SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Major Setback' for Justice as Supreme Court Rejects Torture Report Lawsuit
"The full report is the definitive account of one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, and the public has a right to see it," said ACLU's Hina Shamsi
Apr 24, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a lawsuit to publicly release the Senate's full report on the CIA's torture and detention program under former President George W. Bush.
The ruling is a "major setback for government transparency and accountability," said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit. "The full report is the definitive account of one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, and the public has a right to see it."
"Even though the full report is still secret, government agencies have copies and must use them to ensure that a program of inhuman and unlawful cruelty never happens again," Shamsi said.
The decision is the latest development in the ACLU's pursuit of the full report, which has been ongoing for years. The civil rights group first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the report in 2013, and then sued to enforce it, but a federal district court found that the report was congressional record and therefore not subject to FOIA laws, which apply only to executive branch documents. That decision was upheld in May 2016 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A 524-page executive summary of the report, released in 2014, exposed some details of the CIA's torture program and the agency's lies to the public, Congress, and the White House. It found that "enhanced interrogation" of detainees did not work to provide valuable intelligence and that the methods used were far more brutal than the CIA had led lawmakers and the public to believe.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), then chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote in a foreword to the summary that the full report--which comprises some 6,000 pages--"provides substantially more detail... on the CIA's justification and defense of its interrogation program."
Monday's decision by the Supreme Court is one of its first since Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed earlier this month. Gorsuch, a conservative, has already influenced a major ruling with his deciding vote last week that allowed Arkansas to carry out its first execution in 11 years.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
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 has always been 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, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a lawsuit to publicly release the Senate's full report on the CIA's torture and detention program under former President George W. Bush.
The ruling is a "major setback for government transparency and accountability," said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit. "The full report is the definitive account of one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, and the public has a right to see it."
"Even though the full report is still secret, government agencies have copies and must use them to ensure that a program of inhuman and unlawful cruelty never happens again," Shamsi said.
The decision is the latest development in the ACLU's pursuit of the full report, which has been ongoing for years. The civil rights group first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the report in 2013, and then sued to enforce it, but a federal district court found that the report was congressional record and therefore not subject to FOIA laws, which apply only to executive branch documents. That decision was upheld in May 2016 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A 524-page executive summary of the report, released in 2014, exposed some details of the CIA's torture program and the agency's lies to the public, Congress, and the White House. It found that "enhanced interrogation" of detainees did not work to provide valuable intelligence and that the methods used were far more brutal than the CIA had led lawmakers and the public to believe.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), then chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote in a foreword to the summary that the full report--which comprises some 6,000 pages--"provides substantially more detail... on the CIA's justification and defense of its interrogation program."
Monday's decision by the Supreme Court is one of its first since Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed earlier this month. Gorsuch, a conservative, has already influenced a major ruling with his deciding vote last week that allowed Arkansas to carry out its first execution in 11 years.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a lawsuit to publicly release the Senate's full report on the CIA's torture and detention program under former President George W. Bush.
The ruling is a "major setback for government transparency and accountability," said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit. "The full report is the definitive account of one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, and the public has a right to see it."
"Even though the full report is still secret, government agencies have copies and must use them to ensure that a program of inhuman and unlawful cruelty never happens again," Shamsi said.
The decision is the latest development in the ACLU's pursuit of the full report, which has been ongoing for years. The civil rights group first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the report in 2013, and then sued to enforce it, but a federal district court found that the report was congressional record and therefore not subject to FOIA laws, which apply only to executive branch documents. That decision was upheld in May 2016 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A 524-page executive summary of the report, released in 2014, exposed some details of the CIA's torture program and the agency's lies to the public, Congress, and the White House. It found that "enhanced interrogation" of detainees did not work to provide valuable intelligence and that the methods used were far more brutal than the CIA had led lawmakers and the public to believe.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), then chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote in a foreword to the summary that the full report--which comprises some 6,000 pages--"provides substantially more detail... on the CIA's justification and defense of its interrogation program."
Monday's decision by the Supreme Court is one of its first since Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed earlier this month. Gorsuch, a conservative, has already influenced a major ruling with his deciding vote last week that allowed Arkansas to carry out its first execution in 11 years.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.