Don't Expect To See The Declassified Senate Report On How The CIA Tortured People Any Time Soon

from the of-course-not dept

Sure, the Senate voted to declassify parts of its $40 million, 6,300-page report on the disastrous CIA torture program -- and the White House said that it'll let the CIA handle the declassification. We knew that it would take some time to do the declassification, and expect that "some time" to turn into "a very, very long time."
The procedure, however, likely will take months, several experts said. That’s because it’s complex and time-consuming. Not only does the CIA have to review information that came from its archives, but other U.S. intelligence agencies as well as the Pentagon and the State Department have to evaluate material that they provided, they said.
Of course, as that report notes, plenty of people note that key parts can be declassified quickly -- but likely won't.
The CIA “could demonstrate good faith by releasing the least problematic portions of the text, like the introduction, conclusions and high-level findings. But they’re not doing that and that strikes me as at least bordering on bad faith,” said Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “Why does the entire volume need to be held hostage to the most difficult piece of information?”
Meanwhile, some in the Senate are reasonably worried about how the CIA is going to handle this process:

Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has urged the White House to wrest control of the declassification process from the CIA and is demanding rapid action. But, in an interview, she said she has received little feedback from the Obama administration and seemed resigned to a lengthy timetable.

“I would hope that it would be short and quick,” said Feinstein. “That may be a vain [effort].”

And, others are pointing out that it's silly to argue that the CIA needs a whole lot of time, seeing as it's had this report for a long time:
“I’ll start to get impatient in about two weeks,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats. “The CIA’s had this report for a year now. So they ought to know. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we’re just seeing it for the first time.’”
Either way, don't expect to see anything for a while.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cia, cia torture, declassification, report, senate, senate intelligence committee, senate report, torture


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 9 May 2014 @ 1:47pm

    'Months'? Really?

    How long does it take to go out and fetch a bunch of carbon paper and staple it together? Are they special-ordering it from an over-seas country or something? Perhaps having the staples custom made?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 9 May 2014 @ 2:39pm

    Re: 'Months'? Really?

    Be fair. To make carbon paper, you have to obtain both paper and carbon. It takes time to cut down trees, make the paper, burn scrap wood for the carbon, and assemble everything. Then there's the staples. You think that mining and refining the metal can be done instantly? And then you have extrude it into wire, bend it into the staple shape, and so forth.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2014 @ 2:56pm

    Re: 'Months'? Really?

    I think the hold up is the massive amounts of black markers they had to order.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2014 @ 4:06pm

    Please note that 100 years is only 1200 months, and should put any guilty parties beyond the reach of the law.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    tomczerniawski, 9 May 2014 @ 4:57pm

    Democracy...

    ... cannot exist without an informed electorate. Therefore, state secrecy and democracy cannot coexist.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Graham J (profile), 9 May 2014 @ 5:30pm

    Conflict?

    I find it odd that you don't even imply that the reason for these delays may be, you know, a conflict of interest.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 9 May 2014 @ 5:54pm

    Re: Conflict?

    Pointing that out would be rather like pointing out that water is wet, it's pretty much a given that the major real reason for the 'delays' is that conflict of interest on the part of the CIA, and their hopes that if they can delay it a while, like say a couple of years, people won't be paying as much attention, so they can toss out an almost entirely redacted report unnoticed, or, in a best case scenario(for them) never release it at all, in the hopes that they can just 'wait it out'.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2014 @ 6:26am

    Didn't we hang for same stuff at Nuremberg?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    David, 10 May 2014 @ 10:30am

    Re: Re: 'Months'? Really?

    Why would they need black markers when ready-made carbon paper is available?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 10 May 2014 @ 11:15am

    Re:

    Ah but see those were nazis, filthy scum who killed for the heck of it, wheres the brave people in the CIA who brutally tort- I mean 'enhanced interrogated' prisoners were doing it for freedom, and because terrorists, which makes it totally not a war crime of the highest order. /s

    Yeah, every last one of them involved, from those that committed the actions, to those that ordered them done, deserve to be treated and remembered for all time as war criminals, and executed as such.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous, 10 May 2014 @ 4:23pm

    Re:

    I didn't.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous, 10 May 2014 @ 4:47pm

    The sooner Amerikkka dies, the better.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Sambo, 11 May 2014 @ 9:00pm

    I bet some of the Senate Committee staffers wished there was like, some kind of website where they could anonymously provide this report to so it made its way into the publics hands.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.