The announcement was made following several delays over the past few weeks in the long-running court case between the CIA and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to gain access to the report and other documents related to the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In court filings, the Justice Department told U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein recently that the CIA would turn over a reprocessed version of the report on June 19. The CIA then requested two extensions – to June 26 and then July 1.
"As we explained to the Court and Plaintiffs when Plaintiffs first raised the prospect of expediting the Special Review Report, the report poses unique processing issues,” the Justice Department said in a letter Thursday. “It is over 200 pages long and contains a comprehensive summary and review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program.
"The report touches upon the information contained in virtually all of the remaining 318 documents remanded for further review. Although the Government has endeavored in good faith to complete the review of the Special Review Report first, as we have gone through the process, we have determined that prioritizing the report is simply untenable."
“In this instance, we have determined that the only practicable approach is to first complete the review of [318 other documents from the CIA related to the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody the ACLU is seeking], and then apply the withholding determinations made with respect to the information in those documents to the Special Review Report... One month into that process, we have concluded that we must review all of the documents together, and that the review will take until August 31, 2009.”
But last month, the Justice Department told Hellerstein "reprocessing of the [report] is largely complete" and the CIA needed more time to "make a final determination as to what additional information, if any, may be disclosed from the report."
Heavily redacted portions of the report were released to the ACLU in May 2008 in response to a FOIA request, but the group appealed the Bush administration’s extensive deletions and the Obama administration agreed to respond to that appeal by releasing additional material.
The ACLU, in a letter to Hellerstein, said it "strenuously" opposes the two-month delay.
"Plaintiffs strenuously object to what amounts to the government's request for a fourth extension of its deadline to reprocess the CIA's Office of the Inspector General's Special Review Report," the ACLU's letter said.
Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project said 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," Jaffer said. "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."
Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney who has been working on the case, said it's "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," Singh said. "The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name."
In another letter sent to Hellerstein last month, the Justice Department said the CIA expected to complete it’s review of the report prepared by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson by July 1--after the agency had already sought a previous extension--and at that time CIA officials would alert the court whether the full report or some of the findings can be turned over to the ACLU.
But the agency abruptly announced Wednesday that it would not meet that deadline.
As with other recent battles over openness, the CIA is opposing any significant release of new information arguing that it would jeopardize sources and methods. President Barack Obama will have to decide whether to overrule CIA objections as he did in April when he released four Justice Department memos justifying torture.
However, more recently – in May and June – Obama has sided with U.S. officials wanting to keep evidence of detainee abuse away from the public. In May, Obama refused to release photos of U.S. military mistreatment of prisoners, and in June, he allowed the CIA to resist releasing documents relating to its destruction of 92 interrogation videotapes.
The highly classified report has been sought by members of Congress and civil liberties organizations for some time. Justice Department torture memos released in April contain several footnotes to the inspector general's report noting the watchdog's concerns about the fact that interrogators strayed from the legal limits set forth in the memos on how specific interrogation methods could be used.
For example, a footnote in a May 2005 Justice Department legal opinion says Helgerson found that, "in some cases," the "waterboard was used with far greater frequency than initially indicated...and also that it was used in a different manner."
The May 2004 report about the agency’s use of torture includes details of how at least three detainees were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Helgerson's still secret findings led to eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department for homicide and other misconduct, but those cases languished as Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly intervened to constrain Helgerson’s inquiries.
As with other recent battles over openness, the CIA is opposing any significant release of new information arguing that it would jeopardize sources and methods. President Barack Obama will have to decide whether to overrule CIA objections as he did in April when he released four Justice Department memos justifying torture.
However, more recently – in May and June – Obama has sided with U.S. officials wanting to keep evidence of detainee abuse away from the public. In May, Obama refused to release photos of U.S. military mistreatment of prisoners, and in June, he allowed the CIA to resist releasing documents relating to its destruction of 92 interrogation videotapes.
The ACLU’s appeal of the redactions from Helgerson’s report will test whether Obama’s retreat on openness includes concealing evidence of homicides.
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