The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a motion with U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg to prevent the executive branch from transferring crucial parts of the Torture Report back to the Senator Richard Burr, new head of the Intelligence Committee. The ACLU echoes the concerns of many advocates who think Burr and the new Republican majority plan to bury criticism of the CIA’s interrogation techniques.
“If Defendants transfer the report to Senator Burr, the ACLU faces the real threat of never securing the release of a document to which it is entitled by law,” lawyers wrote in the motion.
While the Torture Report – an in-depth investigation into the CIA’s advanced interrogation policies – was released in an abridged form in December, the full 6,900 page version remains classified and in the hands of executive branch agencies.
“The Final Full Report is the product of the most significant investigation into the most egregious CIA abuses in at least a generation,” the motion reads. “Public release of the Final Full Report is necessary for ‘an informed citizenry’…”
Senator Burr has written to President Obama, asking that the full, classified pages be returned to the CIA, saying they should have never been released in the first place.
The report was commissioned under Burr’s Democratic predecessor, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Included in the still classified pages are details about CIA brutality, as well as lies concerning the overall effectiveness of advanced interrogation techniques.
While the Obama administration has not commented on what it plans to do with the report, Justice Department officials have agreed to hold onto it while the ACLU’s motion is pending.
The transfer is vitally important to those seeking accountability. Many – including Senator Feinstein – have fought for the full report’s release, but without that guarantee, who owns the documents could make a crucial difference.
While Freedom of Information Act requests do not apply to Congressional records, they do apply to information held by the executive branch. The ACLU argues that since the full report has been under executive control, it should be eligible for a FOIA request.
Burr and other CIA defenders have argued that releasing the full report could pose a national security risk.
“Nobody wants to do something that is going to bring on any kind of attack,” Feinstein told reporters in December. “But I came to the conclusion that America’s greatness is being able to say we made a mistake and we are going to correct it and go from there.”
