CIA Put In Charge Of Declassifying Senate's Report That Condemns The CIA's Torture Program

from the wonder-how-that-will-turn-out dept

In our post about the Senate Intelligence Committee agreeing to declassify the executive summary and major findings of the $40 million, 6,300 page "devastating" report on how the CIA tortured people for no good reason and then lied about it, we noted that there was still a battle over who would handle the declassification process. Senator Mark Udall directly noted that the White House had a choice. It could handle the declassification efforts itself, give it to the director of national intelligence... or give it over to the CIA itself. Guess which choice the White House has gone with? Yup, you guessed it: The CIA itself gets to choose which parts of the report remain secret. Considering the CIA has spent many months attacking the report, declaring that it was misleading and full of errors, it seems rather ridiculous that the Agency itself is in charge of determining what can and can't be released from the report.
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Filed Under: cia, declassification, senate, torture


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  1. icon
    Ninja (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 5:43am

    So, there are foxes eating the chicken. Better put a fox to take care of the pen!

    This shouldn't even be an option in the first place...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 5:59am

    Money Saving Opportunity Here

    Just order black paper and paint a white border on it. It will be a lot cheaper than all the toner required to black out a 6300 page document.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Just Another Anonymous Troll, 4 Apr 2014 @ 7:22am

    [Alarm] Warning: Leak detected in Faith in Humanity tank.
    [Alarm] Warning: Leak detected in Trust in Governmental Transparency tank.
    [Alarm] Disregard previous warning: Trust in Governmental Transparency tank is empty and has been this way for several years.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Trevor, 4 Apr 2014 @ 7:39am

    Wut.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 7:45am

    Like having the fox guard the hen house .

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Brian (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 7:48am

    Kryten: Sir, can we take a break? It appears my intelligence circuits have melted.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Roger Strong (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 7:59am

    To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson’s Samoan Attorney: "As your intelligence agency, it is our duty to inform you that it is not important that you understand why we torture or why you’re paying us so much money. What’s important is that you continue to do so."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Baldaur Regis (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:07am

    Got a feeling that report is going to be waterboarded and will wind up holding a newspaper to the cameras and saying "I love the CIA the CIA has done nothing wrong and the CIA is protecting my freedoms".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:08am

    I no longer believe anything from these agencies any more and have nothing but a negative view of all of them.

    Garbage in/Garbage out

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    beech, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:09am

    "CIA Put In Charge Of Declassifying Senate's Report That Condemns The CIA's Torture Program"

    Seems legit.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Guardian, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:10am

    fox and scully are pissed off

    shoudnt this be a FBI job?

    sent intpo space , retrieved , sent back to space....retrieved again and by this time the radiation on it will mutate anyone holding it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    santos guzman, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:37am

    declassification of torture report.

    This administration is think all americans are morons.why put the cia to do the job of checking itselfe.mr.president you are really putting the fox to guard the hen house.wow,you're the only one who will belive the outcome of that report.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:39am

    Welcome to the true, rigorous, full oversight of America!


    For the record, I'd love to see what the report on Congress' oversight during this program... Let's shoot for just $38 million spent this time. That will save millions on making that report!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    santos guzman, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:39am

    declassification of torture report.

    This administration thinks all americans are morons.why put the cia to do the job of checking itselfe.mr.president you are really putting the fox to guard the hen house.wow,you're the only one who will belive the outcome of that report.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:39am

    Are any of us really surprised that the thieves and liars and murders who are in office are stealing, lying and killing?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    sorrykb (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:41am

    Re:

    Actually, it's foxes all the way down.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:48am

    The most transparent administration indeed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2014 @ 8:58am

    surely no one expected this issue to be looked at in an unbias way by unbias people, did they? if that were to happen, the real truth may actually be told! heaven forbid that!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    Internet Zen Master (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 9:15am

    Re: Money Saving Opportunity Here

    Beat me to it.

    Obviously the CIA doesn't want any of this to see the light of day, so I doubt we'll even get the official title of the actual report.

    Or someone in the CIA will just open MS Paint, doodle a hand flipping off the viewer, paste that doodle in MS word and stretch it out until it fills the whole page. Then they'll black that out copy it 6,300 times.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. icon
    Internet Zen Master (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 9:17am

    Re: declassification of torture report.

    Considering the government effectively lets the NSA do the same damn thing when it comes to oversight in general, it's not that surprising (unfortunately).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Jerrymiah, 4 Apr 2014 @ 9:42am

    Declassifying the CIA Report

    Just can't trust the Obama Administration to do the right thing when it relates to the activities of the spy agencies.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. icon
    Christopher Best (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 10:00am

    Drop the Microphone

    Okay, we tried to be diplomatic. They had their chance.

    Now it's up to Wyden or Udall to take the floor of the Senate and enter the entire document into the Congressional Record.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. icon
    kenichi tanaka (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 10:21am

    Putting the CIA in charge of declassifying the senate's report is like putting a murder suspect in charge of his own prosecution.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. icon
    Coyne Tibbets (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 10:49am

    Expect the best

    I'm sure they'll do a very good job of declassifying that document;right into the basement of a hut at an unpublished location on a remote pacific island.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 4 Apr 2014 @ 11:26am

    Disgusting, but expected

    After all, it wasn't so long ago that the DoJ was put in charge of investigating... the DoJ, who, to the surprise of no one, came back with a 'nothing wrong here, no need to press charges' verdict.

    Neither the WH or the CIA want that document to see the light of day, so of course they handed it to the CIA to 'declassify', at this point it's time for one of those politicians that had the guts to call torture torture to do what Christopher Best suggested, and read the entire thing into the public record, redacting nothing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. icon
    Disgusted (profile), 7 Apr 2014 @ 12:51pm

    Business as Usual

    Also a bit like the standard practice of putting police departments in charge of investigating officer misconduct. Hopefully Obama's approval rating will drop to the new low he so fully deserves. Only thing worse would be a rethug in charge.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    Pragmatic, 9 Apr 2014 @ 8:10am

    Re: Declassifying the CIA Report

    Would Mitt Romney have done any better? Note that there has been no Republican outcry over this.

    Stop defending the establishment and help us pull it down! You can start by refusing to play partisan games to encourage the divisions they've built to keep us too busy fighting each other to fight them.

    Now go and encourage everyone you know to take an interest in third parties and prepare to vote for them in the next election. If enough people do so, things will change.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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