CIA Again Delays Release of Agency Watchdog's Torture Report

By GottaLaff

Last week they said it would be this week. This week they say it will be next week. Via Jason Leopold:

For the second time in a week, the Justice Department told a federal Judge the CIA needs more time to review an inspector general’s report on the Bush administration’s torture program before deciding whether any of the contents can be released.

In a letter Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, the Justice Department said the CIA expects to complete it’s review of the voluminous report by July 1 and at that time will alert the court whether the full report or some of the findings can be turned over the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request to gain access to CIA Inspector General John Helgerson report into the Bush administration’s torture program. [...]

But in a court filing last week, Lev Dassin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Hellerstein the agency needed another week to “make a final determination as to what additional information, if any, may be disclosed from the report."

On Friday, Dassin said “the government now intends to complete it’s re-review [of the report] by July 1, 2009.”

Additionally, Dassin said the CIA also needs additional time to process the 35 classified Department of Defense documents dealing with specific torture methods used against so-called high-value detainees before deciding whether those documents or anything contained in the materials can be disclosed.

The CIA also expects to complete it’s review in that matter by July 1.

I'll be glued to my computer on July 1. No I won't, I'll be out of town. Well, I'll be glued to somebody else's computer then.

Heavily redacted portions of Helgerson’s report were released to the American Civil Liberties Union in May 2008 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, but the ACLU appealed the Bush administration’s extensive deletions and the Obama administration agreed to respond to that appeal by Friday.

As with other recent battles over openness, the CIA is opposing any significant release of new information arguing that it would jeopardize sources and methods. President Barack Obama will have to decide whether to overrule CIA objections as he did in April when he released four Justice Department memos justifying torture.

However, more recently – in May and June – Obama has sided with U.S. officials wanting to keep evidence of detainee abuse away from the public.

One of the problems is, some of that information can be used to clear detainees like Fayiz al-Kandari, or at least clarify the so-called charges against them.

The ACLU’s appeal of the redactions from Helgerson’s report will test whether Obama’s retreat on openness includes concealing evidence of homicides.

In her 2008 book The Dark Side and in an earlier investigative report for The New Yorker, reporter Jane Mayer wrote that Helgerson was investigating at least three deaths of prisoners held by the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I posted on the deaths at Bagram here.

There were also questions whether Helgerson’s critical report prompted bureaucratic retaliation. In October 2007, former CIA Director Michael Hayden ordered an investigation into Helgerson's office, focusing on internal complaints that the inspector general was on "a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention program."

If Obama more fully declassifies Helgerson’s report, the new information also might undercut Cheney’s claim that the harsh interrogation of "high-value" detainees produced valuable intelligence, thwarted pending terrorist plots against the United States and saved "hundreds of thousands of lives."

In addition to showing the inconclusive nature of the value of the intelligence gleaned through torture, the report will likely show that Helgerson warned top CIA officials that the interrogation techniques administered to detainees might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture.

Again, let's hope the report is finally released, and let's double hope that it doesn't look like this:

If you'd like to scroll through every post I've written on this subject, most of them eye-openers, please go here. That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

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