Legal Commentary

Obama Administration To Release CIA IG Report On Torture?

By Big Tent Democrat

In my discussion of Stuart Taylor's view (I intemperately accused Taylor of dishonesty and later apologised for my characterization) on the effectiveness of torture, I relied on published reports regarding a 2004 report by the CIA Inspector General to support my view that torture was ineffective. Via Greg Sargent, the Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration is considering releasing this 2004 report. If the report is accurate, this should be big news:

Government officials familiar with the CIA's early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the "top secret" May 7, 2004, inspector general report, based on more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents. The full report remains closely held, although White House officials have told political allies that they intend to declassify it for public release when the debate quiets over last month's release of the Justice Department's interrogation memos.

According to excerpts included in those memos, the inspector general's report concluded that interrogators initially used harsh techniques against some detainees who were not withholding information. Officials familiar with its contents said it also concluded that some of the techniques appeared to violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by the United States in 1994.

Although some useful information was produced, the report concluded that "it is difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks," according to the Justice Department's declassified summary of it. The threat of such an imminent attack was cited by the department as an element in its 2002 and later written authorization for using harsh techniques.

(Emphasis supplied.) This report is critical to discovering the truth about many issues - who tortured? who decided the US should torture? Who decided the Us should continue to torture after being informed by the CIA Inspector General that the US was engaged in torture in violation of US and international law? And important as a political matter, did torture work? Earlier reporting has indicated that torture in fact did not work.

To credit Taylor's argument (and Cheney's), people like Obama Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair have intimated that torture did work. The release of this crucial CIA report would answer a lot of these assertions.

In my view, it should also lead to the resignation of Dennis Blair as Obama Administration Director of National Intelligence.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).