By Sherwood Ross<\/p>\n
Two Federal judges have deliberately invoked secrecy statutes to conceal the Federal government\u2019s illegal use of torture, a prominent legal authority says.<\/p>\n
Named are judges Terence Boyle of the U.S. District Court of Eastern North Carolina, and T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court of Eastern District of Virginia, both nominees of President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n
According to Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, Judge Boyle refused to allow CIA contractor David Passaro access to government memos that could be construed to show he was acting under orders when he tortured a prisoner to death. And Judge Ellis threw out a case brought by Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen illegally arrested and tortured by the CIA.<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis \u201cused the states secret doctrine to shield a once secret, now revealed criminal governmental enterprise—torture is a criminal violation of both international and domestic law,\u201d Velvel said.<\/p>\n
The state secrets doctrine was created by the Supreme Court in 1953 in a case in which, it is now known, the government lied to the Court \u201cbut which nonetheless continues to be used by reactionary judges for the purpose of letting the government get away with torture if not murder,\u201d Velvel said.<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis said that if El-Masri\u2019s claims were true he \u201chas suffered injuries as a result of our country\u2019s mistake and deserves a remedy\u201d from the Executive or the Congress. To this Velvel commented, the judge knows \u201cthe chance El-Masri will be given a remedy by one of those branches approaches nil.\u201d The judge did not rule on the facts of El-Masri\u2019s charges.<\/p>\n
As for the Passaro case, Velvel said while Passaro is “a savage,\u201d he did have a possible defense, \u201cone that Judge Boyle made sure he could not successfully raise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passaro\u2019s lawyers invoked \u201cthe public authority defense,\u201d claiming he was acting in accordance with the desires of the CIA and Executive Branch. His lawyers sought to subpoena and examine executive branch officials such as CIA Director George Tenet and others \u201cwhose names the judge kept secret,\u201d Velvel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt he(Passaro) is right about what the Executive wanted and authorized,\u201d Velvel writes in his book, \u201cAn Enemy of The People\u201d(Doukathsan Press), \u201cno doubt at all.\u201d But Boyle \u201cwould not allow Passaro to get the memos or subpoena the officials\u2026Boyle plainly didn\u2019t want the truth about our highest officials to come out in his courtroom\u2026so he rejected Passaro\u2019s attempts to get the evidence\u2026 It was a deliberate judicial cover-up by a conservative or reactionary Reagan appointee.\u201d<\/p>\n
In still another controversial ruling, Judge Ellis decided not to dismiss a government prosecution for receiving and passing on classified information against two officials of The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.<\/p>\n
Ellis gave the government \u201cgreat scope to argue that leaks must be punished whenever it (the government) says they are dangerous or harmful, whenever it (the government) says \u201c\u2019legitimate national security interests\u2019 are involved,\u201d Velvel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis broad language is a vast loophole allowing the government to prevent the public from obtaining information it desperately needs in order to know the evil that government is doing,\u201d Velvel said.<\/p>\n
Velvel cofounded the Massachusetts School of Law in 1988, purposefully dedicated to providing a quality, affordable education to minorities, immigrants, and students from low-income households that could otherwise not afford to obtain a legal degree.<\/p>\n