By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project & Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 1:45pm
On Friday, the ACLU appeared before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to argue that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires the CIA to release documents describing its use of waterboarding. The simple question at the heart of the hearing was this: is waterboarding an "intelligence method" that can be protected from disclosure under FOIA? We argued that the answer — of course not — is easy because even the president himself has declared that waterboarding is illegal. Exposing official misconduct to public scrutiny is the chief purpose of FOIA. But it cannot serve that purpose if even officially confirmed illegality is protectable.
Video submissions from the public are now being taken for director Doug Liman’s new film, Reckoning With Torture: Memos and Testimonies From the “War On Terror.”The movie will combine these clips with filmed stage performances featuring well-known actors, writers, and former military officers.
The project is collaboration between Liman — whose past work includes The Bourne Identity and Fair Game — and the ACLU and PEN American Center. It aims to make people aware of what really happened in the detention centers and why, and to build support for accountability.
By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 12:42pm
Former CIA prisoner Majid Khan has pled guilty and agreed to testify against other Guantánamo prisoners in exchange for a sentence of no more than 19 years.
By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:39pm
At today's NDAA hearing, torture memo author Steven Bradbury will advise the Senate not to block the use of the NDAA indefinite detention powers in the United States itself.
You can be in acclaimed film director Doug Liman's next movie: a partnership with the ACLU and the PEN American Center called "Reckoning With Torture," a film to fight torture.
By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 2:44pm
Our country’s embrace of torture after 9/11 may have seemed like a quick one: one day we didn’t torture, and the next we did, with the so-called “torture memos” to blame for the rapid shift. But the reality is that proponents of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (and other euphemistically titled cruelties) had to overcome substantial barriers in their efforts to justify torture. The first major barrier fell 10 years ago, today—many months before the torture memos were issued.
By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 5:18pm
Two and a half years ago, the government released a damning report by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) relating to the “enhanced interrogation” program of the CIA. The report was released in response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It made headlines because of its criticism of the CIA’s program and because it is said to have prompted Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a criminal investigation into some of the CIA’s abuses.
A pair of developments Monday made abundantly clear the lack of accountability for U.S.-sponsored torture after 9/11.
In a criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department, former CIA officer John Kiriakou was charged with disclosing classified information to journalists and lying to the CIA’s Publications Review Board. ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero declared, “It remains troubling that the government has failed to indict the CIA agents who participated in torture and who have thus far not been held accountable for these atrocities.”
