A less redacted version of the CIA Inspector General's report on torture is scheduled to be released today.
A lot seems to be happening about it. Here are some links.
Panetta Response
CIA Director Leon Panetta has just sent this letter to the CIA in advance of today’s anticipated release of the 2004 CIA inspector general report on torture — and, quite possibly, an investigation from Attorney General Eric Holder into the same. The last time he sent one of these, it was to buck up agency morale after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of misleading congress on torture.
Spencer Ackerman
Panetta's preemptive message may signal that the report contains even more damaging information than anticipated about Bush-era abuses.
TPM
Dick Cheney reportedly met repeatedly with IG John Helgerson about the report. Panetta now seems to have some lack of confidence about some of what the report says:
I make no judgments on the accuracy of the 2004 IG report.
Leon Panetta
OPR Investigation
The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter.
The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, presented to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in recent weeks, comes as the Justice Department is about to disclose on Monday voluminous details on prisoner abuse that were gathered in 2004 by the C.I.A.’s inspector general but have never been released.
NYT
The involvement of the OPR is a bit odd and notable.
Creation of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group
President Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects, part of a broader effort to revamp U.S. policy on detention and interrogation, senior administration officials said Sunday.
WaPo
The structure of the new unit the White House is creating would depart significantly from such work under the previous administration, when the CIA had the lead and sometimes exclusive role in questioning al-Qaida suspects.
AP
The unit will be housed at the FBI headquarters in Washington and be overseen by the White House.
...
Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton confirmed the new interrogation team would bring "all the different elements under one group" but stressed that the CIA was not leaving the interrogation business altogether.
BBC
Spencer Ackerman
Panetta Infighting
A "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning internal investigation, has administration officials worrying about the direction of its newly-appoint intelligence team, current and former senior intelligence officials tell ABC News.com.
ABC News
The article itself reports three kinds of complaints Panetta has regarding his position:
* The imminent appointment of a prosecutor to investigate torture and dealing with the Democrats in the House
* Panetta's subordinate position with respect to Dennis Blair
* Panetta's discomfort with "with some of the operations being carried out by the CIA that he did not know about until he took the job"
Of note, those are unlike things.
emptywheel
Mohammed Jawad Released
American Civil Liberties Union client Mohammed Jawad was released from Guantánamo and returned to Afghanistan today, ending nearly seven years of illegal detention by the U.S.
ACLU
Mohammed Jawad, one of the youngest people held at Guantanamo, was flown from the U.S. base in Cuba over the weekend and released to his family by Afghan authorities, said Air Force Maj. David Frakt.
"Jawad is in Kabul with his family," Frakt told The Associated Press.
Frakt said Jawad, now about 21, hopes to go to school and "make up for lost time" after nearly seven years in custody.
U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said he could not confirm that Jawad was sent home, though a federal judge ordered him released in July. The judge concluded the government's case against him was an "outrage" and "full of holes."
AP
Reconstructing the Report
Emptywheel has reverse engineered some of what the report says, from quotes and cites in other documents, and reposts for the re-release.