The Washington Independent » Alvin Hellerstein

Even More CIA Documents to Be Disclosed Monday

Spencer Ackerman — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:13:59 +0000

The deluge continues. Word comes that in response to pending requests from the American Civil Liberties Union, another tranche of CIA documents about Bush-era interrogations and detentions could be released as early as Monday. That’s on top this week’s release of the 2004 CIA inspector general’s report on torture; two additional documents requested by former Vice President Dick Cheney on the efficacy of torture; and a pile of additional Justice Department memoranda on the legality of all of this.

Expected Monday, as the result of Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s order: A previously-disclosed-but-redacted-to-the-point-of-uselessness presidential order from Sept. 17, 2001 authorizing the CIA to set up unacknowledged detention facilities around the world. The CIA first acknowledged the existence of that “black site” authorization in 2006. Chances are the document will remain heavily redacted, and ACLU attorneys indicate that they aren’t expecting to learn that much from it. But still.

Aside from that order, there are just a few more disclousres, like about 129 documents from the closed CIA inspector general files, including interview reports, cables, emails and more. And then about 138 documents from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that the CIA insisted on classifying. You know, light Labor Day reading.

Update: Oops. Apparently the presidential directive was never actually disclosed. Just acknowledged. My apologies.

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ACLU to Obama: Don’t Be Lame and Redact CIA IG Torture Report

Spencer Ackerman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:59:00 +0000

As I will note in a forthcoming piece, Monday is the deadline set by a federal judge for the Obama administration to release a much-anticipated CIA inspector general report about the agency’s detentions and interrogations practices. Only the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to get the report released, has had to endure four different delays in obtaining the report, thanks to the Obama administration. That doesn’t exactly breed trust, so ACLU attorney Amrit Singh released this statement as something of a preemptive strike against redacting the report too heavily:

“President Obama made a commitment to transparency and accountability, and it’s time for his administration to make good on that promise,” said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. “The CIA Inspector General report is a crucial document that would shed light on the origins and scope of the CIA’s torture program. The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name.”

GOP Senators to Holder: Don’t Investigate Torture

Spencer Ackerman — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:02:07 +0000

You know what Monday is, right? That’s the date, ordered by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, for the government to disclose the CIA inspector general’s 2004 report into the agency’s torture apparatus to the American Civil Liberties Union in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. That document, which according to reports is filled with grisly tales of abuse, is reportedly prompting Attorney General Eric Holder to consider a special prosecutor — but only to investigate low-level CIA interrogators who went “beyond” the legal guidance issued to the agency by CIA and Bush administration lawyers. Liberals have been pretty dissatisfied by the idea that the guy who waterboarded a detainee with — to steal a memorable phrase that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) used at Netroots Nation on Saturday — 8 oz. of water would be investigated but the lawyer or official who said it was OK to waterboard someone with 3 oz. of water has nothing to worry about.

Of course, that’s way too much for nine GOP senators, including Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who, as Politico’s Manu Raju reports, sent a letter to Holder insisting that if he investigates anyone for torture then it’s only a matter of time before the next terrorist attack.

[T]here is little doubt that further investigations and potential prosecutions of CIA officials would chill future intelligence activities. The intelligence community will be left to wonder whether actions taken today in the interest of national security will be subject to legal recriminations when the political winds shift…

I’m sure I can speak for Daphne when I say I can’t wait for Monday’s release of the CIA report.

Judge Orders 2004 CIA Inspector General Report on Torture Released by Aug. 24

Spencer Ackerman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:00:59 +0000

So the Justice Department got most of what it wanted here. Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled this morning that the CIA will have until August 24 to release a declassified version of the 2004 CIA inspector general’s report on torture, a report that documents abuse so disturbing it reportedly brought Attorney General Eric Holder to the point of authorizing a torture prosecutor. Two weeks ago, the department filed paperwork, contested by the American Civil Liverties Union, to delay a long-scheduled release of the report by August 31.

ACLU Still Waiting on Judge Hellerstein for CIA Torture Document Decision

Spencer Ackerman — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:26:13 +0000

Just a brief no-news update. American Civil Liberties Union national security chief Jameel Jaffer told me on Monday that he hoped to hear from federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein early this week about whether the judge agrees with the Justice Department that the Obama administation ought to get until August 31 to release a CIA inspector general report about “enhanced interrogation.” The ACLU is … still waiting to hear from Hellerstein, I’m told.

Next Steps in Getting That CIA Inspector General Report

Spencer Ackerman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:43:14 +0000

The 2004 report into the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program” from then-Inspector General John Helgerson is becoming something of a white whale for the ACLU. Although the civil liberties group had reached an agreement earlier this year with the Obama administration to release the report — considered a “holy grail” of information about how the program worked – the administration received three reprieves from disclosing it from Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a federal district court judge in New York, and on Thursday requested a fourth. That’s proven too much for the ACLU. On Thursday, its lawyers wrote to Hellerstein to get him to deny the Justice Department’s request not to disclose the report until August 31.

Now, says Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s national-security director, all the organization can do is wait to hear what Hellerstein rules. The holiday weekend essentially called a pause in court business for Hellerstein. Jaffer says the ACLU hopes “to hear within a day or two” from Hellerstein about what the judge makes of the Justice Department request, and will proceed from there.

Government Puts Off Producing Key OLC Memos on Harsh Interrogation Techniques

Daphne Eviatar — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:57:09 +0000

The Justice Department on Thursday again delayed disclosure of three critical legal memos written by Steven Bradbury, then a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), that reportedly authorized the the CIA to torture prisoners. This is at least the second time that the government has postponed responding to a federal judge — who originally ordered the government to either produce the memos or justify withholding them by last October — in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The disclosure is reportedly a subject of heated debate within the Justice Department.

In his latest ruling on the matter, U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York had given the Justice Department an extension until Thursday to disclose the memos or explain its refusal. The ACLU yesterday said that it agreed to the government’s request to extend the deadline in exchange for commitments by the government that high-level officials will consider releasing not only the Bradbury memos written in May 2005, but also an August 2002 memo written by Jay S. Bybee, then head of OLC. The Bush administration had refused to produce the Bybee memo.

“Collectively, these memos supplied the framework for an interrogation program that permitted the most barbaric forms of abuse, violated domestic and international law, alienated America’s allies and yielded information that was both unreliable and unusable in court,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, in a statement. “While we are disappointed that the Bradbury memos were not released today, we are optimistic that the extension will result in the release of information that would not otherwise have been available to the public.”

The release of these memos has been highly anticipated, in part because if they provide legal justifications for torture and other plainly illegal conduct, they could be used in future prosecutions of former Bush administration officials to claim that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel was used by senior Bush officials to provide legal cover for unlawful government conduct.

A “commission of inquiry,” proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and seen by many as a possible alternative to prosecution, is now considered unlikely to gain the necessary Congressional support.

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