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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Josh Bell, ACLU, (212) 549-2508 or 2666; media@aclu.org

ACLU Says DOJ Investigation into CIA Interrogation Program Too Narrow

NEW YORK

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the Justice Department is launching a "full criminal investigation" into the deaths of two detainees in U.S. custody. In August 2009, Holder announced that Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham would review whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union:

"While we welcome the announcement that the Justice Department will conduct a full criminal investigation into the deaths of two prisoners in CIA custody, it is difficult to understand the prosecutor's conclusion that only those two deaths warrant further investigation. For a period of several years, and with the approval of the Bush administration's most senior officials, the CIA operated an interrogation program that subjected prisoners to unimaginable cruelty and violated both international and domestic law. The narrow investigation that Attorney General Holder announced today is not proportionate to the scale and scope of the wrongdoing."

The following can be attributed to Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project:

"We continue to believe that the scope of Mr. Durham's mandate was far too narrow. As Attorney General Holder's statement makes clear, Mr. Durham was tasked principally with investigating interrogations that went beyond the bounds set by the Justice Department. However, the central problem was not with interrogators who disobeyed orders, but with senior officials who authorized a program of torture. The Justice Department must conduct an investigation that is broad enough to reach the senior officials who were most responsible for developing this program."

Jaffer and Shamsi are available for television interviews using the ACLU's in-house studio facility, which has an outbound fiber line for standard definition (SD) video.

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) 549-2666