DOJ May Skirt Court Order on Interrogation Documents, Go Generic

By GottaLaff

We've all seen what a few disclosures about torture can do. They were revelatory, were they not? More are due out soon, but oh, wait a minute, er... well...

The Obama administration may circumvent the spirit of a judge’s order to disclose hundreds of documents relating to the CIA’s Bush-era interrogation program, delivering instead generic descriptions of the documents and legal arguments for continued nondisclosure. [...]

On July 20, Judge Allen Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the government needed to complete a review of the documents for declassification in response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Monday, Aug. 31.

My original post on more CIA documents coming out Monday is here. Seems there's a glitch:

But after The Washington Independent reported on the forthcoming disclosure, an administration official who insisted on anonymity emailed to say the report was inaccurate. Asked if there would be any disclosures on Monday, the official responded, “Nope.”

Oh. Hm. Damn.

Hellerstein, however, ordered in July that the government had the option of submitting a so-called “Vaughn declaration,” a FOIA term detailing, as Hellerstein wrote, legal reasons “setting forth the justification for withholding the information.” [...] Hellerstein’s office, which declined to comment on the record, said the judge’s ruling from July 21 was still in effect and the Justice Department had yet to file any motions to extend the deadline for disclosure. [...]

The ACLU said late on Friday afternoon that it expected to receive a Vaughn declaration on Monday and not the documents themselves. “This past week, the Obama administration released documents that shed some much-needed light on theCIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation program,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national-security project. “Some of the most crucial documents, though, are still being withheld. The documents that the CIA is required to review for possible release by Monday would, if released, fill in some of the remaining gaps in the public record.”

Rachel Myers, a representative for the ACLU, said the organization expects to continue litigating to receive the still-withheld documents.

I'll just sit over here and wait, if nobody minds. I won't be in the way.