Government Further Delays Release Of Crucial CIA Inspector General Report

CIA's Fourth Delay Seeks Extension Until August 31

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – After agreeing three times to release an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report on the CIA's interrogation and detention program and then reneging, the government announced today it will not release a reprocessed version of the report before August 31. The CIA had agreed to release the OIG report by June 19, 2009. It then requested two extensions – to June 26 and then July 1.

The CIA turned over a heavily redacted version of the report in May 2008 as part of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records related to the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody, but a year later informed the court that it would review the same report with a view toward disclosing more information.

The ACLU has informed the court that it opposes this latest request for a two-month delay.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project:

"The CIA has already had more than five months to review the inspector general's report, and the report is only about two hundred pages long. We're increasingly troubled that the Obama administration is suppressing documents that would provide more evidence that the CIA's interrogation program was both ineffective and illegal. President Obama should not allow the CIA to determine whether evidence of its own unlawful conduct should be made available to the public. The public has a right to know what took place in the CIA's secret prisons and on whose authority."

The following can be attributed to Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU:

"It is apparent that the CIA report is not being delayed for legitimate reasons, but to cover up evidence of the agency's illegal and ineffective interrogation practices. It is time for the president to hold true to his promise of transparency and once and for all quash the forces of secrecy within the agency. The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name."

The CIA's letter to Judge Hellerstein is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/40116lgl20090702.html

The ACLU's letter in response to the CIA's letter is online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/40118lgl20090702.html