State Secrets Breakthrough

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On Wednesday, a British court ruled that the British government must release evidence of torture in the case of Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed is also one of the plaintiffs in a US court case, Mohamed et. al. v. Jeppesen. Mohamed and several other men who allege they were subjected to “extraordinary rendition”—that is, sent to other countries to be tortured—are suing Jeppesen Dataplan, the Boeing subsidiary they say was used to “render” them. But the Obama and Bush administrations have invoked the controversial state secrets privilege to try to prevent the case from even being heard in US courts. The British decision blows a hole in that strategy. Here’s why: The UK court has ordered the British government to release, among other things, records of the US government informing the British that Mohamed was tortured. Marc Ambinder explains why that’s crucial:

[T]he government routinely insists on the distinction between public information and publicly confirmed information. That is—just because some bit of classified information is widely known does not mean that the government has acknowledged it. And only information that the government has acknowledged can beat, in US courts, a state secrets claim.

Now the plaintiffs have exactly what they need to beat the state secrets claim—an acknowledgement by the US government that Mohamed was illegally interrogated. That will have huge implications for the Jeppesen lawsuit.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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