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U.S. Supreme Court Says You Can't Sue Other Nations or Foreign Corporations for Torturing You Either
From Bloomberg:
Torture Suits Against Companies Blocked by Top U.S. Court
By Greg StohrThe U.S. Supreme Court limited the reach of a law that protects American citizens from torture in other countries, ruling that victims can sue only individuals, not organizations or corporations.The justices unanimously threw out a suit filed against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization by the relatives of Azzam Rahim, an American allegedly tortured and murdered in the West Bank during the 1990s.
The ruling is a prelude to a dispute the court will take up in its next term, when it will use a case involving Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) to consider the scope of a similar law that applies to non-citizens, the Alien Tort Statute.
Multinational companies have faced dozens of suits under the two laws accusing them of playing roles in human rights violations, environmental wrongdoing and labor abuses. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Unocal Corp., Chevron Corp. (CVX), Ford Motor Co. (F) and KBR Inc. (KBR) have all been sued.
In the Palestinian case, the central issue was a provision in the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act that authorizes suits against “an individual” engaged in torture. The Supreme Court today upheld a lower court by saying that language excludes corporations or organizations such as the PLO and Palestinian Authority.
“The text of the TVPA convinces us that Congress did not extend liability to organizations, sovereign or not,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court. “There are no doubt valid arguments for such an extension. But Congress has seen fit to proceed in more modest steps in the act.”
Alien Tort Statute
The ruling doesn’t necessarily dictate how the court will rule on the Alien Tort Statute, which doesn’t include a similar reference to “an individual.”
The high court heard arguments on both statutes in February, in each case focusing on whether individuals alone could be sued. A week later, the justices ordered a second hearing in the Alien Tort Statute case to consider arguments that the law can’t be applied overseas.
A ruling on that issue would potentially impose more sweeping limits on lawsuits, shielding corporate officers as well as the companies themselves. The justices will take up the matter in the nine-month term that starts in October.
The case acted on today is Mohamad v. Rajoub, 11-88. The Alien Tort Statute case is Kiobel v. Shell Petroleum, 10-1491.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net
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Class laws in class deformed civil societies reflect a crippled, deformed, social principle, the definition of all class tendencies. This deformed tendency, class principle, can only deteriorate, degenerate over time, with confused, despotic, totalitarian outcomes which explains how all class parties , all class ideologies, all class politicians and their class hierarchies/instiutions morph into corruption, fascism, where the rule of CLASS LAWS, is itself destroyed by duplicity, hypocrisy, leaving only the singular totalitarian outcome. Duplicitous judicial standards finally implode into Fascist Laws, police totalitarianism, and judicial Nazis, judicial fascists who capitulate to the Executive, Fuhrer principle, and a fascist presidential leadership, allowing the Attourney General, Justice department to enable Fascism, Police state and criminal coverups. Its own investigative police agencies, like the FBI and CIA HAVE BEEN DEEPLY IMPLICATED in lies, crimes, police tyranny, all of which would have put ordinary citizens in prison, for these very same crimes.
The Pentagon, CIA, FBI, Justice Department, President, Congress, Nato, Israeli class/empire politicians ROUTINELY LIE to prop up Fascist Empire and Fascist Capitalism, "triangulating", class/empire whoring, co opting, inverting social power into FASCIST POWER. Here is but another case to make the case that class deformed civil societies, over time, degenerate through historical class cycles, from crippled social corruption, class despotism into Fascism itself. It includes Fascist Zionists, who profit by trading, stealing intelligence from even these corrupt POLICE agencies, and then cover up for Fascist Zionism, to hide their own Fascism, criminality. Their duplicitous support for War criminals has produced a corrupt Eric Holder , FBI , Justice officials, and the White House itself. They should all be held accountable for these crimes and their Fascist corporatism, Fascist Empire, and Fascist austerity, Fascist Fiscalism that enables the rich and powerful to become thugs. Innocent people, whistleblower are prosecuted by THE FASCIST OBAMA, FASCIST JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, while War criminals, real traitors, are protected by these Despots:
DOJ Confirms Previously-Denied File Said to Implicate US Officials in Nuclear Espionage by Erik Larson
http://www.opednews.com/articles/DOJ-Confirms-Previously-De-by-erik-larson-120413-864.html
Excerpt:
"In a March 12, 2012 FOIA appeal response, the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) implicitly acknowledged the existence of FBI File 203A-WF-210023, which FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has said contains evidence of top US officials' complicity in the trafficking of nuclear secrets, arms and drugs, in addition to bribery, blackmail, money-laundering and obstruction of investigation into 9/11. In 2008, the Sunday Times of London reported that the FBI, in response to a different FOIA request, denied the existence of the file....(IF AN ORDINARY PERSON LIES TO THE FBI IT IS A FELONY, YEAR IN PRISON--social change comment)
The January 20, 2008 report by the Sunday Times, FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft, briefly summarized Edmonds' allegations about the file in this way: "She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia." According to an article by former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi, the file name 203A-WF-210023 indicates it's an "FBI Washington Field Office, Counterintelligence Division, Turkish Unit File." ..... (WHO ARE THEY PROTECTING?? ISRAELI-AMERIKAN-ZIONISTS/FASCISTS, real traitors--social change comment)
In a 2009 deposition under oath, Edmonds affirmed her allegations as reported by the Times, as well as testifying to her knowledge of other, related, crimes and corruption. This deposition was also ignored by US MSM. (Corporate, so called mainstream media helped coverup, refused to report the truth in their attempt to hold on to the biased fascist proaganda for ISRAEL.---social change)
FIRST THE DOCUMENTS DON'T EXIST, AND NOW THAT THEY EXIST ARE CLASSIFIED, SHOWING THAT CRIMINALS CLASSIFY THEIR
CRIMINALITY/FASCISM:
Continuing..."The information in FBI File 203A-WF-210023 is classified: why?...However, Edmonds has said that "by the end of January 2002" the investigation was shut down. (ISN'T THAT THE SAME WAY OBAMA SHUT DOWN THE SPANISH INVESTIGATION OF BUSH OFFICIALS?-(social change comment)
....Assuming Edmonds' allegations are factual, this cover up is itself is potentially criminal and also a national security concern, in addition to the other crimes and the failure of the US government to hold those involved accountable. It seems likely the national security interests of the US republic would be better served, at this point, by public hearings, testimony under oath and disclosure of records, than by silence and continued suppression of information pertaining to this file. (PROSECUTE THESE FASCISTS, ISRAELI/AMERIKAN OFFICIALS----social change)
Conclusion
While disclosure's important, it isn't needed to know what needs to be done about FBI File 203A-WF-210023. The decade-long suppression of information concerning this investigation -- aided and abetted by Establishment politicians, appointees, bureaucrats and media -- is reason enough to withdraw support from them, and to support alternatives. But, this is just one of many examples of how the legitimacy of the US Establishment has been undermined by its own corruption. If the US is to be a republic in more than name only, the people need to check the concentration of power in the hands of those who would be unaccountable. Hopefully, the people will act before some loose nuke comes home to roost. Considering that Establishment politicians and media used, and continue to use, 9/11 as justification for foreign interventions and a domestic security state, it can be expected that a nuclear attack would likewise be used as a pretext for further militarism and erosion of liberty."
TRANSLATION: SAME CONCLUSION I OFTEN MAKE. ALL ESTABLISHMENT, CLASS POLITICIANS HAVE DEGENERATED, INCLUDING
LIBERAL/CLASS/EMPIRE WHORES INTO FASCIST TOTALITARIANS and, therefore, the need to call out internationally an END OF ALL
CLASS PARTIES, ALL CLASS POLITICIANS WHO HAVE RIGGED THE SYSTEM INTO A GLOBAL FASCIST MATRIX. SUPPORT ONLY
GREEN/SOCIAL PARTIES AND FIRE CONGRESS CLASS POLITICIANS AND THEIR CORPORATE PROPAGANDISTS, MEDIA WHORES.