Obama Administration Chose to “Stay the Course” on State Secrets, Rendition

By Elaine Pasquini


	A protester in San Francisco displays her sign featuring photos of plaintiffs (clockwise from l) Ahmed Agiza, Abou Elkassim Britel and Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be released since President Obama signed an order to close down the camp, was reunited with his sister in Great Britain following his Feb. 23, 2009 release (Staff photo P. Pasquini).

IN ONE OF the first tests of the new administration on the “state secrets privilege,” President Barack Obama’s Justice Department revealed that it is upholding the same position as the Bush administration on this issue.

The case at the center of this controversy is Mohamed et al. vs. Jeppesen. Filed in 2007, the suit accuses the San Jose flight-planning company Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, of assisting in the CIA‘s rendition program, which included the forced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment of the five plaintiffs (see April 2008 Washington Report, p. 50, and the May/June 2008 issue, p. 63).

In the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Feb. 9, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wizner argued to reinstate his plaintiffs’ case, which was dismissed one year ago after the Bush Justice Department intervened and successfully argued that the subject of the lawsuit—extraordinary rendition—was a “state secrets privilege.” Obama Justice Department attorney Douglas Letter presented the same argument—that defending the case would expose state secrets—to the three-judge panel hearing the plaintiffs’ appeal.

Wizner refuted the state secrets argument, noting that most of the evidence is already public. Specifically, he cited the Swedish government’s acknowledgment that it had erred in helping the U.S. transport plaintiff Ahmed Agiza to Egypt and recently awarded Agiza $450,000 in damages for its secondary role in that rendition. “There are proceedings going on in the United Kingdom where the roles of governments are being publicly aired,” the ACLU attorney said, referring to plaintiffs Binyam Mohamed and Bisher al-Rawi. “This court’s job is to determine in this case how confirmation of what [already] is known to the world can plausibly, can reasonably, cause harm to national security.”

While remanding the case to the district court would not injure the government’s secrecy interests, Wizner said, “if you affirm the dismissal, plaintiffs will forever be shut out of their day in court.”

Following the hearing, Wizner stated he was “shocked and deeply disappointed that the Justice Department has chosen to continue the Bush administration practice of dodging judicial scrutiny of extraordinary rendition and torture. This was an opportunity for the new administration to act on its condemnation of torture and rendition, but instead it has chosen to stay the course.”

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti Honored During U.S. Speaking Tour


Dr. Mustafa Barghouti (l) with hosts Dr. and Mrs. Ossama Hassanein (Staff photo P. Pasquini).

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti was guest of honor at a Feb. 13 reception in Menlo Park hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Ossama Hassanein. During his weeklong U.S. tour to raise awareness of the horrific death and destruction caused by Israel’s military assault on Gaza, the Palestinian doctor and legislative council member spoke in several cities, including Santa Clara, California, and New York City (see p. 48).

“Not only was this a war crime against humanity, as Israel crossed all the lines by killing civilians and inflicting collective punishment,” Barghouti said, “but what shocked me most was that for the first time it became clear that they really killed just to kill, for no reason.” Delivering medicine and humanitarian supplies to Gaza after the end of the onslaught, the doctor was overwhelmed by what he saw and heard. “Old people told me that this has been the most brutal thing they have ever seen,” he said. A young wife with two small daughters told him how Israeli soldiers bound and gagged her husband, then used him for target practice after he stepped out of the house to find water. “What kind of brutality is that?” the physician asked.

Barghouti also discussed the objectives of the Palestinian National Initiative, an organization he co-founded in 2002. “The main objective of our initiative is the realization of Palestinian national rights and of a durable, just peace,” he explained. “We want to regain Palestinian internal unity and create a unified leadership that will lead the Palestinian people to that specific place all people of the world have reached: a place to live with sovereignty, freedom, and dignity.”

Youssef Chahine Film Retrospective


	Artist Tamer Youssef, Egyptian Press Counselor Attiya Shakran, San Francisco State University assistant professor Mohammad Salama and Arab Film Festival executive director Michel Shehadeh at the Arab Cultural and Community Center March 5 (Staff photo E. Pasquini).

A retrospective of the works of legendary Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine (1926-2008) was co-presented by the Egyptian Press and Information Bureau and Alliance Française de San Francisco Jan. 26 through 31. The free screenings, held at the French academy’s theater at 1345 Bush St., included introductory remarks by David Giovacchini, bibliographer of Arts for the Islamic World and curator of Stanford University’s Middle East Film series, and Mohammad Salama, assistant professor of foreign languages and literature and Arab program coordinator at San Francisco State University.

Introducing the classic “Cairo Station,” Salama pointed out that, in addition to being a masterful director, Chahine was also an extraordinary actor. “If there is an Oscar to be given for one of the most spectacular performances ever,” he said, “it is to Chahine for his role as the demented Kinawi in this film.”

Set in Cairo’s main railway station, the 76-minute 1958 masterpiece is a microcosm of Egyptian society in the years following the 1952 revolution. A newsstand proprietor, porters, lemonade salesladies, a union organizer, religious clerics, and well-heeled Egyptians traveling to the cosmopolitan port city of Alexandria, all intertwine in a gripping drama, at times violent with sexual overtones, but also with comedic moments.

Also screened during the weeklong event were Chahine’s “Destiny,” “Alexandria Why,” “An Egyptian Story,” “Alexandria Again,” and “Nasser Saleh Eldin.”

Egyptian Cultural Days


The classical music ensemble Flowers of the Nile performs during Egyptian Cultural Days (Staff photo E. Pasquini).

Egyptian classical music ensemble Flowers of the Nile launched Egyptian Cultural Days with a well-received March 5 performance at San Francisco’s Arab Cultural and Community Center. The musicians delighted the guests with renditions of well-known classic vocals, as well as their unique original instrumentals composed by the group’s keyboardist, Dr. Farouk Al-Deeb. Attiya Shakran, press counselor for San Francisco’s Egyptian Consulate, organized the Cultural Days events, which also featured presentations on March 13 and 19 by artists Tamer Youssef, Hassan Said and Ahmed Said.

King Tut’s Treasures Return to San Francisco


	(L-r) Dr. Reneé Dreyfus, curator of Ancient Art and Interpretation at San Francisco’s Fine Arts Museums (FAMSF), Egyptian Consul General to the Western United States Ambassador Hesham Elnakib, Diane B. Wilsey, president of the FAMSF Board of Trustees, and John E. Buchanan, Jr., director of FAMSF (Staff photo E. Pasquini).

After a 30-year absence, Egypt’s Tutankhamun is returning to San Francisco amid a fanfare fit for a king—even a boy-king. The June 27 opening of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” at the de Young Museum will provide art lovers, Egyptophiles, and especially a new generation of children, the opportunity to view firsthand the exquisite treasures of the young 18th dynasty monarch. Since ancient Egyptian history is a required component of the sixth-grade curriculum according to California state school standards, beginning in October, Mondays have been reserved for school visits to the blockbuster.

“King Tut continues to be a cultural phenomenon,” curator Reneé Dreyfus told exhibition committee members March 11. “The reason I have been so passionate about this exhibition is first and foremost the quality of the objects all coming from Cairo.” More than 130 unique artifacts from Tut’s tomb and other ancient sites, all more than 3,000 years old, will be on view until March 28, 2010, including the gold diadem found on his head when his tomb was opened and an elaborate bejeweled pectoral necklace.

The exhibition was organized by National Geographic Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, in coordination with Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. For additional information and tickets visit the Web site, <www.tutsanfrancisco.org> or call (415) 750-3600.

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.