Lawsuits (re: Interrogation Program) Force Disclosures by C.I.A. (by June 19)

Source: New York Times

Lawsuits Force Disclosures by C.I.A.

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: June 9, 2009

WASHINGTON — So far, President Obama has managed to curb Congressional calls for a national commission to investigate Bush administration detention policies. But Mr. Obama cannot control the courts, and lawsuits are turning out to be the force driving disclosures about brutal interrogations.

Mr. Obama’s decision in April to release legal opinions from the Bush administration on interrogation, which were sought in a lawsuit, has opened the door to the disclosure of other documents. That poses a problem for the Central Intelligence Agency as it tries to comply with Mr. Obama’s proclaimed policy of openness while preserving the secrecy that agency officials view as the foundation of intelligence collection.

In new responses to lawsuits, the C.I.A. has agreed to release information from two previously secret sources: statements by high-level members of Al Qaeda who say they have been mistreated, and a 2004 report by the agency’s inspector general questioning both the legality and the effectiveness of coercive interrogations.

The Qaeda prisoners’ statements, made at tribunals at the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were previously excised from transcripts of the proceedings, but they will be at least partly disclosed by this Friday, according to a court filing. The report by the inspector general, whose secret findings in April 2004 led to a suspension of the C.I.A. interrogation program, will be released by June 19, the Justice Department said in a letter to a federal judge in New York.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/us/politics/10intel.html?_r=2&hpw

(your picks are good, many 'on target' posts.
relevant, timely, important topics.
I'm now subscribing to the kpete news service.
keep posting, my man, and many thanks.)

lot of very intelligent informed women that keep us updated here. We are very underrepresented in the world of journalism and academic writing. Thanks Kpete. You always keep us informed!

DU is turning into a place where sex scandals and television show talent contests get more attention than revelations concerning our endangered guarantees of freedom. DU is becoming just a DUD.

how that went. It's like bonfires or hotel fires; they all start with a small spark.

established that the Watergate breakin was much more than a third rate burglary. .

I take your point, but it does not apply in the example tha you used. WAPO knew the story was huge.


The the first day of the hearings probably was boring, though. A lot of housekeeping type announcements and bloviating for the folks back home. (No C-Span or even cable back then so the opportunity to show off during televised hearings was a lot more infrequent.) Two different issues

I'll stick with the analogy though. It is early in the process, and many people don't realize the import yet.

There is a good Watergate timeline article somewhere.... very instructive.

are not posting, for one reason or another.

FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5303329

Coming Soon: Declassified Bush-Era Torture Memos
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball | NEWSWEEK
Published Mar 21, 2009


Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos ...

Because of an executive order signed by President Obama on Jan. 22 banning such aggressive tactics, deputies to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. concluded there was no longer any reason to keep the interrogation memos classified. But current and former intel officials pushed back, ....

The debate about torture ramped up again last week with an account in the New York Review of Books about a secret International Red Cross report that was delivered to the CIA in February 2007.

................

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RAW STORY: CIA reveals it has 3,000 pages of documents relating to destroyed interrogation tapes
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CIA_reveals_it_has_3000_pages_0320.html

The CIA says they incinerated the tapes ............

==========
CIA tapes show need for full investigation into war on terror
Posted: 03 March 2009 - http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18093


The destruction of almost 100 tapes containing potential evidence of torture and ill treatment of detainees held in secret detention by the CIA illustrates the urgent need for a full independent commission of inquiry into human rights abuses committed by the USA ..........

a whole new meaning