Guantanamo Prison FlightA US federal judge has ordered the CIA to release records regarding the treatment of prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay and other facilities in the "war on terror" to a civil rights groups.
District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's ruling rejected a CIA request that he suspend a similar order made in September for the documents to be handed over to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The CIA had challenged the original ruling by citing a provision in the Freedom of Information Act, allowing the spy agency to hold on to files still considered "operational".
Judge Hellerstein ruled that the CIA did not meet the statute's requirement that its director must explicitly claim an exemption for specifically categorised files.
"To date, defendant CIA has submitted no evidence that the director declared such an exemption. I decline to find that its operational files warrant any protection from the requirements of FOIA," Judge Hellerstein said.
The ACLU had requested the records in October 2003 but was turned down by the intelligence agency.
Subsequent requests were also denied, and the ACLU eventually decided to sue for the documents' release in court. The ACLU argued that the records would shed light on the interrogation policies that authorised or allowed abuse or torture of prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.
There was no immediate word from government lawyers on whether the CIA would appeal.
By Just Us 3 February 05
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