CIA cannot comply with Cheney’s declassification request
Published: May 14, 2009
Updated 9 months ago
Update (at bottom): Gibbs says Bush order blocking Cheney’s document request
The Central Intelligence Agency has said it cannot comply with a request by former Vice President Dick Cheney to declassify records which he claims will show torture was effective in yielding actionable intelligence.
“The agency says the two documents Cheney is seeking are relevant to a pair of pending lawsuits, so it is prohibited by law from releasing them,” reported USA Today.
“The process for Mandatory Declassification Review is governed by Executive Order 12958 [issued by President Bill Clinton], as amended,” said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. “That Order excludes from review information that is the subject of pending litigation. The two documents that former Vice President Cheney sought contain information that falls into that category.
“For that reason — and that reason only — CIA did not accept Mr. Cheney’s request for a Mandatory Declassification Review. The Agency simply followed the Executive Order. This request was handled in accordance with normal practice by CIA professionals with long experience in information management and release. It was for them a straightforward issue.”
“Cheney has 45 days to appeal this decision,” noted National Public Radio.
“The White House could also decide to release the documents anyway.”
Greg Sargent published a copy of a letter from Delores M. Nelson, the CIA’s Information and Privacy Coordinator, explaining the denial of Cheney’s request.
“It will be interesting to see if Cheney makes another push for the documents,” Sargent noted. “Recall that Senator Russ Feingold said yesterday that he had seen the docs and that there was nothing in them that proves Cheney’s point.
“If they’re never released, of course, Cheney can keep saying they prove what he says they do, and no one will ever know the difference.”
“And at the risk of belaboring the point, it doesn’t matter anyway,” opined Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen. “We’re not going to use the Bush/Cheney torture techniques anymore. Cheney thinks there’s evidence of torture’s efficacy. He’s almost certainly wrong, but since the United States is going to start following the law again, ‘it worked’ isn’t going to cut it in the future, no matter what’s on these classified documents.”
Update: Cheney blames ‘Obama Administration’ for decision, plans appeal
“The Obama Administration has denied Vice President Cheney’s request for the declassification of two documents that provide information about the effectiveness of the detainee program,” Cheney’s office said late Thursday in a statement. “Vice President Cheney is preparing his appeal to this denial.”
The Obama administration did not make the decision; the CIA did.
“How long until Dick and Liz Cheney are all over the airwaves, saying that the CIA’s decision proves that Obama is hiding proof of torture’s effectiveness and isn’t willing to make good on his vow of transparency?” asked Greg Sargent on Thursday night.
Update: Gibbs says Bush order blocking Cheney’s records request
“The CIA is the agency that has jurisdiction over this,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Thursday. “They made the decision, in all honesty, based on an executive order from the Bush administration, which under the type of request that Vice President Cheney made, precludes these being declassified because they’re part of ongoing litigation. The executive order updated in the Bush administration precludes their release.”
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Dead Eye Dick of course knew that the two documents would not be declassified before he ever asked for them. This is the response he was banking on.
Now Dead Eye can keep on lying about them on Faux news forever…
Too bad, dickhead. Don’t worry, you’ll get to see ALL of the documents when you’re indicted and tried for crimes against humanity.
What a coincidence eh? Of course Cheney doesn’t really want them released -are you kidding? -now he can continue to insinuate all he wants about what’s in them AND blame the denial on Obama. Its almost as if he sent a release request AND a deny release request in the same packet. Besides -it’s not like he went through the FOIA process like anyone else would have to do -if he had, they might have released them. He must think 30 percent of us are morons.
And there you have it -I said before the update he as going to blame Obama and now he has -it’s all a trick.
How many people actually think you can just send the CIA a letter asking for a document to be released to the public? The memos that were released (by the JD by the way), were released in response to FOIA requests filed years ago. Cheney is speaking in such bad faith, it’s ridiculous. If he really wants them released, he has to file a FOIA request just like the rest of us -why isn’t anyone bringing that up?
Dick Cheney makes Spiro Agnew look like a saint.
Oh, Dickhead Cheney. I’m sorry you ignore the fact that it’s the CIA withholding the memos due to pending litigation, and not the Obama Administration.
Poor, Dickhead. I’ll send you a quarter so you can call someone who cares. May I suggest 1-800-WHA-AAAA?
Cheney looks like he just caught his “Dick” in his zipper.
There is a definite difference in what previous administrations (out of power) have done & are doing versus the last one.
Jimmy Carter is working on Habit for Humanity
George H.W. Bush & Bill Clinton are trying to raise money for Tsunami Victims.
Bill Clinton is working on AIDS awareness & treatment.
George “W” Bush is working on his Presidential Library.
Dick Cheney is trying to justify torture!
Now Cheney and his supporters to save face will have to sue for documents which contain no evidence that torturing works …..
Thumbs up to President Obama for being a cunning and patient leader. Allowing them to make fools and asses of themselves is the sweetest kind of revenge.
jimbeaux wrote:
“There is a definite difference in what previous administrations (out of power) have done & are doing versus the last one.
Jimmy Carter is working on Habit for Humanity
George H.W. Bush & Bill Clinton are trying to raise money for Tsunami Victims.
Bill Clinton is working on AIDS awareness & treatment.
George “W” Bush is working on his Presidential Library.
Dick Cheney is trying to justify torture!”
Just wanted to add that Al Gore - who won the popular vote in 2000 (and probably would have won the FL if the votes had actually been counted) - is working to save the planet, at least,
maybe, or hopefully - Al just practice what you preach for heaven’s sake - easier said than done, I know…
Wonder what it would be like if Gore had been pres… Instead of the Bush mafia clan…. Hummm…
*probably would have won FL if the votes had actually been counted
Thanks - I did forget Al Gore (sorry Al - it’s still early in the morning here)
Torture is effective in getting false confessions and in keeping whistle blowers intimidated into remaining silent. Murder in the form of “suiciding” is also one of the deterrents they use on whistle blowers.