Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Drone Papers Aftermath: ACLU
Demands Secret Program Data
The Freedom of Information Act was put into law to hold
officials accountable in cases just like this, ACLU argues
With Monday's appeal brief, the ACLU is kick-starting a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed in January 2010 to force the CIA to
give up data on its secretive drone program. (Photo: Steve Rhodes/flickr/cc)
The ACLU on Monday filed an appeal brief
demanding that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hand over data on its
secretive global drone program, including the identities of people killed by
airstrikes carried out by the U.S. military in Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan.
No information on the program, including its legal
justification, has been officially disclosed to the public.
The Intercept last week published The Drone Papers, a months-long
investigation into the program that used a cache of intelligence documents
leaked by an anonymous whistleblower to reveal the operation's internal
structure and the chain of command underlying the military's aerial
assassinations. In the aftermath of the report, the ACLU and several other human
rights and civil liberties organizations demanded
immediate accountability for the officials involved.
With Monday's appeal brief, the ACLU is breathing new life into
a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed in January 2010 to force the
CIA to give up the data.
The information "is crucial to the public’s ability to
understand government policy and hold policymakers accountable for their
decisions," the brief states. The FOIA was put into law to "guarantee
the public access to the kind of information the CIA is now withholding."
In addition to the CIA's program, the ACLU is also seeking
information on a similar
operation being conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Together, the two programs are estimated
to have killed thousands of civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and
Afghanistan, according to independent calculations by journalists, analysts,
and other sources on the ground in those countries.
The case has been slow to move through federal courts. A 2013
decision by a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. rejected the CIA's argument
that disclosing data on its drone program would jeopardize national security—but
in June of this year, Judge Rosemary Collyer with the D.C. district court ruled
(pdf) in favor of the agency, allowing it to keep the information secret.
But Collyer got it wrong, says ACLU deputy legal director Jameel
Jaffer. He writes in an op-ed published
Tuesday:
According
to credible, independent studies, the strikes have killed more than three
thousand people, including hundreds of civilians. Although many Americans have
raised questions about the effectiveness, morality, and lawfulness of the
government’s drone campaign, the government has exercised tight control over
the information available to the public.
The ACLU filed a FOIA request in the case "to compel the
release of information that is crucial to the public’s ability to understand
government policy and hold policymakers accountable for their decisions,"
Jaffer wrote.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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