people who don’t stick their noses in the customer’s business. If the ACLU argument is on target, then the guy at the supermarket is supposed to ask me what I’m planning for the box of Ben & Jerry’s Brownie Batter. Right? And everyone knows what you do with it. Down it goes if you can hold off until you’ve had your veggies first. Same thing with the Sancho Panza cigars that I still buy, contrary to public opinion. They’re for smoking in the confines of my own home, thank you very much. And the guy at the shop knows that. However, he never asks. Nor does he inquire about my penchant for Ben & Jerry’s or my take on the ACLU. Business is business. Don’t ask. Get paid. And buy your own box of chocolate ice cream.
Why haven’t the ACLU gone after aircraft companies who sell reconditioned jets and other aircraft that are used by drug cartels?
Or oppressive country dictators who kill, torture and terrorize their own people that buy American aircraft to do their dirty work of secret funds?
I think it’s time to bring up all the sexual predators once again that exist in the ACLU. They are getting too uppity.
Some better reporting would reveal a backstory for this: the issue is the CIA/US govt. stonewalling about Guantanamo, and the ACLU getting information about specific passengers. They are trying to get information about the flight plans of some taken to Gitmo under the US’s “extraordinary rendition” program–which the US will verify exists but will not discsuss specifics, making it impossible to determine if individuals were tortured. The ACLU believes they may be able to get info from the corporate entities involved instead.
Hence, it’s less about the guilt of Boeing than it is about pushing the envelope for information.
Although sometimes businesses are guilty of this sort of thing: do you just take the money and run if you are selling alcohol to minors at a liquor store or bar? Sometimes both business and patron are indeed culpable.
All this from the Democrites who cry the loudest about invasion of privacy and loss of their rights.
Ah yes, the ACLU, let’s see:
Alan Sears documents a case while serving on the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography for the Reagan Administration. In a Congressional hearing, a man testified with regards to a report on the dangers of pornography. Photos were presented of children with all sorts of objects stuffed into their bodily cavities. When it came to time for an ACLU official to testify in favor of the production of pornography, here is what is stated:
”It is the ACLU’s position that child pornography should not be produced but once it is in existence, there should be no restriction on its sale and distribution” and that it should be constitutionally protected under the 1st Amendment.”
“The ACLU takes a similar view with regards to illegal immigration. The ACLU states that illegal aliens should not cross our borders illegally but once they do, they are owed the same constitutional rights as you and I.”
“According to an exclusive report the Coalition received from the paid subscription of National Journal, Larry Flynt, Hustler Magazine, is a member of the board of directors for the Southern California ACLU. And his association with the organization is many as he gets invited to all their big events. One such example is the ACLU’s misnamed annual Bill of Rights Awards Dinner”
“The second individual that particularly deserves extensive scrutiny is the ACLU’s president and second in command, Nadine Strossen. Her ties to porn and her declared love of it are not in doubt. It’s not hard to find online. Her book, Defending Pornography, available on Amazon.com (if you can stomach it), literally says it all.
In a speech given at Yale in 1999, Strossen demonstrated she has a problem prosecuting child pornographers. Perhaps that explains why she and the rest of her ACLU are silent on the Tierney arrest and why so-called freedom and rights are more important to the ACLU than the harm and pain such “rights” cause.”http://www.stoptheaclu.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=135&Itemid=2
If you see me walking down the streetAnd I start to cry each time we meetWalk on by, walk on by
Make believethat you don’t see the tearsJust let me grievein private ’cause each time I see youI break down and cryAnd walk on by (don’t stop)And walk on by (don’t stop)And walk on by
I wonder if Capn has a Dione Warwick wig in his collection?
Must be a slow news day if they have to bring out the ACLU to flog again.
A sure way to get the number of posts on the blog UP. Bring out the ACLU and wail away.
And ya know…
It sure has been a long time since we got an update on blog activity.
Maybe we’re number FIVE again?
Funny, but ya sure dont hear the reich wing bring up ACLU’s defense of RUSH, now do ya?
Or any other conservative individual or group who may have been out of power.
That’s the thing about the ACLU—libertarians should love it, because it’s an equal-opportunity organization that defends the rights of the “little guy,” including Rush Limbaugh, the Second Amendment Foundation, Oliver North…it’s their opposition to establishment domination that the Fascists (whoops, republicans) hate so much.
If you believe in a free society you’ll know how important it is to support the rights of minority positions even if you don’t agree with them.
Again, the Boeing suit is an attempt to gather information for claims of torture at Guantanamo.All the anti-govt people should understand the importance of the ACLU’s role…When the US government is against you, who else can you turn to?
I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
KFG,
I am sure even Hitler did something good perhaps once or twice in his life.
It doesn’t mean I am going to start celebrating him.
Of course you are Capn… of course you are.
Delsol,
The ACLU doesn’t support me in my right to own a gun.
Funny how they will support a man loving a boy, but not my 2nd Amendment rights…
Yup.That’s because any idiot can see that given the context of the Revolutionary War, the 2nd Amendment was less about individuals than about collective rights, intended mainly to protect the right of the states to maintain militias to assure their own freedom and security against the central government. In today’s world, that idea is somewhat anachronistic and in any case would require weapons much more powerful than handguns or hunting rifles.
Hence the word “milita” in the actual amendment.
DelsolYou are now a proven idiot on 2nd Amendment rights.
The “Bill of Rights” were written to protect people from government.
The protection of state militias was mentioned due to the fact that EVERY state, at the time of ratification, had a state statute concerning membership in a militia. Many states STILL have such a militia statute.
The “militia” generally consists of ALL able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and, I think, 50.
The militia is NOT the same as the national guard.
The purpose of the militia, in the minds of the founders, was to check and balance any national, standing Army.
You can belong to a militia and NEVER attend a meeting. It is a group of people that the STATE has a right to call upon for defense of sovereign state’s rights.
However, this being said, the right to keep and bear arms is an INDIVIDUAL right.
The state right to a militia is meaningless unless the individual right to keep and bear arms is protected.
Funny, the 10th Amendment, which clearly grants STATE rights, is ignored by libs, while the 2nd Amendment, which clearly grants an individual right to bear arms is, falsely, painted as only a right of the states!
Guess I am, Econ. I missed where it said all of that in 2nd Amendment.
The protection of state militias was mentioned due to the fact that EVERY state, at the time of ratification, had a state statute concerning membership in a militia. Many states STILL have such a militia statute.
The “militia” generally consists of ALL able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and, I think, 50.
Hmm…So I am now a conscientious objector to the Kansas militia? Can I be arrested for that?How would I have known I was in it? Does gun ownership automatically enroll me?
gun rights just won, in court:
http://www.saf.org/dc.lawsuit/parker.decision.pdf
Sooooo, if a person rents out an airplane or boat to someone supposedly for recreational purposes but that person uses the vehicle to smuggle drugs in the country the government can impound the vehicle and prosecute the company for aiding drug dealers. However, when that company does something illegal in service of the Bush regime that’s acceptable.
Re: your post, Econ–Did you see the part where they concluded that a “militia,” as referred to in the Second Amendment is actually a group like the National Guard?
Despite this ruling, it is clear in the document that many other courts have interpreted the 2nd quite differently.
So the case in question illustrates the ongoing argument against your point nearly as much as it supprts it.
When I rent a car, they ask me where I’m going and they want to know when I’m bringing it back. We go over the insurance, mileage rules, I sign the papers and they hand me the keys. Does the ACLU contend that the car rental company is supposed to be asking me what I’m planning to do when I reach my destination?
I have nothing against the ACLU as an organization. Although I don’t have time to follow the work that they do, my best guess is that I would agree with them a good part of the time but certainly not every time. In this case, I fail to see where a company was in the wrong for not digging around in a customer’s business. A service was requested and a service was provided. However, I am not a lawyer and I don’t know all the details.
TR, the problem is with the government. Boeing cooperated with a program that may have involved abuses of individual rights, but the government will not discuss the CIA’s extroardinary rendition program, in which some have made claims to being tortured–hence the ACLU is essentially suing Boeing to get it info about the treatment of these individuals into public record.
And if the company knew what this program was about then they should be held liable. They have a responsibility to not participate in illegal activity.
Naysayers other than yourself, I would suggest including Ms. Clum, are just reacting to involvement of the ACLU. If somebody else brought this lawsuit it wouldn’t even make a wave.
Read a REAL account of this story here (not in the Eagle, of course):
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=3225883
If the CIA transported American Citizens for the purpose of torturing them, then the CIA is liable for criminal and civil actions. We are still supposedly a government of laws.If the CIA transported citizens of other countries for purposes of torturing them, they should be held liable under the laws of those citizen’s countries, or under international law. The CIA is not a law unto itself.
If they are terrorists and there is the potential that they could provide information to save lives, then I do not care what the Gov’t does to get the information. At some point we, the public, needs to get our nose out of the goverments business and let them do their job. I agree we can’t just let the government do whatever it wants, but I also believe there are things the public doesn’t need to know. It’s a slippery slope.
Vegetarianism is bad, is not bad for your health
I feel like a fog, not that it matters. I’ve pretty much been doing nothing , but eh. Today was a loss. I haven’t gotten much done for a while.
I haven’t been up to much recently, but whatever. I just don’t have much to say lately. Basically nothing happening to speak of. So it goes. My mind is like a complete blank. Such is life.
People should be allowed to go naked in certain recreational areas only
There are too many, not enough handicapped parking spaces in our city