Mar 4th, 2009
Posted by James Freedland, ACLU at 11:29am	National Security

Holding the CIA Accountable

(Originally posted on The Hill’s Congress Blog.)

In a letter filed as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit on Monday, the CIA acknowledged it destroyed 92 tapes recording harsh interrogations of detainees held in U.S. custody abroad. The sheer number of videotapes destroyed indicates that the CIA engaged in a concerted effort to hide evidence of illegal activity.

The CIA’s systematic tape destruction also provides further confirmation that the agency violated a 2004 court order — in our FOIA case — to produce or identify all materials related to the interrogation of prisoners overseas. Under that order, the CIA should have acknowledged the existence of the tapes and either disclosed them or explained how they could be lawfully withheld. The CIA did neither of those things. And that’s why the ACLU filed a motion over a year ago to hold the agency in contempt for violating the court’s order. That motion is still pending.

For over five years, we have been trying to uncover information about the Bush administration’s torture policies. Now that it’s been confirmed that so many tapes were destroyed, we know there’s at least some information the public will never get to see. It is remarkable that CIA improperly withheld and then destroyed evidence of criminal activity — evidence that was requested by the 9/11 Commission and that at least one federal judge had ordered the CIA to identify or produce.

Clearly, the CIA must be held accountable for its flagrant disregard for the rule of law.

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Tags: national security project

1. Vic Livingston Says:
   Mar 6th, 2009 at 3:04am

   DOMESTIC TORTURE VIA SILENT HIGH-POWERED MICROWAVE RADIATION WEAPONRY APPROVED BY THE BUSH JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CONTINUES.

   THESE AND RELATED GOVERNMENT-ENABLED CRIMES MUST BE HALTED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER AND CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.

   ***

   TO: TEAM OBAMA (staff, please forward)

   cc: NATIONAL PRESS CORPS AND INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS; ACLU

   RE: BUSH DOJ LEGAL MEMOS USED TO APPROVE DOMESTIC TORTURE VIA MICROWAVE RADIATION WEAPONRY

   The Bush Justice Department "torture memos" -- those already released and some of those that remain secret -- appear to be the justification for the covert use of classified, silent microwave radiation weapons on U.S. citizens -- "targeted" under the pretext of the "war on terror" as "undesirables" and "dissidents."

   Victims, including the journalist who authored the articles linked below, say these painful, debilitating and illness-inducing microwave assaults constitute torture and "slow-kill" (a military descriptive) homicide -- what could be described as an American genocide.

   Victims of these assaults say their family finances are decimated by an array of secret "programs of personal financial destruction" that involve the forced cooperation of private enterprise; surveillance and interception of mail and telecommunications; and the forging of billing, utility, banking and mortgage statements -- what they charge is a process of expropriation and theft by deception.

   Sources say these covert programs were justified by the Bush Justice Department under legal theories that are said to include a suspected "nexus to terrorism" and, according to a source, the legal theory that weapons and/or medical experimentation on U.S. citizens is permissible if subjects are under federal investigation for suspected offenses.

   These microwave weapons assaults have continued under the Obama administration, and are facilitated by an "extrajudicial punishment network" enabled by federal agencies; local police nationwide; and "community gang stalker" citizen vigilantes fronted by government-funded community policing and volunteer organizations.

   ***

   Victims have asked the FBI/Justice Department to launch a civil rights investigation. They say officials have told them they see nothing to investigate, and hint that victim accounts are delusional.

   Victims maintain that marginalizing the persecuted as "unstable" or "mentally ill" is a tactic being used to cover up crimes against humanity, a highly organized and well-funded social genocide.

   ***

   TEAM OBAMA: WHAT DO YOUR BUSH HOLDOVERS KNOW ABOUT THIS:

   * Silent, covert microwave radiation weapons assaults on innocent but "targeted" U.S. citizens;

   * Terroristic vigilante community gang stalking, surreptitious home entry, police-tolerated vandalism;

   * Secret federal "programs of personal financial destruction."

   http://www.nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-f unded-vigilante-network-targets-terrorizes-u-s-citizens
   http://www.nowpublic.com/world/domestic-torture-radiation-weaponry- americas-horrific-shame

   OR (if links are corrupted / disabled):

   http://www.NowPublic.com/scrivener