Democrats worry GOP is trying to bury torture report

Documentation of CIA treatment of detainees post-9/11 still in feds’ possession

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers and rights groups criticized the Republican head of the Senate intelligence committee on Friday for seeking the return of copies of a report on CIA treatment of detainees after 9/11, saying he is trying to “erase history” by making it harder for the public to ever see the classified document.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said federal courts have ruled the report is a congressional document and asked for copies held by intelligence bodies and other executive branch agencies to be returned. If the report remained in the hands of executive branch officials, it would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Congressional materials are not.

The CIA and the agency’s inspector general’s office, as well as the national intelligence director’s office, have returned their copies. The FBI and the State, Justice and Defense departments also have copies of the 6,770-page classified report.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a former Democratic chairman of the committee, called Burr’s move was “alarming and concerning.” The so-called ‘torture report’ has a long history. The Senate intelligence committee spent years investigating the CIA’s detention and harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists captured by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. The techniques authorized by the Bush administration included waterboarding. Interrogations were conducted in clandestine prisons around the world that were not in the jurisdiction of U.S. courts or the military justice system.

In December 2014, the committee published a declassified summary of the report. The full report remained classified, but it was sent to several government agencies. Democrats and Republicans fought over the contents. In 2015, Burr asked government agencies under the Obama administration to send report copies back. They didn’t.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the CIA for the entire classified report, but didn’t get it.

There are certain copies of the report, however, that might not be returned. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Feinstein in a written response to questions that he would not return the Justice Department’s copy of the report to the Senate.

Katherine Hawkins, senior counsel at the Constitution Project, an advocacy group, said another copy is included in Obama’s presidential papers, which are being handled by the National Archives. That copy is subject to the Presidential Records Act, and getting that declassified could take years and might never happen.

Hawkins said the Defense Department’s copy also is particularly important because it provides evidence that could be used in the military commission trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees. A military commission judge this week ordered the Defense Department to preserve its copy so it could possibly be used in the trial of Majid Khan, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the detainee. Democratic senators and rights groups were unanimous in their opposition to Burr’s move.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, tweeted that the report “must be preserved so we can learn from past mistakes and ensure that abuses are never repeated.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a former member of the intelligence committee, said, “The report contains difficult facts to face, but they must be aired.”