US is Sued Over Records of Military Prisoner Abuse/ FOIA Act!

[KoKo]

U.S. Is Sued Over Records of Military Prisoner Abuse
Wed Jun 2, 2004 04:52 PM ET

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Civil-rights and veterans groups on Wednesday sued the U.S. government for what they said was illegally withholding records about American military abuse of prisoners held in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and other locations.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, charges that the U.S. departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State have failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the groups last year. Other defendants in the suit include the FBI and CIA.

The plaintiffs are seeking records documenting torture and abuse which they said has occurred since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. They said that after they filed the FOIA request in October, numerous news stories and photographs have documented mistreatment of prisoners held in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There is growing evidence that the abuse of detainees was not aberrational but systemic, that in some cases the abuse amounted to torture and resulted in death, and that senior officials either approved of the abuse or were deliberately indifferent to it," the suit said.

The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, The Center For Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The groups said this is the first suit seeking to force the government to disclose these records under FOIA.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5326694

[struggle4progress]

1. Transparent institutions: the only way to save democracy

[Tatiana]

2. KICK!

Good for these groups and concerned citizens. We need to know what happened, and our media has been slow to wake from its slumber.

[RedSock]

3. as sh*t for brains himself said

"We have nothing to hide. We believe in transparency because we're a free society. That's what free societies do."

[Robbien]

4. I wonder how effective this will be. One can only hope it will get results

The DoD is good at stalling.