The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today…The lawyers argued that "the very subject matter" of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president's state secrets privilege…The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. [subsidiary] accused of complicity in the men's mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.