Tortures

Report on CIA torture won't be revealed under Freedom of Information Act

The US legal system has rejected the public disclosure of the full torture report, after American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued federal agencies just before the Senate’s release of a much shorter executive summary in 2014.

“On the record before us, the Senate Committee’s intent to retain control of the Full Report is clear,” wrote Judge Edwards.“The Full Report therefore remains a congressional document that is not subject to disclosure under FOIA (The Freedom of Information Act).”

The unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel concluded that the 6,963-page so-called Senate torture report can’t be made public under the Freedom of Information Act, because the content is officially controlled by Congress, and Congressional documents are exempt from the open records law.

The ACLU sued under the Freedom of Information Act in 2013 to obtain the full report, whose 500-page executive summary was released in December 2014. ACLU demanded the full disclosure of the CIA’s use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” such as waterboarding and the use of secret prisons abroad under former President George W. Bush.