The President has suppressed the 6,000 page torture documents.

[ProSense]

7. ACLU: Senate Torture Report and CIA Reply - FOIA

Senate Torture Report and CIA Reply - FOIA

November 26, 2013

The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding the CIA release two reports about its post-9/11 program of rendition, secret detention, and torture of detainees. The first is a 6,000-page report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was adopted by the committee in December 2012. The second is a CIA report in response, defending the agency's actions.

The SSCI report is the most comprehensive account of the torture program to date. It took three years to complete at a cost of $40 million, and is based on the review of millions of CIA and other records, although the CIA refused to let Senate investigators interview its employees. SSCI Chair Senator Dianne Feinstein stated that the report "uncovers startling details about the CIA detention and interrogation program and raises critical questions about intelligence operations and oversight ... (T)he creation of long-term, clandestine 'black sites' and the use of so-called 'enhanced-interrogation techniques' were terrible mistakes."

According to media reports, the report found that the CIA misled Congress, the Justice Department, and President George W. Bush about the "effectiveness" of torture methods such as waterboarding, shackling in painful positions, and slamming detainees against walls. The report also reportedly found that those abuses did not help locate Osama bin Laden or thwart any terrorist plots, and were in fact counterproductive.

After receiving the report, the CIA wrote a detailed defense, which was reportedly given to the Senate committee in June. The ACLU filed the FOIA request for the Senate report in February and the request for the CIA response in June, and the CIA has released neither.

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https://www.aclu.org/national-security/senate-torture-report-and-cia-reply-foia

Tell the Senate Intelligence Committee: Release the CIA torture report
https://www.aclu.org/secure/tell-senate-intelligence-committee-release-cia-torture-report

ACLU Sues CIA for Reports on Its Torture Program

By Ashley Gorski

The ACLU filed a lawsuit today under the Freedom of Information Act to compel the CIA to release two reports about its post-9/11 program of rendition, secret detention, and torture of detainees. This illegal program was devised and authorized by officials at the highest levels of government, and five years after it officially ended, the American public still doesn't have the full story about some of the most devastating rights violations committed in its name.

The first report, by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ("SSCI&quot , is the most comprehensive review of the CIA's torture program to date. Led by SSCI Chair Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee reviewed more than six million pages of CIA documents and other records over the course of three years. At the end of 2012, the SSCI approved its Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, which spans over 6,000 pages and includes approximately 35,000 footnotes. Senator Feinstein, who deserves major credit for initiating and overseeing such a thorough investigation, stated that the report "uncovers startling details about the CIA detention and interrogation program and raises critical questions about intelligence operations and oversight ... (T)he creation of long-term, clandestine 'black sites' and the use of so-called 'enhanced-interrogation techniques' were terrible mistakes." According to Senator John McCain, the report confirms that the "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners" is "a stain on our country's conscience."

In addition to detailing the CIA's illegal practices, the report reveals that the CIA misled the White House, the Department of Justice, and Congress about the "effectiveness" of waterboarding, wall-slamming, shackling in painful positions, and other methods of torture and abuse. As Senator Ron Wyden has noted, these CIA misstatements were eventually communicated to the public — but the agency has failed to set the record straight.

The second report, the CIA's response to the SSCI, presents the agency's shameless defense of its torture regime and challenges the SSCI's investigative methods and findings.

Both reports are critical to a full and fair public conversation about the CIA's torture program, which is why we and other rights groups have urged President Obama to release the SSCI report, and why we're bringing suit to enforce our FOIA requests. The public deserves to hear the truth: Torture doesn't work, and more importantly, it's never acceptable.

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https://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/aclu-sues-cia-reports-its-torture-program