ACLU in Court Wednesday to Call for Release of Secret Torture Memos
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 3, 2007
11:08 AM
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CONTACT: ACLU
Rachel Myers, ACLU,
(212) 549-2689 or 549-2666;
media@aclu.org
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ACLU in Court Wednesday to Call for Release of Secret Torture Memos
Group Says Administration Should Disclose Documents That Authorized Extremely Harsh Interrogation Methods
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NEW YORK - December 3 - A federal district court will hear arguments Wednesday, December 5, in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace, requesting the release of three secret memos authored by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The memos pertain to harsh interrogation methods authorized for CIA use on prisoners in U.S. custody.
The government failed to provide the memos, which were issued in May of 2005, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU requesting information on the treatment and interrogation of detainees.
The New York Times disclosed the existence of two of the OLC memos in a front-page article on October 4, 2007. The Times reported that the first memo explicitly authorized interrogators to use combinations of harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding, head slapping, and exposure to freezing temperatures. The second memo, issued by OLC as Congress prepared to enact legislation prohibiting “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” declared that none of the CIA’s interrogation methods violated that standard.
In response to legal papers filed by the ACLU requesting the release of the first two memos, the government filed papers stating “there were in fact three opinions issued to CIA relating to the interrogation of detainees in CIA custody.”
A copy of the ACLU’s brief requesting the release of the documents is online at www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/32572lgl20071024.html
More information regarding the ACLU’s work to fight torture is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture
WHAT: Hearing in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York on the ACLU’s request for the release of OLC torture memos
WHO: Melanca Clark, of the law firm of Gibbons P.C. will argue the case before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York
WHEN: Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 4:00 p.m. EST
WHERE: United States District Court
Southern District of New York
Courtroom 14D
500 Pearl Street
New York, NY
10007-1312
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