More Torture Docs Could Be Released Friday

Nick Baumann at Mother Jones reminds us that the Obama administration promised earlier this month to do its best to review about 224 more documents that might be responsive to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Freedom of Information Act longstanding requests for documents relating to the torture, abuse and death of detainees in U.S. custody.

Somehow, these documents had slipped through the cracks before, the administration acknowledged recently. That is, the Justice Department learned that they existed due to references to them in court filings made during the Bush administration. But Obama Justice officials just couldn’t find them. (The government’s detailed explanation of how this all happened can be found here.) The documents were apparently discovered in September, according to the government’s court filing, and sent to the CIA and other agencies for review. Depending on whether the contents turn out to be classified or can otherwise be held under the FOIA, we may see more torture-related documents released Friday.