One Utah

The New York Times reports that five years ago President Bush signed a document that authorized the CIA to establish a system of secret prisons. According to unconfirmed reports, the prisons, called “black sites” in agency parlance, were set up in a number of countries on at least three continents. The existence of the CIA prison system was officially denied by the U.S. Government until President Bush admitted the truth in a speech on September 6, 2006.

The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency’s interrogation and detention of terror suspects.

The C.I.A. referred to the documents in a letter sent Friday from the agency’s associate general counsel, John L. McPherson, to lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is “a directive signed by President Bush granting the C.I.A. the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees,” the A.C.L.U. said, based on its review of published accounts.

The second document, according to the group, is a Justice Department legal analysis “specifying interrogation methods that the C.I.A. may use against top Al Qaeda members.”

UPDATE:  Senator Patrick Leahy has requested copies of the CIA documents and any other documents relating to the administration’s policies on detainees.

This entry was posted Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 9:26 am and is filed under George W. Bush, Human Rights, National Politics, The Constitution, This Blog. Both comments and pings are currently closed.