Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Another Reason To Dislike the ACLU

The ACLU is the stopped clock that's right twice a day. Here's one of those times it isn't right.

NEW YORK — A Boeing Co. subsidiary that may have provided secret CIA flight services was sued Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three terrorism suspects who claim they were tortured by the U.S. government.


I wonder what law was broken. Is the ACLU going to sue American Airlines and United Airlines for allowing terrorists on board in 2001? No, they're more likely to sue US Airways for the way they handled the "flying imams" situation.

So here's what the ACLU genius says about the Boeing subsidiary:

The ACLU said the company "either knew or reasonably should have known" that they were facilitating the torture of terrorism suspects by providing flight services for the CIA.

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," ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said.


This has got to be some sort of publicity stunt. Even the ACLU folks can't be this stupid, can they?

"American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. "Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable."

Neither the CIA nor the U.S. government is named in the lawsuit. Wizner said the executive branch has evoked a state secrets defense in similar lawsuits.


Definitely a publicity stunt. If this activity is truly unlawful, they'd try to sue the US government. I'm sure the calculus is they can get more mileage out of doing it this way.

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