A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that accused a San Jose flight-planning company of helping the CIA transport prisoners to overseas dungeons for interrogation and torture, agreeing with the Bush administration that the case risks exposure of state secrets.

U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose said he had no authority to decide whether, as three current prisoners and two freed inmates alleged, Jeppesen International Trip Planning colluded with the CIA to violate their rights. The suit instead must be dismissed at the outset because its subject is a secret program that cannot be examined in a public proceeding, Ware said.

Public and confidential declarations filed by CIA Director Michael Hayden show that "proceeding with this case would jeopardize national security and foreign relations," Ware said.

"At the core of plaintiffs' case against defendant Jeppesen are 'allegations' of covert U.S. military or CIA operations in foreign countries against foreign nationals - clearly a subject matter which is a state secret," the judge said.

It was the third straight ruling by a federal judge to deny legal redress to alleged victims of the so-called extraordinary rendition program, in which terrorism suspects have been transported to countries beyond the reach of U.S. law for detention and interrogation.

The previous suits were filed against the government by men who said they were mistaken for terrorists, flown overseas and tortured, then released, without apologies or compensation, when U.S. officials discovered their errors.

Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said he expects to appeal Ware's ruling.

"These kinds of decisions give the CIA immunity to violate the most fundamental rights without any judicial accountability," he said. "The CIA is not trying to protect state secrets. It's trying to protect itself from embarrassment."

Jeppesen, a subsidiary of a company owned by Boeing Co., provides a variety of flight-planning services, including routing, fueling and arranging ground transportation. A Council of Europe report in June identified the company as the CIA's aviation services provider, and a court declaration by a former employee quoted a Jeppesen director as telling staffers in August 2006 that the company handled "torture flights."

The suit accused Jeppesen of arranging at least 70 flights since 2001, including those of the five plaintiffs. Three of the men, still in prison, were tortured in Morocco and Egypt, and the other two were abused at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan and later freed, the suit said.

After the government intervened in the case and moved for dismissal, the ACLU argued that the rendition program is not a secret, noting that President Bush and other top officials have openly defended the program and that Hayden, the CIA director, has provided numerous details in public appearances.

But Ware said crucial elements of the case - Jeppesen's alleged relationship with the CIA and the agency's cooperation with foreign governments - have not been publicly confirmed or denied by the government and can't be litigated without an unacceptable risk of harm to national security.