The court of appeals affirmed a district court judgment. The court held that the state secrets doctrine mandated dismissal of plaintiffs’ Alien Tort Statute claims arising from the federal government’s extraordinary rendition program where the claims and a private-party defendant’s possible defenses were so infused with state secrets that the risk of disclosing them was both apparent and inevitable.
Binyam Mohamed and four other individuals (Mohamed) brought suit against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. (Jeppesen), under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. §1350. According to Mohamed, the United States, working in concert with other government agencies and officials of foreign governments, operated an “extraordinary rendition program” to gather intelligence by apprehending foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and transferring them in secret to foreign countries for detention and interrogation by United States or foreign officials. Mohamed claimed that he was processed through the extraordinary rendition program.
