Word: cia
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...CIA has turned down Dick Cheney's request for the declassification of two memos that the former Vice President claims show harsh interrogation techniques used on Al Qaeda operatives yielded valuable information that prevented terrorist attacks and saved thousands of American lives. The Agency says the memos can't be released because they are the subject of pending litigation - Amnesty International has filed a request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for the release of materials relating to Gitmo detainees...
According to a Bush era executive order, documents involved in pending litigation can't be reviewed for declassification. "The two documents that former Vice President Cheney sought contain information that falls into that category," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a statement. "For that reason - and that reason only - CIA did not accept Mr. Cheney's request for a Mandatory Declassification Review." (Read a story on why Dick Cheney is so chatty all of a sudden...
...memos in his recent TV appearances. He told Fox News' Sean Hannity last month: "I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country. I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was." (See pictures from the Abu Ghraib aftershock...
...CIA's decision to withhold the memos is bound to be criticized by Republicans - who will argue that it runs contrary to the Obama administration's promises of more open government. At a Congressional hearing last month, Attorney General Eric Holder seemed to indicate the Administration's willingness to release the memos. "It is certainly the intention of this administration not to play hide and seek or not to release certain things in a way that is not consistent with other things," he told the House Appropriations Committee. "It is not our intention to try to advance a political agenda...
...least not when they're speaking to a room packed with dozens of national media outlets. And yet that is exactly what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did on Thursday. "Madam Speaker, just to be clear," stuttered a reporter at a Capitol Hill press conference, "you're accusing the CIA of lying to you in September of 2002?" "Yes," Pelosi declared definitively, "misleading the Congress of the United States...