Blogs and Stories
What's Missing from the CIA Docs
)
Larry Downing / Reuters
Why is the Obama administration using heavy, retro-Bush era blackouts in a newly released CIA report? John Sifton combs through hundreds of pages for clues about the spread of torture and the marquee names who okayed it six years ago.
The CIA and the Department of Justice on Monday issued a slew of Bush-era documents about the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. But it’s difficult to know what they say: Many key sections of the most important documents contain heavy redactions.
A quick review of the releases: First, the CIA released a copy of the long-awaited report of John Helgerson of the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General, focusing on CIA detention and interrogation issues. Second, the CIA released two “papers”—essentially internal CIA intelligence reports—discussing information supposedly obtained from the interrogation of CIA detainees. (Former Vice President Dick Cheney requested these documents be released earlier this year. He insists the documents will vindicate him by showing that the CIA program was vital and produced important information. From an initial reading, it appears Cheney’s hopes are misplaced.) Third, late on Monday, the Department of Justice released several documents from the Office of Legal Counsel, reauthorizing the use of the CIA program in 2006 and 2007.
Also late on Monday, the Department of Justice released several documents sent to OLC from the CIA in mid- to late 2004 describing how the CIA interrogation program worked in practice, containing new chilling details about how interrogators actually implemented the program on actual detainees. No doubt these new details will be hashed over in the coming days.
The biggest news Monday was the extent to which the Obama administration is keeping information about the CIA program secret.
The documents comprise hundreds of pages, and contain several new facts and revelations about CIA involvement in abusive detentions and interrogations.
Several new facts emerge in the OIG report. We learn, for instance, that CIA interrogators working in the “High Value Detainee” (HVD) program at times went beyond even the permissive boundaries set by the Bush-era White House: They threatened detainees with death, conducted mock executions, threatened to rape detainees’ mothers, and kill their children. Attorney General Eric Holder has now appointed a special prosecutor to investigate these excesses. (It seems the Obama administration is sticking to its guns about not investigating “authorized” techniques.)
• Gerald Posner: Don't Dump Panetta
• Big Fat Story: Unraveling the CIA ScandalThere are also disturbing details about how the program began. The report confirms earlier allegations that the CIA started cooking up its torture tactics in late 2001, before any HVDs had even been captured, bringing in psychologists from the now-infamous SERE program, which teaches military personnel how to handle abusive interrogations by enemies.
The report also details serious issues with non-HVD interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including cases of detainees’ deaths.
We also learn that hours of videotaped interrogations, including portions showing detainees being waterboarded, were missing even from the tapes that the inspector general viewed in 2003, before the CIA destroyed all the tapes in late 2004.
And we learn that the inspector general is unable to determine whether the information gained from any of the interrogations was the result of the use of aggressive techniques or whether it could have been obtained anyway.
Best of all, the report confirms and expands on information from an April 2009 Senate report detailing that Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Attorney General John Ashcroft helped provide after-the-fact approvals for an expansion of the CIA program from late 2002 through 2003, a point that may be their legal undoing.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Torture Loophole
John Sifton is a private investigator and attorney based in New York City. His firm, One World Research, carries out research for law firms and human rights groups, including in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. He has conducted extensive investigations into the CIA interrogation and detention program.
Cheney's Big Torture Speech
John Sifton is a private investigator and attorney based in New York City. His firm, One World Research, carries out research for law firms and human rights groups, including in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. He has conducted extensive investigations into the CIA interrogation and detention program.
The Bush Administration Homicides
John Sifton is a private investigator and attorney based in New York City. His firm, One World Research, carries out research for law firms and human rights groups, including in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. He has conducted extensive investigations into the CIA interrogation and detention program.
If the abuses and illegal activities of the Bush administration are not investigated and prosecuted, all the way to the top, the principles and spirit of American democracy and justice will be rendered meaningless.
John Dean is right: worse than Watergate, by far.
We'll pause now breifly while Republicans drink their morning Kool-aid, and come rushing on to defend their beloved fascist heroes.
How could any American defend these actions? The Bush regime has made every effort to morph the US into a fascist state similar to the very people we identify as the enemy. Intolerable. Rip the scab off this pus infected wound on our nation.
This is far worse than Watergate. Dick Cheney and company almost make Richard Nixon look like Mother Teresa.
What is really disturbing is how many top government operatives were willing to sell-out their country for the opportunity to torture, and how many Americans still approve of these practices.
I'm guessing that ed Schultz is strapping on his helmut and lacing up his jack-boots, as we speak.He's about ready to kick down the doors of the CIA and get that evil-doer, Dick Cheney.
Frankly, I just hope he stops by to kick in the doors of the Shadow Government on his way over to lynch Dick Cheney - then we might be starting something worthwhile.
What's in those documents? Murder. Torturing people to death. Executing people after torture. Minor offenses like that.
Some of those pages are almost entirely, save for a few conjucnctions in the sentence structure. Ridiculous!
________, under the authority of ___________, section ______, did ______________________________ to ______________ because _________________.
So if all that is blacked out, did they really actually release the report?
The torture scandal is a smoke and mirrors tactic. The real issue is the illegal "war" no WMD's, and oil profits post Iraq.
You know the war for "energy" ( as Sarah Plain titled it during her RNC speech 08).
Bush claimed the war was a "holy" war. In fact it is continuation of the Gulf War, shut done via The Clinton Administration in the 90's.
Al documented facts pertaining to the WMD's the C.I.A detailed, according to what can be found is, there no WMD's in Iraq.
Also oil companies were interviewed on 60 Minutes (2001-2002) stating the war is about OIL.
And post Iraq a few years later, the oil companies made their highest profits, 107 Billion to be exact.
And while the 107 Billion was made by oil companies and the Bush administration sank trillions into the war "on terror" (Iraq)..Americans were taxed in 2007-2008 at the pump.
The oil companies made 107 Billion and the U.S. population went into the hole.
Why did that happen?
Because Jesus was angry at Muslims?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.