老澳门开奖结果

Update (4/22/16): In a huge win for our side, the federal judge in Spokane, ruling from the bench, denied Mitchell and Jessen's motion to dismiss. Now we enter discovery. This is the first time a CIA torture case moves past this stage.

Those responsible for the CIA torture program have never had to face their victims鈥� claims in a U.S. court because the government has always shielded the perpetrators. Until now.

Next week, three victims of the CIA鈥檚 post-9/11 torture program are taking a critical and unprecedented step in seeking accountability from the men who devised their torture. On April 22, a federal court in Spokane, Washington, will hear the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 argument on behalf of Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and the family of Gul Rahman. They have sued James Mitchell and John 鈥淏ruce鈥� Jessen, the psychologists who teamed up with the CIA to design, implement, and oversee the agency鈥檚 torture program, which ensnared at least 119 men from its inception in 2002 until it was shuttered in 2008.

In every previous lawsuit by CIA victims, the Bush and Obama administrations invoked the 鈥�state secrets privilege鈥� to shut down cases before they even got underway. Despite voluminous information in the public record, the government insisted that the very subject matter of the cases 鈥� CIA torture 鈥� was secret and its lawfulness could not be considered by the courts.

But not this time. Instead of invoking state secrets at the outset, the government said in a court filing last week that it is willing to consider 鈥減rotective measures鈥� to safeguard its interests while still allowing the case to go forward. This has never happened before 鈥� and it means that CIA torture survivors may finally get their day in court.

We almost certainly have the Senate torture report to thank. The government鈥檚 shameful use of secrecy was unjustified in previous cases, but the public release of the Senate Intelligence Committee鈥檚 official report on CIA torture makes it untenable now. Demonstrating that this case does not rely on any facts that could be considered 鈥渟ecret,鈥� the government publicly confirmed in the same filing 鈥� for the first time 鈥� that Mitchell and Jessen 鈥渟erved as CIA contractors in the detention and interrogation program.鈥�

Without claims of state secrets to shield them, Mitchell and Jessen have made extreme arguments to try and keep their victims out of court. They have argued that torture is a 鈥減olitical question鈥� and that courts have no role in judging whether it is unlawful. But as we will argue next Friday, torture isn鈥檛 politics 鈥� it鈥檚 a war crime.

Mitchell and Jessen also argue that, as federal contractors, they鈥檙e immune from any accountability to their victims 鈥� even though they personally made millions of dollars from CIA torture. As we will tell the court and have previously explained, that just isn鈥檛 true. Contractors don鈥檛 share the government鈥檚 immunity from suit because they face a completely different set of incentives and restrictions than government employees. As contractors, Mitchell and Jessen took millions of taxpayer dollars for their role in the torture program; they don鈥檛 get impunity.

Torture victims have waited a long time for justice. Friday鈥檚 hearing is a long-delayed step towards the accountability our clients deserve.