Internal Government Report To Detail CIA Interrogations, Secret Detention

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is delaying by a week its release of an internal CIA report on the agency's Bush-era secret detention and interrogation program.

The roughly 150-page report was expected to be released Friday, but a CIA spokesman said government officials were still poring through the documents.

"We continue to review the document to see what additional material can be released in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act," said CIA spokesman George Little.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the release of all documents relating to the CIA's interrogation program, said it was disappointed by the delay.

The legal organization has been waiting for the release of a less-censored version of the report for more than a year. In the version released in May 2008, all but a few paragraphs and individual words were blacked out.

"We can only hope that this delay is a sign that the forces of transparency within the Obama administration are winning over the forces of secrecy and that the report will ultimately be released with minimal redactions," ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said in a statement Friday.

Singh also said the agency "should not be permitted to use national security as a pretext for suppressing evidence of its own unlawful conduct," adding that "the American people have a right to know the full truth about the torture program that was authorized in their name."

Little called Singh's characterization of the CIA's program "both wrong and offensive."

The review by the inspector general for the CIA was completed in May 2004.

John L. Helgerson, the now-retired CIA inspector who spearheaded the investigation, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the report is "a comprehensive look at everything the agency had been doing related to detention and interrogation."

Helgerson said his review "found a great deal running very well. We also found things to be concerned about," Helgerson said. The investigation was conducted in response to concerns expressed by agency employees about the program, he added.

Helgerson said a large portion of the report addresses CIA activities, sources and methods that should remain classified.

The IG review cast doubt on the effectiveness of the harsh interrogation methods employed by CIA interrogators, according to references to the report contained in a slew of Bush-era Justice Department memos declassified this spring by the Justice Department.

Those interrogation methods included waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that President Barack Obama recently pronounced a form of torture.

Comments

[ObamAtomic]

GOPers are war criminals, their supporters and apologists members are
a divisive force on America.

[ObamAtomic]

How soon? Not backpedaling at the last hour?

[MikeRdg]

This is the exact quote from Steve Benson

“-the attitude in certain quarters of the Benson family, conveyed to me as a 4th-grader on the day he was assassinated, that President John F. Kennedy deserved to be killed”--- Steve Benson

[rich misty]

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/04/13/090413ta_talk_mayer

I am reposting this link ^ by author Jane Mayer

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103606406

Interview ^ with the author of "Torture Team" which mapped out the criminal cases currently in progress in the International Courts.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Inside-Terror-American/dp/0385526393

Mayer's book ^

FYI Jane Mayer can be contacted thru the New Yorker. I had several questions which she was able to
answer. This case is serious. The Judge who popped Pinochet is described as a "bulldog" and he is not happy with BushCo for spoiling his terr0rism cases. Several independant investigators have contributed material on the Bush torture crimes; as a result the BushCo case file was opened with more documentation than was collected on Pinochet after his investigation was completed.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff05072009.html - Impeaching the "Torture Judge"

[rich misty]

http://www.torturingdemocracy.org/

From the National Security Archive @ George Washington University

Criminal Case Evidence ^ used by the International Courts

http://www.bushcommission.org/

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testifies on how the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody originated at the highest levels (audio) (text).

Criminal Case Evidence ^ use by the International Courts

http://www.tortureteam.com/

Torture Team website ^ The author, bio below, did his own independant research into the Bush torture policy and his documentation became the roadmap for criminal prosecutions currently underway in the International Courts.

http://www.amazon.com/Torture-Team-Rumsfelds-Betrayal-American/dp/0230603904

^ The book is now available in paperback in the US

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05092008/profile3.html

PBS Profile of the author ^

[rich misty]

"tillered". is that like "william long'ed"?

No Tillered is a planned as.sas.sin­.ation by organized right wing Republican terr0r cells like Operation Rescue.

[restoretheroar]

and how would you define "willaim long'ed"?

[rich misty]

Way off topic, not even closely related to this thread.

[rich misty]

You know it would be really, really nice if Republicans would just admit some basic facts and tell Americans they are sorry, and they they themselves will work towards taking care of their problems.

But Republicans never, ever, apologize. When caught and confronted, they run away and hide in order to protect their fragile and corrupted egos. When they come back they rewrite history, reinvent themselves, and tell you right to your face that it is all your fault.

That is just the way Conservatism works, it is criminal ideology that knows no limits, and no shame.

[restoretheroar]

did kennedy apologize yet?

[Heavy]

The one that your party didn't shoooo0t? Or the two you did?

[rich misty]

Well, I know how much you hate Kennedy. Your party is just sorry he did not get to as.sas.sin­.ated him like his two brothers I guess.

[restoretheroar]

i don't hate kennedy. i heart him more than john edwards. they are special kinds of creepy. i love how the libs fawn all over them.

[rich misty]

I don't fawn over anybody... I am a former Republican, who worked for the RNC for a number of years. I heard people in the party saying they wished that Kennedy would go like his brothers.

I found talk like that to be extreme... Very extreme... And it changed the way I looked at Kennedy. No matter that he was intoxicated and had an accident in which a young woman died... Two of his brothers were Tillered, and after what I heard from my Republican co-workers in the RNC...

Then I find out Laura Bush did basically the same thing...

Accidents happen. So does drinking and driving. I feel that he, and his family, have paid sufficient price.

[restoretheroar]

wrong again rich misty-----­----------

As Hamilton Action for Social Change has noted "Under the Nuremberg Principles, you have an obligation NOT to follow the orders of leaders who are preparing crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. We are all bound by what U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert K. Jackson declared in 1948: [T]he very essence of the [Nuremberg] Charter is that individuals have intentional duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state." At the Tokyo War Crimes trial, it was further declared "[A]nyone with knowledge of illegal activity and an opportunity to do something about it is a potential criminal under international law unless the person takes affirmative measures to prevent commission of the crimes."

[sviolette]

It's called obstruction of justice. It is a crime to not report a crime. If you know of a bank robbery and who committed it you have to report it.

[restoretheroar]

exactly. you're really learning some good stuff here today.

[rich misty]

Republican criminals posting Nuremberg in order to attack their enemies.

Ohhh the irony coming from a polictical party whose senior adminstration officials have open criminal cases in the International Courts.

[restoretheroar]

"[A]nyone with knowledge of illegal activity and an opportunity to do something about it is a potential criminal under international law unless the person takes affirmative measures to prevent commission of the crimes."

****************

try to focus. are you saying this statement doesn't apply to pelosi and powell?

[restoretheroar]

May 27, 2009
by the writing team at World Can't Wait.org

1. Barack Obama did NOT end torture.

Many people think that, upon taking office, Barack Obama ended torture. This is just not true. Under Obama, the U.S has continued to torture prisoners at Guantanamo, where more than 200 detainees are still being held without charge or trial.

According to a February 2009 report by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Guantanamo guards routinely subject detainees to vicious beatings, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, suffocation, repeated use of tear gas, and the force-feeding of tubes through the nasal passages of hunger strikers. Much of this torture is committed by Guantanamo's Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) teams, which CCR president Michael Ratner has described as the "black shirts of Guantanamo­."
******************
so if it still goes on, will BO have to stand trial too?

[sviolette]

Yes!!

[restoretheroar]

good. finally some clarity. so if you agree about that why not pelosi and powell?

[rich misty]

If you can prove he ordered and approved a program of torture, or even was responsible for the torture of a single person... He would be a criminal in my eyes.

But you have to prove that torture not only occurred, but that he ordered it.

[restoretheroar]

if he is the commander in chief and t0rture continues at gitmo he is responsible by default. no?

[rich misty]

So this is the Republican Platform for 2010:

Tiller the President, homoerotic torture, pedo-philia, torture kiddie porn, obstruction of government, global warming denial, evolution denial, cut education and funding for child nutrition, and tax cuts to the top 2%...

And they will be taking your kids out of school without parental permission or supervision to indoctrinate them with criminal ideology.

http://washingtonindependent.com/15946/mccain-camp-buses-in-4000-kids-for-ohio-rally

http://xs102.xs.to/xs102/06242/ferengi-ethics.jpg

Even Ferengi have better ethics than Republicans.

[restoretheroar]

if it's "probable", which it should seem obvious to most people, that pelosi, powell, goss, rockefeller, roberts, tenet, rice, graham, shelby, etc, knew about eit's and their use or suspected use, why am i the bad guy for wanting to include them in the round up starting with bush/cheney?

[rich misty]

Is an eit like an idgit Republican?

[sviolette]

Why do you keep referring to eit? Call it what it is, torture.

These people may have known about the secret briefings but the CIA purposely took bad notes or none at all. How do you know what was said in those secret briefs?

The word secret means that they cannot say what was said in those briefs.

[restoretheroar]

you said it all. "these people may have known...." so why not put them ALL under oath?

why cherry pick the republicans?

[rich misty]

Conservatism is a criminal ideology that knows no limits and no shame.

http://www.republicanoffenders.com/

The long list of maligned, misunderstood, unfairly accused, politically targeted, completely innocent..­. Compassionate Conservative Family Values Republican Heroes.

[lastmanstanding99]

we have lost our way, have a trial for these people. Convict or let go. No one should be tortured and be held in purgutory forever. I'm sure some of these people,yes,people are innocent. If you can, watch "Taxi to the Darkside" Very well made movie about all this it is on HBO. This all would of never happened if you voted in this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

[rich misty]

http://www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bush-flightsuit.jpg
http://www.hermes-press.com/bush_kiss.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/3/P/bush_unclesam.jpg
http://files.blog-city.com/files/J05/85988/p/f/godlovesyouiii6ir.gif

Bububuuuut!!! Republicans still love and support their cartoon hero and arab mansex affectionado. They can't give up binky.

[rich misty]

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/22/new-polls-indicate-republicans-favor-torture-gulags/

[rich misty]

But if they encounter any parts they don't like... Prosecute Democrats for them.

[rich misty]

See below... Now it's Clinton's fault..... Republicans are pathetics.

[restoretheroar]

He said that he was aware that enhanced methods of interrogation were being considered in the aftermath of 9/11 but said he was "not privy" to the memos of legal documents that were being written.

"I think it was unfortunate but we had a system that kept that in a very compartmented manner. And so I was apart that these enhanced interrogation techniques were being considered. And they were judged not to be torture at the time," he said.

He argued that when "facing the possibility of a 9/11, you had to give some -- some flexibility to the CIA," noting that these methods were stopped under the Bush administration.

"It's easy now in the cold light of day to look back and say, you shouldn't have done any of that," Powell said.

*****************

above from CBS bob schieffer (most liberal guy i could find)

[rich misty]

The September attacks never would have happened had not Bush, Cheney, and Rice, ignored strong and repeated warnings of a clear and present danger.

Then their excuse afterwards: We panicked

Republicans should never be permitted in positions of authority in our government again, at the very, very, least... They are grossly incompetent.

[restoretheroar]

does clinton need any blame for not doing anything after the 93 attacks and letting n*ne elev*n brew?

are you conceding that powell knew about eit's?

[rich misty]

Why Republicans blamed Clinton 8 months into office... After Republicans were warned, and ignored the _repeated_ memos stating there was a clear and present danger of attack.

So of course Americans understand that it was all Clinton's fault, all the time.

Remember, Clinton got a beejay!!!!

[nycwerewolf]

So I'm very upset with Huffpo right now. I posted a very pro-CIA comment and I guess they didn't like that. Not cool to censor people.

[rich misty]

According to restoretheroar: Doug Cassel should be charged with War Crimes because he clearly knew that unlawful orders existed back in 2005.

Correct?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo

On December 1, 2005, Yoo appeared in a debate in Chicago with University of Notre Dame professor Doug Cassel. During the debate Cassel asked Yoo, "If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?", to which Yoo replied "No treaty." Cassel followed up with "Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...", to which Yoo replied "I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that."

[restoretheroar]

wrong. i'm advocating getting all of the people involved, which includes pelosi and powell and others, while you are bl00d thirsty only for bush/cheney. no?

[sviolette]

So you are also advocating to get the CIA and civilian interrogators involved too?

[rich misty]

You have no evidence that Powell, Pelosi, or Doug Cassel were actually involved.

I have a great deal of evidence, including Cheney's own admission in public, that they both ordered, and controlled the war crimes policy.