I write to you to pursuant to section 5.2(6) of Executive Order 13526 (hereinafter “the Executive Order”), to challenge the ongoing, improper classification of information regarding the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Program.
Specifically, I believe that the CIA has classified and continues to classify information in violation of:
• Section 1.1 of the Executive Order, which states that information may be classified only
if “the information is owned by, produced by or for, or is under the control of the United
States government.”
• Section 1.7(a) of the Executive Order, which states that In no case shall information be classified, continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
(3) restrain competition; or
(4) prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in
the interest of the national security.
With respect to Section 1.1: as described in more detail below, the CIA continues to censor the thoughts, memories and statements of former CIA black site prisoners now in military custody at Guantanamo Bay.
With respect to Section 1.7: the public version of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, released in December of 2014, revealed evidence of numerous serious violations of law by the CIA.
These include, but are not limited to, brutalization of prisoners in violation of:
:the Anti-Torture Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, which states that torture and conspiracy to commit torture are felonies, subject to sentences of up to twenty years imprisonment, or death if the victim dies.
• the War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2441, which states that certain grave breaches of the
Geneva Conventions are felonies punishable by a sentence of up to life imprisonment, or
death if the victim dies.
• International treaties, including the four Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
IF the Media actually cared about transparency and classification, they might cover this.
They don't and they won't.
