The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. for helping the CIA secretly abduct foreigners and take them overseas, where they were allegedly tortured. The plaintiffs are three foreign nationals from Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia (BBC). The ACLU's director said :

"American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values.... Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable" (CNN).

The suit is being filed under a statute allowing non-Americans to sue in the U.S. for violations of law of laws or treaties. U.S. officials acknowledged the secret transfer of suspects to other countries but denied torturing them.

Just yesterday, the New York Times reported on "Gestapo torture techniques, adopted by president Bush for use by the United States in 2001," according to Andrew Sullivan.

Last year, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit by a German man against the CIA for detaining him based on mistaken identity, on the grounds that the suit posed "'grave risk' of damage to national security by exposing government secrets" (Washington Post): the man claimed that while in CIA custody, he was beaten and sodomized.