Extraordinary Renditions - Again, For the Sake of Completeness

Yesterday, I mentioned the extraordinary rendition case brought in a US court by the German citizen Khaled El-Masri. Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal of this case. Like the district court, the court of appeals recognized the state secrets privilege as providing sufficient grounds for a dismissal of the case. According to the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Reynolds (1953), the state secrets privilege allows the United States to prevent disclosure of information in a judicial proceeding if "there is reasonable danger" that such a disclosure "will expose military matters which, in the interest of national security, should not be divulged." The court of appeals finds that despite the fact that the existence of CIA flights has been publicly acknowledged by the United States, a proper proceeding would have required the (further) release of state secrets which could jeopardize national security.

Well, US courts dismiss extraordinary rendition cases, foreign courts that accept to hear such cases will not get hold of the suspects ... sooner or later the whole matter will fizzle out.