Federal Judge Orders CIA To Turn Over "Torture Memo"

Looks like the feds are finally getting interested in the Bush administration’s illegal activity. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of New York yesterday ordered the CIA “to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad.”

The investigation is part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other organizations. According to a press release from the ACLU:

"This memo authorized the CIA to use specific torture techniques – including waterboarding," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "As Attorney General Mukasey has acknowledged, CIA agents waterboarded prisoners because this memo told them that they could. The memo is being withheld not for legitimate security reasons, but in order to protect government officials from accountability for their decisions."

For almost four years, the ACLU has been challenging the government's assertion that the OLC memo could not be released because of attorney-client privilege. The ACLU has argued that the privilege does not apply to a legal memo that the CIA adopted as a matter of policy. At a hearing in January, the judge sided with the government, but he reconsidered his decision after senior officials publicly acknowledged that the CIA had waterboarded three prisoners and after Attorney General Michael Mukasey stated to Congress that the CIA's interrogation program had been authorized by the OLC.

More on this at the ACLU website.