There will be much more on this in the days to come, but here is the heavily-redacted 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report on interrogation practices, scanned and posted by The Washington Independent and with commentary from Spencer Ackerman. This report is, of course, different from the Obama administration Task Force on Interrogation and Rendition report, also slated for release today.
It has been impossible to open a newspaper over the last few days without reading coverage of the IG report’s findings, allegations of torture, and the potential for Justice Department inquiries into the mistreatment and even deaths of detainees in American custody (the Washington Post has a useful collection of stories on the varies CIA interrogation debates, which can be found here). CIA director Leon Panetta also wrote a letter to the agency in anticipation of the 2004 report’s release, urging the agency, and by extension the American public, to move on from the history of past abuses.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration seems to be of different minds on the question of what to do about detainee rights. On the one hand the White House announced the creation of new interagency team that will be responsible for interrogating top terrorism suspects according to the regulations of the Army field manual, while at the same time President Obama said he will continue the process of rendition for terrorists, though supposedly not to nations that torture.
We will be doing analysis of the report (as well as analysis of other analysis) as more news and the Task Force report trickle in.
— Andrew Lebovich
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