(The Alien Tort Statute (28 USC 1350) allows a private action by an alien against a defendant for aiding and abetting a crime against the law of nations in a foreign country. For this purpose, the actus reus of aiding and abetting is providing assistance, encouragement, or moral support that has a substantial effect on the crimes. Assistance may take many forms, including providing computer services to help identify persons for persecution. To prove aiding and abetting, the plaintiff need not show that the aid, considered out of its context, was itself illegal, but only that the aid substantially assisted in the principal wrongdoer’s commission of the violation. The mens rea of aiding and abetting is knowledge that the aid will be used to commit the violation. The plaintiff is not required to show that the defendant’s purpose in lending the aid was to facilitate the violation. Corporations are proper defendants in Alien Tort Statute claims Here, the needed connection to the US was shown because Cisco allegedly directed, from California, its development of computer programs to aid China’s security agencies in identifying the plaintiff Falun Gong members for persecution. The Torture Victims Protection Act (28 USC 1350 note) likewise allows suit for aiding and abetting torture, but only against individual defendants, not corporations.)