CIA Is HIDING Its Raw Intelligence (emptywheel)

[kpete]

The CIA has produced two different Vaughn Index descriptions of four cables recording Abu Zubaydah's interrogation: the cables from August 1, 2002 (page 1-2; page 24), August 7, 2002 (page 21; page 25), August 11, 2002 (page 12 or 14; page 26), and August 16, 2002 (page 23; page 27).
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/legaldocuments/torturefoia_vaughn1_20090501.pdf

CIA Is Hiding Its Raw Intelligence

There's one more significant difference between Vaughn A and Vaughn B: Vaughn B doesn't reveal whether a cable includes raw intelligence.

Compare these descriptions for the August 16, 2002 cable.

Vaughn A

This is an eight-page cable from the Field to CIA Headquarters. The cable includes information concerning the strategies for interrogation sessions; the use of interrogation techniques to elicit information on terrorist operations against the U.S.; reactions to the interrogation techniques, raw intelligence; and a status of threat information. The cable also includes CIA organizational information, CIA filing information, locations of CIA facilities, and the names and/or identifying information of personnel engaged in counterterrorism operations.

Vaughn B

This document is a eight-page cable from the Field to CIA Headquarters. The cable includes information concerning the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, atmospheric, and behavioral comments. The cable also includes CIA organizational information, CIA filing information, locations of CIA facilities, and the names and/or identifying information of personnel engaged in counterterrorism operations.

In general, Vaughn A admits more freely that this cable strategizes about interrogation (though remember, this is not a day on which the CIA claims deliberation took place). But by far the biggest difference in these two descriptions is that Vaughn A mentions that the cable includes raw intelligence.

And note that this is an eight-page cable.

In fact, every single longer cable in Vaughn A (every cable longer than 4 pages, and all but one 4-page cable) includes raw intelligence. Yet in Vaughn B, it appears, raw intelligence is never marked.

more:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/06/10/why-doesnt-the-cias-vaughn-index-match-the-cias-vaughn-index/

[kpete]

1. hmmm

The August 1 cable is the same August 1 cable in both indices, ditto the August 16 cable, and should have the same FOIA exemptions and content. They don’t. The difference in the definition of the set should in no way change the descriptions the CIA gives the judge, but they did.

WHy did the CIA change its level of sensitivity for deliberative content?
Why did the CIA stop listing which cables include raw materials?
Why did the CIA’s exemptions for personnel change?

Those should not change because the set changes, because the cables, themselves, remain precisely the same. But they did.