"With the world’s eyes focused on Guantanamo, one has to wonder what the administration has to hide," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, who is at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba observing the opening hearings in the new military commissions ordered by President Bush. "As if the black box that is Guantanamo weren’t enough, now the government is exporting its open disdain for public scrutiny into our judicial system."

Details of the lawsuit, including briefs, are available here.

On June 2, 2004, the ACLU and its allies filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act demanding the release of information about detainees held by the United States at military bases and other detention facilities overseas. The lawsuit relates to a Freedom of Information Act request that was filed in October 2003 - almost eight months ago - with the Defense Department and other government agencies. The request seeks records concerning the treatment and interrogation of detainees in United States custody, the deaths of detainees in United States custody, and the “rendition” of detainees to countries known to use torture.

Since the request was filed, numerous news agencies have reported the abuse of detainees held in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is growing evidence that the abuse of detainees was not aberrational but systemic, and that senior officials either approved of the abuse or were deliberately indifferent to it. The ACLU believes that the public has a right to know what the government’s policies were, why these abuses were allowed to take place, and who was ultimately responsible.