Justice Dept., State Dept., FBI haven't even opened the package containing full torture report

[bigtree]

from HuffPo:


In response to a Freedom of Information Act request for the full, still-classified 6,900-page torture report, government lawyers wrote that most of the executive agencies that had been copied on the transmission of the full report to the White House from then-Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hadn’t opened their sealed copy -- and in one case, never even picked it up.

"None of the defendant agencies have freely used the Full Report; they have kept it stored in a sensitive compartmented information facility, with limited access," the government’s declaration reads. "Neither the Department of Justice nor the Department of State, moreover, has even opened the package with the disc containing the full Report. And CIA and the Department of Defense have carefully limited access to and made only very limited use of the Report."

The FBI’s copy remains sealed in the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs, according to the FOIA response. The bureau has yet to collect it.

"It is appalling that the State Department and the Justice Department would just stick this report in a locked safe, without opening or reading it," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence Committee and a vigorous advocate of the report. "That shows a shocking disregard for their professional responsibilities, and appears to be an organized effort to cover up the truth about torture."

It’s also the sobering reality of an administration that, for years, has publicly condemned the Bush-era torture program while doing little to support Feinstein’s efforts to force the nation’s spies to acknowledge their sins.


read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/cia-torture-richard-burr_n_6535064.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016

[on point]

1. Failure to prosecute war criminals in Bush regime a permanent stain on Obama

[Hubert Flottz]

9. I agree...

Makes him look like an accessory to the crime. An enabler to the next rotten from the top down neocon regime, that is waiting in the wings.

[bigtree]

11. well, you have to ask yourself why Pres. Obama would allow himself to be complicit in that

...one answer would be that many of the principles in the acts described in the report are still operating in government; some of them working to carry through this administration's own intelligence and security ops. No matter what they say, it's almost a surety that protecting against any revelations in the report has less to do with actual 'security' than it does with preventing embarrassment or complicity with actionable illegalities.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Again,

I agree!

[bemildred]

2. They continue to hide behind the pretense that this is about security. nt

[bigtree]

10. right, when they know well it's about accountability

...and the prospect that, when all is revealed, there will be a demand from the American public to prosecute on much more than we're talking about today as revealed in the 'summary' redacted report.

[Hubert Flottz]

15. "It's about Security"

Who's security? The Guilty!

It's like how they ALWAYS brought up..."THE CHILDREN," when it came to the war on tobacco. Always something being sold in Washington for the sake of THE CHILDREN or the sake of SECURITY! But who gives a rats ass, about the children in DC, when it's time to cut off food stamps, or a modest public education, or when it's time to ship the children's dad and moms' jobs to China and strike down the minimum wage, or even toxic Newt's attempt to dismantle the Child Labor Laws?

[bemildred]

16. Yeah, it's the same "You dare to question me?" racket in a new suit.

Never question Daddy, he's the man, and only he can "protect" you.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Who will protect the American rank and file from...Drunk Daddy?

Drunk with wealth and power and the corporate jackals want it all. Every last penny and totally unchallenged, unbridled, POWER! The power of life and slow death by attrition, over the lower 98% of the world's working poor.

[bemildred]

19. That's the problem we have. nt

[grasswire]

3. a new low

how many other "investigations" are avoided by this simple tactic?

No wonder why things never change; never move forward?

[bigtree]

6. worse

...as we've seen in the recent attempts by this administration to carry on the crack-down on whistleblowers and other press reporting on government practices and policy dating back before Barack Obama came to office, this information is already widely known and shared within the inner circles of government. What's occurring now is less of an attempt to keep the information from the notice of any foreign government or any other international source, as it's an effort to keep the American public from demanding they be held accountable.

[grasswire]

4. Obama must be fully in thrall to the CIA

Despite repeated requests from Feinstein and her investigators, the Oval Office refused to turn over more than 9,000 documents pertaining to the torture program. When concerns arose that the CIA was trying to stall public release of the report’s executive summary, lawmakers asked the White House to push forward the declassification process. It refused and, by some accounts, went on to assist the spies in delaying the summary’s release.

And as a constitutional tussle has played out between the CIA and Intelligence Committee Democrats over one contested document -- which lawmakers and the CIA’s own inspector general say culminated in the agency spying on Senate investigators -- the White House has been largely mute, leaving the two groups to duke it out on their own.

[bigtree]

5. this indicates that it's not just the administration that doesn't want the public to know details

...but a whole host of legislators and government officials who are invested in keeping this information from the public; presumably to protect their own prerogatives in continuing many of the practices and policies revealed in the torture report.

[grasswire]

8. very frightening nt

[Hubert Flottz]

12. Or to cover up their own complicity in taking part in okaying those dirty, immoral, inhuman, deeds.

Like the cowardly politicians in both parties, who went along without throwing a challenge flag, for the sake of, what was the right/legal/moral, things to do at the time. Afraid of being made to look soft on terrorism by the Bush/corporate media "Terra" blitz movement. So afraid that they went along to get along. Cowards then and the same cringing misfits, to this day. Their political greed, totally overpowers their sense of guilt to this day, just like the criminals who justified and carried out the actual torture, murder and crimes against humanity.

The enablers can't handle the truth, anymore than the actual perpetrators. If there is a God I'm betting he/she, knows the truth, just like you and me. "We," became "Them,&quot the bad guys) too, because our dollars paid for it all. The failure to disclose the facts and the blame, just digs us into a deeper hole, in the eyes of the world.

[TwilightGardener]

13. Yes. They're not worried about what we did ten years ago, they're not

worried about what will happen ten years from now. ALL PARTIES are worried about being exposed and held accountable in some way--end of story.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. All is forgiven for the top 1%

To rich to jail. Bernie went to prison for ripping off some wealthy people. Even the ENRON gang only got a slap on the wrist if that.

"No Justice No Peace," has a nice ring to it...kind of like that old liberty bell.

[MADem]

20. CIA and DOD have probably shared their copy/knowledge with other agencies.

You need a little plausible deniability until you can figure out a game plan.

That's not an "endorsement" that's just a statement of probable likelihood.

And Feinstein (funny how she didn't get much love when she was chairing the committee...now, out of power, relegated to "ranking," she's perceived as the beacon of hope) is in no position to make any demands now--she doesn't have the microphone any more:

And as a constitutional tussle has played out between the CIA and Intelligence Committee Democrats over one contested document -- which lawmakers and the CIA’s own inspector general say culminated in the agency spying on Senate investigators -- the White House has been largely mute, leaving the two groups to duke it out on their own.

The executive branch’s apparent failure thus far to delve into the behemoth study as Feinstein wished -- in the hope that its gruesome accounts would deter the nation from ever torturing again -- underscores the study's uncertain future. The committee’s new Republican leaders have made no secret of their disdain for the document. In a clear change from Feinstein's tenure, Burr is campaigning to snatch back copies of the report and has signaled his intention to return to the CIA the particular contested document.

Certain Democratic lawmakers, including Wyden, and human rights groups have called for the public release of the full study.

But if officials in some of the most relevant, appropriately cleared agencies haven’t laid eyes on it, does the public even have a chance?

I think, short term, the answer is NO. Doesn't mean I'm "happy" that this is the case, but that's the conclusion I came to....