U.S. Supreme Court Declines Torture Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who claims that he was tortured in a prison in Afghanistan after being kidnapped by the CIA. The Court's decision means that a March decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will stand. In that case, in response to El-Masri's claim that he was detained and interrogated in violation of his rights under the Constitution and international law, the Fourth Circuit sided with the government and its argument that El-Masri's case could not proceed because it posed an unreasonable risk that privileged state secrets would be disclosed. The New York Times reports that today's decision by the Supreme Court "prompted immediate expressions of dismay, and it could exacerbate tensions between the United States and Germany."