Obama Administration Redactions on Torture Report Render It 'Impossible to Understand'
Senate Intelligence Committee member Martin Heinrich slams censoring of document
An unclassified executive summary of the Senate report on the CIA torture program continues to evade the public eye as the Obama administration and senators clash over redactions to the report.
The summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's over 6,000-page damning report into the techniques used in the wake of the September 11 attacks had been expected to be declassified shortly.
But Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the committee, issued a statement on Friday that that the committee had noted "significant redactions" when it received the report from the administration. She said that the executive summary would be held so that the Committee had "additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and determine their justification."
A spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), also an Intelligence Committee member, told The Hill that "redactions meant to spare political embarrassment are unacceptable."
Asked on Monday for comment on the criticisms that the redactions made the report unreadable, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama has been "very forward-leaning in terms of trying to be as transparent as possible" with regards to the CIA torture , noting that "more than 85 percent of the report was un-redacted." Earnest added that "it is important that a declassification process be carried out that protects sources and methods and other information that is critical to our national security. "
Committee member Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), issued a statement Sunday in which he slammed the "blackouts."
"I was disappointed to learn of the CIA's extensive use of redactions on the Committee's executive summary. Redactions are supposed to remove names or anything that could compromise sources and methods, not to undermine the source material so that it is impossible to understand," Heinrich's statement reads. "Try reading a novel with 15 percent of the words blacked out -- it can't be done properly. It is my hope that constructive conversations will now occur between the Committee, the CIA and the White House to minimize the redactions currently employed so that the report may be released very soon."
McClatchy's reporting on Monday regarding the battle over report redactions adds:
A former federal official familiar with the contents of the report said that he was skeptical of the need to excise all pseudonyms, saying such extensive deletions would harm the public's ability to understand what occurred.
"The story is partly about names and places. All of a sudden you wouldn't be able to tell that story," said the former federal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Essentially it just becomes a bunch of verbs. 'Something was done but nobody did it and it wasn't done anywhere.' It's similar to 'Mistakes were made.' There's no accountability in the narrative. It would make it incomprehensible."
Investigative reporter and author Jeremy Scahill said last week that "the White House, at the highest levels, is basically going through and editing what the American people can and can't read in this report about one of the definitive, moral questions and legal questions of our time, the extent to which we were involved in systematic torture, with lying to lawmakers, with misleading not only Congress but the American people on a wide range of issues that resulted in our country going to war and being involved in systematic acts of torture."
"The American people will be profoundly disturbed" by the torture report, Wyden said in April, and added "that getting the facts about torture out to the American people will keep these mistakes from being repeated and make our national intelligence agencies stronger and more effective in the long run."
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just two days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
An unclassified executive summary of the Senate report on the CIA torture program continues to evade the public eye as the Obama administration and senators clash over redactions to the report.
The summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's over 6,000-page damning report into the techniques used in the wake of the September 11 attacks had been expected to be declassified shortly.
But Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the committee, issued a statement on Friday that that the committee had noted "significant redactions" when it received the report from the administration. She said that the executive summary would be held so that the Committee had "additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and determine their justification."
A spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), also an Intelligence Committee member, told The Hill that "redactions meant to spare political embarrassment are unacceptable."
Asked on Monday for comment on the criticisms that the redactions made the report unreadable, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama has been "very forward-leaning in terms of trying to be as transparent as possible" with regards to the CIA torture , noting that "more than 85 percent of the report was un-redacted." Earnest added that "it is important that a declassification process be carried out that protects sources and methods and other information that is critical to our national security. "
Committee member Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), issued a statement Sunday in which he slammed the "blackouts."
"I was disappointed to learn of the CIA's extensive use of redactions on the Committee's executive summary. Redactions are supposed to remove names or anything that could compromise sources and methods, not to undermine the source material so that it is impossible to understand," Heinrich's statement reads. "Try reading a novel with 15 percent of the words blacked out -- it can't be done properly. It is my hope that constructive conversations will now occur between the Committee, the CIA and the White House to minimize the redactions currently employed so that the report may be released very soon."
McClatchy's reporting on Monday regarding the battle over report redactions adds:
A former federal official familiar with the contents of the report said that he was skeptical of the need to excise all pseudonyms, saying such extensive deletions would harm the public's ability to understand what occurred.
"The story is partly about names and places. All of a sudden you wouldn't be able to tell that story," said the former federal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Essentially it just becomes a bunch of verbs. 'Something was done but nobody did it and it wasn't done anywhere.' It's similar to 'Mistakes were made.' There's no accountability in the narrative. It would make it incomprehensible."
Investigative reporter and author Jeremy Scahill said last week that "the White House, at the highest levels, is basically going through and editing what the American people can and can't read in this report about one of the definitive, moral questions and legal questions of our time, the extent to which we were involved in systematic torture, with lying to lawmakers, with misleading not only Congress but the American people on a wide range of issues that resulted in our country going to war and being involved in systematic acts of torture."
"The American people will be profoundly disturbed" by the torture report, Wyden said in April, and added "that getting the facts about torture out to the American people will keep these mistakes from being repeated and make our national intelligence agencies stronger and more effective in the long run."
An unclassified executive summary of the Senate report on the CIA torture program continues to evade the public eye as the Obama administration and senators clash over redactions to the report.
The summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's over 6,000-page damning report into the techniques used in the wake of the September 11 attacks had been expected to be declassified shortly.
But Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the committee, issued a statement on Friday that that the committee had noted "significant redactions" when it received the report from the administration. She said that the executive summary would be held so that the Committee had "additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and determine their justification."
A spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), also an Intelligence Committee member, told The Hill that "redactions meant to spare political embarrassment are unacceptable."
Asked on Monday for comment on the criticisms that the redactions made the report unreadable, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama has been "very forward-leaning in terms of trying to be as transparent as possible" with regards to the CIA torture , noting that "more than 85 percent of the report was un-redacted." Earnest added that "it is important that a declassification process be carried out that protects sources and methods and other information that is critical to our national security. "
Committee member Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), issued a statement Sunday in which he slammed the "blackouts."
"I was disappointed to learn of the CIA's extensive use of redactions on the Committee's executive summary. Redactions are supposed to remove names or anything that could compromise sources and methods, not to undermine the source material so that it is impossible to understand," Heinrich's statement reads. "Try reading a novel with 15 percent of the words blacked out -- it can't be done properly. It is my hope that constructive conversations will now occur between the Committee, the CIA and the White House to minimize the redactions currently employed so that the report may be released very soon."
McClatchy's reporting on Monday regarding the battle over report redactions adds:
A former federal official familiar with the contents of the report said that he was skeptical of the need to excise all pseudonyms, saying such extensive deletions would harm the public's ability to understand what occurred.
"The story is partly about names and places. All of a sudden you wouldn't be able to tell that story," said the former federal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Essentially it just becomes a bunch of verbs. 'Something was done but nobody did it and it wasn't done anywhere.' It's similar to 'Mistakes were made.' There's no accountability in the narrative. It would make it incomprehensible."
Investigative reporter and author Jeremy Scahill said last week that "the White House, at the highest levels, is basically going through and editing what the American people can and can't read in this report about one of the definitive, moral questions and legal questions of our time, the extent to which we were involved in systematic torture, with lying to lawmakers, with misleading not only Congress but the American people on a wide range of issues that resulted in our country going to war and being involved in systematic acts of torture."
"The American people will be profoundly disturbed" by the torture report, Wyden said in April, and added "that getting the facts about torture out to the American people will keep these mistakes from being repeated and make our national intelligence agencies stronger and more effective in the long run."