Bush's House of Cards Begins to Fall
Jameel Jaffer, Director, ACLU National Security Project
The Bush administration built an elaborate house of cards to justify torture, but thanks in part to some recent ACLU victories, the house of cards is finally beginning to fall.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve secured the release of the Bush administration’s torture memos and won an important appeals court ruling in our challenge to Jeppesen DataPlan’s involvement in the CIA’s rendition program. We are also anticipating the release of torture photographs that the Bush administration managed to suppress for years.
These victories didn’t happen overnight. In fact, the ACLU first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the treatment of prisoners on October 7, 2003. Since then, ACLU lawyers and cooperating lawyers have filed dozens of legal briefs and appeared at dozens of court hearings. ACLU suits have resulted in the release of more than 100,000 pages of government documents relating to the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. custody. We were gratified to finally get the Bush administration’s torture memos on April 16, but it’s worth noting that it took us several years to get them. We wouldn’t have been able to invest that time without your consistent support.
- Earlier this week, a federal appeals court overturned a decision that would have dismissed the ACLU’s case against Jeppesen DataPlan, a subsidiary of the Boeing Corporation that facilitated the CIA’s rendition program. The Bush administration -- and then the Obama administration -- had argued that the case could not be litigated without the disclosure of “state secrets. ” However, we asked the court of appeals to overturn that decision, and it did. Now our case can move forward and our clients -- victims of the CIA’s rendition program -- can have their day in court.
- In connection with our long-running Freedom of Information Act litigation, the Department of Defense has agreed to release, by May 28, a substantial number of photos depicting the abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel.
- In the same lawsuit, the judge has ordered the CIA to disclose records related to the agency's destruction of 92 videotapes. The tapes captured CIA interrogators waterboarding prisoners in their custody.
We’re now focused on ensuring comprehensive transparency about the torture program and on ensuring that those who authorized torture are held accountable for it.
As the stories in this special edition of ACLU Online indicate, the ACLU is at the forefront of exposing the truth of the Bush administration’s illegal torture program. We’re grateful for the support you’ve given us, and we ask for your continued support as we press for accountability.
Thank you for standing with us.
More Than 250,000 People Demand Accountability
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By Jeani Murray, ACLU National Field Director |
Attorney General Eric Holder heard the voices of more than a quarter million Americans who called on him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate torture and detainee abuse.
ACLU activists and members of the Stop Torture Now coalition delivered more than 250,000 petition signatures to the Attorney General during a Justice Department budget hearing on Capitol Hill. The pressure from concerned citizens like you on members of Congress made sure Holder was asked tough questions about the recently released torture memos and his plan to seek accountability.
Appropriations Committee Chair, Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.), opened the hearing stating that the recently-released memos definitely described torture. The ACLU staff present at the hearing knew right then and there that all our hard work to deliver the petitions had paid off. As the hearing continued, member after member sought the Attorney General’s view on the issue of prosecutions and asked for his thoughts on what actions to take.
At one point, Holder said, "It is my responsibility as the Attorney General to enforce the law. If I see wrongdoing, I will pursue it to the full extent of the law.”
That’s encouraging news -- especially since Holder said unequivocally that waterboarding was torture during his confirmation hearing. But we all know the political realities of getting there.
Christopher Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel for the ACLU’s Washington Legislative
Office (left), hands the petitions to Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus.
There’s still a lot of work to be done to hold accountable those who authorized and implemented Bush's illegal torture program. You can be sure the ACLU will continue to keep you informed on the next steps and how you can continue to take action.
Obama Answers Questions on Torture. What about Accountability?
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 President Obama answers questions about torture, but what about accountability?
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On Wednesday, President Obama marked 100 days in office. Without a doubt, the Obama administration has a markedly different tone and attitude towards the rule of law and transparency, and should be commended for the steps taken to end unlawful Bush-era national security policies, including:
- Issuing executive orders to close of the prison at Guantánamo and end the military commissions.
- Declaring that America will not torture, and ordering a review of interrogation policies.
- Issuing sweeping new reforms on the Freedom of Information Act, with an overall presumption of disclosure of government information.
- Showing a commitment to transparency by releasing the Bush administration torture memos on April 16.
With the recent revelations of the barbaric interrogation techniques authorized by the Bush administration, the question of torture has been at the forefront of the national conversation. Before President Obama’s 100 days press conference on Wednesday, thousands of ACLU supporters pressured the media to ask the president about the torture revelations and his commitment to the rule of law. His affirmation that America is "...banning torture without exception" is reassuring.
"In some cases, it may be harder, but part of what makes us, I think, still a beacon to the world is that we are willing to hold true to our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy," President Obama said.
But, there is still a lot to be done and a lot of questions unanswered. Will the Justice Department hold accountable those who authorized torture? How will Guantánamo be closed? Will the administration uphold its commitment to transparency and the rule of law?
These past 100 days have been promising, but rest assured, the ACLU will not let its guard down. We’ll continue to press the new administration to live up to this country’s highest ideals.
Landmark ACLU Rendition Case to Go Forward
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This lawsuit charges Jeppesen DataPlan (a Boeing subsidiary) with enabling the Bush administration’s unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program. Until now, this challenge had been stymied by the Bush and then Obama administration’s improper invocation of the “state secrets” privilege.
The court of appeals decision reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, which upheld the government’s position that allowing the case to proceed would undermine U.S. national security interests. This week’s ruling categorically rejected that argument and says that the government may only invoke the state secrets privilege with respect to specific evidence, not to dismiss the entire lawsuit from the outset - a position that we’ve argued all along.
"This historic decision marks the beginning, not the end, of this litigation," said Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, who argued the case for the plaintiffs. "Our clients, who are among the hundreds of victims of torture under the Bush administration, have waited for years just to get a foot in the courthouse door. Now, at long last, they will have their day in court. This ruling demolishes once and for all the legal fiction, advanced by the Bush administration and continued by the Obama administration, that facts known throughout the world could be deemed 'secrets' in a court of law."
>>Learn more about the case.
>>Check out an interview of Ben Wizner discussing the case with Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com.
Government Records about the Treatment of Detainees at Bagram Should be Released
Last week, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records about the detention and treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody at the Bagram Airfield prison in Afghanistan.
The ACLU is requesting release of basic information, including how many people are imprisoned at Bagram, who they are, how long they’ve been detained, and where and under what circumstances they were captured. We’re also requesting records about the process for prisoners to challenge their detention and designation as "enemy combatants." The request was sent to the Departments of Justice, State, Defense and the CIA.
Many fear that Bagram is (or may soon be) the "next Guantánamo," yet the public knows practically nothing about what’s happening there. It’s reported that the U.S. is detaining as many as 600 prisoners at Bagram; this includes not only Afghans captured in Afghanistan but also non-Afghans captured thousands of miles away and rendered (or sent) to Bagram. At least two Bagram prisoners have died while in U.S. custody there -- deaths Army investigators concluded were homicides.
Some Bagram prisoners have been held as long as six years without charge or access to counsel. A federal judge recently found that the meager opportunity Bagram prisoners get to challenge their detention is even more inadequate than the process Guantánamo prisoners received -- a process the Supreme Court found unconstitutional last year.
In late February, the Obama administration stunned many human rights advocates when the Justice Department asserted in court that detainees at Bagram have no right to challenge their detention, a holdover policy from the Bush administration. Earlier this month, a federal judge disagreed, ruling that three prisoners being held by the U.S. at Bagram can challenge their detention in U.S. courts. The Justice department is appealing that decision.
As President Obama deliberates about how to close Guantánamo, scrutiny of U.S. detention policies will only intensify. And what the U.S. government is doing (or planning to do) at Bagram is a big piece of that puzzle. We cannot close Guantánamo only to permit ‘other Gitmos’ to exist in other places.