Documents suggest CIA stonewalled Congress
The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged having 7,000
pages of documents pertaining to President George W. Bush's
secret rendition and detention programs, according to three
international human rights groups.
Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional
Rights and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School
of Law made the claim following a summary judgment motion
by the agency this week to avoid a lawsuit that seeks to force
the nation's top spy outfit to make the documents public under
a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
"Among other assertions, the CIA claimed that it did
not have to release the documents because many consist of
correspondence with the White House or top Bush administration
officials, or because they are between parties seeking legal
advice on the programs, including guidance on the legality
of certain interrogation procedures," the groups wrote
in a release. "The CIA confirmed that it requested—and
received—legal advice from attorneys at the Department
of Justice Office of Legal Counsel concerning these procedures."
(Article continues below)
“For the first time, the CIA has acknowledged that
extensive records exist relating to its use of enforced disappearances
and secret prisons,” Curt Goering, AIUSA senior deputy
executive director, said in a statement. “Given what
we already know about documents written by Bush administration
officials trying to justify torture and other human rights
crimes, one does not need a fertile imagination to conclude
that the real reason for refusing to disclose these documents
has more to do with avoiding disclosure of criminal activity
than national security.”
RAW STORY was the first news outlet to identify the exact
location of one of the sites in the CIA's secret prison network,
which was revealed first by the Washington Post. Raw Story
identified a prison in northeastern Poland, Stare Kiejkuty,
that was used as a transit point for terror suspects.
Once a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence
in World War II, Stare Kiejkuty is best known as having been
the only Russian intelligence training school to operate outside
the Soviet Union. Its prominence in the Soviet era suggests
that it may have been the facility first identified –
but never named – when the Washington Post’s Dana
Priest revealed the existence of the CIA’s secret prison
network in November 2005.
The groups say that they're not the only ones being stonewalled.
Congress, they say, is getting the short end of the stick
as well.
"Documents released to plaintiffs by the CIA demonstrate
that many within the government itself have been unable to
obtain accurate information from the CIA," the groups
said. "These documents, which include letters from Members
of Congress to the CIA, demonstrate a pattern of withholding
information from Congress. In a pointed bipartisan letter
on Oct. 16, 2003, then-Chair and Ranking Member of the House
Select Committee on Intelligence requested that CIA Director
George Tenet provide senior level briefings on the treatment
of, and information obtained by, three men known to be held
in secret CIA detention, admonishing the CIA by stating that
the committee was 'frustrated with the quality of the information'
provided in past briefings."
Additional elements of the release, issued jointly by the
three human rights groups, follows. The documents
in the lawsuit can be viewed here.
