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Government Withholds Key Torture Documents In ACLU Lawsuit
CIA Defends Interrogations Tactics And Secrecy
WASHINGTON
The
government has said it will continue to withhold dozens of documents
related to the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. The
Justice Department was facing an August 31 deadline to release the
documents, including a presidential directive authorizing CIA "black
sites" as well as CIA inspector general (IG) records and documents from
the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding the
CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," in response to two
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union.
U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K.
Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York ordered the government
to turn over the documents by August 31 or else provide justification
for continuing to withhold them. In a filing late Monday, the CIA said
it will not release the documents, claiming that disclosing details
about the enhanced interrogation program would harm national security.
"The CIA's justification for
withholding the documents is entirely incompatible with the Obama
administration's stated commitment to ending torture and restoring
governmental transparency. On the one hand, President Obama has
publicly recognized that torture undermines the rule of law and
America's standing in the world, but on the other, the CIA continues to
argue in court that it cannot disclose information about its torture
techniques because it would jeopardize the CIA's interrogation
program," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security
Project. "The CIA's arguments are utterly disconnected from the Obama
administration's stated positions. The agency seems to be disregarding
altogether the important policy changes that President Obama announced
immediately after he took office."
In its filing, the CIA also argued
that the information available to the public about the enhanced
interrogation program should be limited to its historical context and
legal underpinnings. However, the government has already released
several documents that provide more than merely abstract detail about
the interrogations. The Justice Department last week made public dozens
of related documents as part of the ACLU's FOIA litigation, including a
CIA IG report on the CIA's interrogation tactics, a December 2004 CIA
background paper giving a detailed official description of the CIA's
detention and interrogation program and a 2007 OLC memo describing
"enhanced interrogation techniques" to be used against prisoners then
in CIA custody.
"Given the vast amount of evidence
that the U.S. torture program was widespread and systemic, it's
disappointing that the government continues to withhold these vital
documents that would fill in the remaining gaps in the public record,"
said Alex Abdo, a legal fellow with the ACLU's National Security
Project. "The Obama administration must fulfill its commitment to
transparency and release all crucial documents that would shed further
light on the origins and scope of the Bush administration's torture
program. The American public has a right to know the full truth about
the torture that was committed in its name."
Attorneys in the FOIA lawsuit are
Jaffer and Amrit Singh of the national ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth
Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Lawrence S. Lustberg
and Jennifer B. Condon of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons P.C.;
and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional
Rights.
Yesterday's government filing is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/40887lgl20090831.html
More information about the ACLU's FOIA litigation is at: www.aclu.org/accountability
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
Duffy Warns Technical Issues, Chaos at Newark Airport Could Spread Across US
The transportation secretary has called for upgrades to the systems used by air traffic controllers; he voted against such improvements when he was in Congress.
May 12, 2025
Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Monday were still being impacted by flight delays and cancellations after numerous technical issues in recent days interrupted air traffic control operations—disruptions that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday are likely to spread to the nation's other airports.
Duffy toldNBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he is currently "concerned about the whole airspace," but said traveling by air is still safe.
"The lights are blinking, the sirens are turning," said Duffy. "What you see in Newark is gonna happen in other places across the country."
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that Newark's most recent technical disruption on Sunday was the result of a "telecommunications issue" at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C facility, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark.
Air traffic control systems were also disrupted on Friday, with controllers at the same facility losing radar and radio contact for about 90 seconds.
At least five air traffic controllers at TRACON Area C are currently on 45 days of trauma leave after a similar incident on April 28 during a busy afternoon.
The air traffic control team at the facility lost contact with all planes while they were managing 15-20 flights. One air traffic controller at Newark toldNBC News after this incident that the airport is "not a safe situation right now for the flying public."
The disruption led to thousands of flight cancellations and delays—some longer than five hours—in and out of Newark, which serves more than 24 million travelers per year and is the nation's 12th busiest airport.
Duffy denied on Sunday that job cuts affecting about 400 staffers at the FAA—spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk—had anything to do with the problems at Newark.
But representatives of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, which represents about 11,000 employees who support air traffic controllers, warned earlier this year that layoffs would result in critical workers guiding planes in and out of airports with less support from the FAA.
The job cuts affected workers including administrative and logistics technicians, aeronautical information specialists, and maintenance mechanics.
The FAA has blamed many of the issues at Newark, where TRACON Area C has been affected by outages four times since November, on equipment failures and staffing shortages.
Duffy has called for air travel upgrades including investments in digital flight data management, improvements to radio systems, and extending the retirement age for air traffic controllers to 61, up from 56.
On CNN last week, Kaitlan Collins pointed out that Duffy, then a Republican member of the U.S. House, joined his party in voting against upgrades to air traffic control systems.
On Sunday, signs were already emerging that staffing and technical issues could be spreading to other airports with impacts on travel.
An equipment outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport—the busiest in the world—led to a ground stop for more than an hour, delaying 1,337 flights. FAA staffing shortages at a control tower in Austin, Texas also led to delays for 145 flights.
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DOGE Minion Accused of Self-Dealing by Participating in Attack on Consumer Watchdog Agency
"It's clear that the mission of Elon Musk and his DOGE crew has nothing to do with reducing 'waste, fraud, and abuse,' and everything to do with lining their own pockets at the expense of working people," said one advocate.
May 12, 2025
Several watchdog and advocacy groups are demanding the acting inspector general of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigate potential conflicts of interest between the Department of Government Efficiency employees who have been involved in mass layoff efforts at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with a focus on one DOGE aide in particular.
The groups behind the letter, which is dated May 8, include Accountable.US, Public Citizen, Project On Government Oversight, and others.
Twenty five-year-old software engineer Gavin Kliger was detailed to work at the the CFPB starting in March as part of DOGE operations to downsize the agency, according to ProPublica.
The investigative outlet reported that Kliger holds stock in companies "that could benefit from the agency's dismantling" but went on to help oversee mass layoffs at the CFPB, despite objections reportedly raised by ethics attorneys at the agency.
The CFPB, an agency created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from deceptive or unfair practices in the consumer financial space, bars employees from owning holdings in specific firms—a list that "is tailored to include only businesses that are subject to examination by the bureau." That list is in addition to ethics regulations in place at other financial regulatory agencies and those that apply to executive branch employees more generally.
In April, ProPublica reported that Kliger owns up to $365,000 worth of shares in Apple Inc., Tesla Inc. and two cryptocurrencies. Apple and Tesla are on the list of prohibited holdings. The two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Solana, are not on that list but "are nevertheless barred under agency guidance on investing in cryptocurrency firms," according to ProPublica.
In May, the outlet reported that further review of his public financial report showed that Kliger has even more holdings in companies that are on that prohibited holdings list. "Kliger also disclosed owning as much as $350,000 worth of stock in Google parent Alphabet Inc., Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba," the reporting states.
Pointing to court records and government emails, ProPublica reported that Kliger was indeed involved in overseeing layoffs of more than 1,400 employees at the CFPB. A spokesperson for the White House repeatedly told ProPublica that Kliger "did not even manage" the layoffs, "making this entire narrative an outright lie."
Those layoffs are currently tied up in litigation.
Kliger departed the CFPB last week, according to Bloomberg Law.
"Americans expect that those who serve in office are looking out for the public interest, not their own bottom line," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk in a statement on Monday. "Clearly, the Trump administration is more focused on self-enrichment schemes and making it easier for corporate special interests to take advantage of regular Americans than it is on bringing down skyrocketing costs. The CFPB inspector general must investigate this matter immediately."
Mike Pierce, executive director of another group behind the letter, the Student Borrower Protection Center, added that "it's clear that the mission of Elon Musk and his DOGE crew has nothing to do with reducing 'waste, fraud, and abuse,' and everything to do with lining their own pockets at the expense of working people."
In the letter, the groups point to ProPublica's reporting about Kliger's holdings, note that CFPB employees are barred from owning holdings in specific companies, and cite federal law that forbids executive branch employees from participating in matters affecting their own personal financial interests.
The letter also links to research from the Student Borrower Protection Center which explores how Musk could also benefit from a less powerful CFPB.
"We urge you to swiftly investigate these clear conflicts of interest violations of Trump administration officials acting in their own personal financial interest, and we look forward to your prompt response on this matter," concludes the letter.
According to Politico, which first reported on the letter, spokespeople with the Office of Personnel Management, CFPB, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.
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Sanders, Democrats Call Trump's Bluff on Drug Price Executive Order
"If Trump is serious," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, "he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries."
May 12, 2025
If U.S. President Donald Trump actually wants to curb out-of-control prescription drug prices, he'll throw his support behind legislative efforts instead of trying to do so unilaterally—an approach that's unlikely to survive legal challenges.
That was the message that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and congressional Democrats sent to the White House after Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at pushing "pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations."
The order resembles an effort that a federal judge blocked during Trump's first term after the pharmaceutical industry mobilized against it.
Sanders, a longtime proponent of legislative action to address exorbitant medicine prices, said he agrees it is "an outrage that the American people pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs."
"As Trump well knows, his executive order will be thrown out by the courts," said Sanders. "If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries. If Republicans and Democrats come together on this legislation, we can get it passed in a few weeks."
If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will introduce to ensure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries. If we come together, we can get it passed in a few weeks.
[image or embed]
— Senator Bernie Sanders (@sanders.senate.gov) May 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have previously teamed up on a bill that would end drugmakers' monopoly control over a medication and allow generic competition if it is priced higher in the U.S. than in other rich nations.
An analysis released last year by the RAND Corporation estimated that prescription drug prices in the U.S. are, on average, 2.78 times higher than prices in Canada, Germany, France, and other comparable countries.
Khanna wrote on social media that he supports Trump's "effort to ensure Americans do not pay more for drugs than those in other countries." But, like Sanders, Khanna warned the executive order is likely doomed to fail.
"Instead of an EO that will get challenged again by Big Pharma, why not work with Bernie Sanders and me to make this law," the California Democrat wrote.
The pharmaceutical industry has made its opposition to Trump's latest order clear. In a statement, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America CEO Stephen Ubl claimed that "importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers."
"It would mean less treatments and cures and would jeopardize the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America," Ubl added, rehashing a common and false industry talking point.
"Donald Trump is all hat and no cattle when it comes to lowering the price of prescription drugs."
Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly claimed to support aggressive action to bring down drug prices while simultaneously working to roll back progress toward that goal. Last month, as Common Dreamsreported, Trump signed an executive order aimed at delaying Medicare price negotiations for a broad category of prescription drugs.
The price negotiations began during the Biden administration following Democratic lawmakers' passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a law whose drug pricing provisions have so far withstood Big Pharma's legal onslaught.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in response to the president's executive order that "Donald Trump is all hat and no cattle when it comes to lowering the price of prescription drugs."
"Trump spent his entire first term blathering about Big Pharma, but in the end he always backed down instead of fighting for American seniors and families," said Wyden. "Democrats took on Big Pharma and won by finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of seniors and capping their out-of-pocket costs for expensive prescriptions. If Trump was serious about lowering drug prices, he would work with Congress to strengthen Medicare drug price negotiations, not just sign a piece of paper."
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