From Jason Leopold at The Public Record: Late Monday evening, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice to obtain a copy of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA torture program.
The panel spent four years “reviewing” the CIA torture program, which cost taxpayers more than $40 million. The substance of the 6,000-page report and whether or not it will be declassified has been the subject of debate since the committee voted 9-6 last December to approve it. Last month, Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, a member of the Senate Intelligence Commitee, placed a hold on Obama’s nominee, Stephen Preston, who was tapped by the president to be general counsel at the Defense Department. Preston is currently CIA’s general counsel. Udall took action, he said, because he wants Preston to answer questions about the Senate’s report on the CIA’s torture program.
“At issue,” according to a report in The Daily Beast, “is whether the report should be declassified and released to the public.”
[. . .]
FOIA does not apply to Congress. Still, I want to report on the Senate’s findings. So, two weeks ago, I filed a FOIA request with DOJ to obtain the agency’s copy of the Senate report. My FOIA sought expedited processing, noting that as of late July a Google search of “CIA senate torture report” resulted in 4.6 million hits on the search engine, underscoring widespread media interest in the document.
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