Obama Administration Presses on Two Fronts to Prevent Disclosure of the Panetta Report & Durham Memo

[KoKo]

Feds in two front fight against release of records on CIA 'torture'

By JOSH GERSTEIN |
12/12/14 10:14 AM EST

Despite President Barack Obama's statements this week about "our responsibilities to look squarely" at the Central Intelligence Agency's use of harsh interrogation techniques after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Obama Administration is making a full-court press on two-fronts to prevent disclosure of records about the CIA's questioning of suspects using techniques the president has described as "torture."

In court filings Wednesday night, the Justice Department and the CIA asked a federal judge in Washington to uphold the spy agency's legal right to withhold all documents produced during an internal study then-CIA Director Leon Panetta ordered into the agency's Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program.

And on Tuesday in a separate court case in New York, the Justice Department and the CIA asked a judge to rule that the government is free to keep under wraps a slew of documents explaining why prosecutors decided not to prosecute anyone in connection with the Bush-era interrogation tactics or the destruction of videotapes of waterboarding of Al Qaeda captives.

Among the records being held back are memos from special prosecutor John Durham to Attorney General Eric Holder and his deputy about the inquiries. However, in a move deeply troubling to transparency advocates, the Justice Department is also withholding all FBI witness reports related to the probe. Such reports are routinely released, sometimes in redacted form, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and to defense lawyers when criminal charges are brought.

In this week's court filings, Durham says that he closely supervised the FBI agents, prosecutors sometimes asked questions of the witnesses, and he sometimes edited the so-called 302 reports. As a result, the government argues, the FBI reports constitute "attorney-work product" which doesn't have to be produced under FOIA.

"These interviews were done under my supervision and at my direction," Durham wrote in a declaration (posted here) supporting the secrecy of the documents. "The attorneys on my team selected many of the witnesses to interview. Along with one or more FBI Special Agents, either I or an attorney from my team attended the overwhelming majority of these interviews. Attorneys who attended the interviews, including myself, actively participated in questioning the witnesses. I personally reviewed virtually all of the resulting FD-302s and assisted in editing some of those 302s relating to interviews in which I participated."

The records about Durham's probe are being sought through a Freedom of Information Act suit filed by the New York Times and its reporter Charlie Savage. A lawyer for the Times, David McCraw, said Friday that the government's drive to withhold the documents is troubling in light of the intense public interest in the Senate Intelligence Committee report published this week detailing abuses of prisoners in CIA custody and alleged mismanagement of the CIA's interrogation program.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/12/feds-in-twofront-fight-against-release-of-records-199861.html?ml=tl_1_b

[SamKnause]

1. I hope Anonymous

or WikiLeaks can get a hold of this report.

I hope someone spreads it far and wide.

I am sick of the secrecy.

I am sick of the lies.

I want the whole thing to blow wide open !!!!!!!!!!!

I want these criminals prosecuted !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[grasswire]

4. hear hear

open the windows, let the light shine and the roaches scuttle

[woo me with science]

5. Amen.

[Scuba]

2. Beyond disappointing.

[dirtydickcheney]

3. At which point do people just start to acknowledge that the Obama admin just sucks?

and that we've been completely had by a corporate film-flam man??

[kydo]

6. The Obama Admin doesn't suck. But it is know the Bu$h Admin tortured.

It is known.

[KoKo]

7. Kick......for the "Lost Souls" who don't approve of TORTURE...In Any Form..

Assault Against Humanity?

[woo me with science]

8. K&R

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[woo me with science]

10. kick

[KoKo]

11. I realize that neither I or others wan't to believe what this read says.....

But, while I hope for a Counter........

I think it's True.

[woo me with science]

12. Me, too.

kick

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Government approved CYA. There's a whole crowd of skeletons in those closets.

Figuratively and literally.