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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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9

CIA Refuses to Hand Over Interrogation Records

Agency says releasing Bush-era documents will undermine national security

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(Newser) – The CIA has refused to hand over any more documents relating to its Bush-era interrogation and detention programs, the New York Times reports. The agency told a federal judge that dozens of documents, including communications from secret prisons and agency assessments of the programs' legality, must remain secret in the interests of national security.

Releasing the documents is "reasonably likely to degrade" the agency's "ability to effectively question terrorist detainees and elicit information necessary to protect the American people," the CIA said in a court filing made public yesterday. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been seeking the documents' release for years, slammed the agency's refusal as being at odds with the Obama administration's pledge of greater transparency.

A chair and shackles mounted to the floor sits inside a room used for interrogations and interviews of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
A chair and shackles mounted to the floor sits inside a room used for interrogations and interviews of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Shackled Guantanamo detainees sit together in a common area at Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum-security detention facility earlier this year.
Shackled Guantanamo detainees sit together in a common area at Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum-security detention facility earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Leg shackles lie on the floor in Camp 6 detention center at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Leg shackles lie on the floor in Camp 6 detention center at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, Pool)
A shackled detainee, clutching paperwork of some kind, is escorted by two gloved US military inside the Camp Delta detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
A shackled detainee, clutching paperwork of some kind, is escorted by two gloved US military inside the Camp Delta detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2006.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
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There’s really no distance at all between this declaration and the declarations the CIA was filing during the Bush administration. - ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer

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9 comments
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Collusive
Sep 2, 09 1:28 AM CDT
Yea because they did such a great job preventing the first terrorist attack. Reply
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+7
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Snarfeh
Sep 3, 09 6:56 PM CDT
Yep, and they pretty much are "reasonably likely to degrade" themselves regardless of what documents are released.
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0
hwoodude
Sep 2, 09 1:57 AM CDT
So, the CIA is a U.S. government agency, funded by taxpayers, right? But their activities "must remain secret in the interest of national security." I am interested in "national security"..very interested. OK, I'm too dumb to have access to this information. (I served in Army intelligence with the second highest security clearance.) But I am represented by my Senators...can they take a look at these documents to ascertain if illegal activities took place under the Bush adminstration? As an American tax payer, an Army veteran, a long time tax payer and a home owner I feel what I know of Bush's decisions - and lack of them - during his "reign" are not only un American, they are illegal. If so, punishment and aplogies are due. I have a right to know the truth. Does the CIA have the right to tell Americans they cannot know how their government is run? I don't think so! Bush, Cheney, Wolfowicz, Rumsfled, et al dragged us into a needless war, brought America to it's knees, wasted money, lives, resources and our "reputation". Now we are expected to just shrug and say, "Oh, yeah..too bad....live and learn" and let it just all dwindle off. No, no , NO! I demand the truth! Reply
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IndependentThinker
Sep 2, 09 11:36 AM CDT
The thing is they are not referring to OUR nation but to the Neo-Con nation. That is what they are trying to keep secure.
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-1
oldgoat
Sep 2, 09 2:40 AM CDT
Between Cheney and now this it seems more and more that the CIA has something to fear. I'd tend to believe that it isn't nationaly security that they are worried about as much as it is themselves and what they are covering up. If it was me it would make me want to go even harder after the evidence. Reply
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+7

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