Proposed Law Would Restore Local Control Over Intelligence Gathering

Employers in Arizona are challenging a law passed in 2007 mandating the use of a flawed database system called E-Verify to check on the immigration status of employees.  In a recent national newscast on the Spanish-language network Univision, ACLU-NC staff attorney Julia Harumi Mass explains why the Supreme Court should strike down the law.

The administration's chief rationale for dismissing the suit "no longer exists, because the (interrogation) methods are now public, and because they have been prohibited," Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing five current and former U.S. prisoners, said in a filing with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The five men accuse Jeppesen Dataplan, a San Jose subsidiary of the Boeing Co., of colluding with the CIA in their kidnapping and torture in a practice known as extraordinary rendition.

The Bush administration acknowledged the rendition program, in which suspected criminals and terrorists were taken to foreign countries or CIA prisons for interrogation. The administration said, however, that the foreign governments guaranteed no one would be tortured.

A former Jeppesen employee, in a court declaration, quoted a company director as telling staffers in 2006 that Jeppesen handled torture flights.

A federal judge dismissed the suit last year, agreeing with the Bush administration's argument that it could damage national security. President Obama renounced torture and ordered secret CIA prisons closed after taking office, but his administration has adopted its predecessor's position in the Jeppesen case.

"Judges shouldn't play with fire," Justice Department attorney Douglas Letter told the appeals court in February. He argued that none of the critical issues in the suit - the CIA's alleged seizure and detention of the men, their treatment and the agency's relationship with a private company - could be aired safely in court.

Last week, Obama declassified four Bush administration Justice Department memos authorizing the CIA to keep al Qaeda suspects awake for as long as 11 days and use a variety of other techniques during interrogations, including head slaps, stress positions, slamming into walls and the simulated-drowning procedure called waterboarding. Department lawyers said none of the procedures would constitute torture.

None of the documents involved the plaintiffs in the Jeppesen case. But Wizner said former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who criticized the release of the memos, also provided a declaration that is central in the argument over the prisoners' lawsuit.

Hayden has said Obama's disclosure of the memos would aid the nation's enemies by displaying the outer limits of the CIA's methods.

"The CIA has managed to avoid liability for torture by promoting the fiction that its torture and rendition programs were secret," Wizner said in an interview.

"By declassifying and officially confirming some of the worst details of the Bush torture regime, President Obama has removed any basis for denying victims their day in court," Wizner said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

Download the interview »  [skip to 15 minutes in]

GUEST: Nicole Ozer, ACLU of Northern California’s Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director

TOPIC: ACLU’s new publication, "Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business."

OVERVIEW:

New technology has revolutionized the ways that we work and live. But as scores of recent controversies show, when companies fail to take privacy and free speech rights into proper account, the result can be bad for the public and bad for business.

A new primer produced by the ACLU of Northern California, Privacy and Free Speech: It’s Good for Business, is packed with case studies and hands-on tools to help companies avoid privacy and free speech mistakes that can lead to negative press, government investigations and fines, costly lawsuits, and loss of customers and business partners.

Among other sections, this primer will help businesses:

• Keep users informed about privacy policies and new services so customer surprise doesn’t lead to front-page horror stories.
 

• Secure customer information by creating forward-thinking policies about data collection, retention, and disclosure.
  
Stand up for free speech rights so customers don’t let their mouse clicks to a competitor do the talking.