Zhao v. An Unknown Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency et al, No. 4:2009cv01963 - Document 23 (S.D. Tex. 2010)

Court Description: OPINION on Dismissal.(Signed by Judge Lynn N. Hughes) Parties notified.(ghassan, )

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Q a n Ibrahim Zhao, Plaintiff, versus Civil Action H-09,1963 Unknown CIA Officer, et al., Defendants. Opinion on Dismissal Qian Ibrahim Zhao says that an officer of the Central IntelligenceAgency stopped him on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 2004. Zhao says that the agent searched him and questioned him for four hours. He also says that the agent took his Chinese passport, camera, video tapes, notebook, and cellular-telephone contacts. He has sued the government and this agent for a variety of legal theories: unreasonable search and seizure under the Constitution, slander, due process, the Torture Victim Protection Act, and the Alien Tort Statute. The statute of limitations has expired on Zhao's civil-rights claims. Not specified in the federal statute, the limit in a civilerights suit is drawn from the forum state's period for personal-injury torts. Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235, 239 (1989). InTexas, that is two years. A civil action for malicious prosecution must be brought within two years of its accrual. An action for libel must be brought within one year. Zhao's events were in 2004. He sued inJune of 2009. All of these claims are timeebarred. Civ. Prac GRem Code 16.002(a) 5 16.003. The Alien Tort Statute says that "district courts shall have originaljurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." 28 U.S.C. 5 1350 (2006). The statute applies to a few circumstances: offenses against ambassadors, violations of safe conduct, and piracy. Sosa v. Alvarez,Machain, 542 U.S. 692,720,749 (2004). Zhao is not the type of person protected in those situations; he lacks standing. Being arrested and having his possessions confiscated does not violate the law of nations or a treaty of the United States. Also, Zhao was detained in the United States.

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