ABFFE Urges President to End CIA Obstruction of Congressional Report

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has joined civil liberties and open government groups in urging President Obama to speed the release of a Congressional report on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program that detained suspected terrorists in secret prisons and subjected them to coercive interrogation techniques following the 9/11 attacks. The Senate Intelligence Committee has been seeking to declassify its 6,000-page report, which is reportedly highly critical of the CIA. The CIA, which claims it contains errors, has been blocking it.

ABFFE and 33 other organizations sent a letter asking the president to declassify the report and stop the CIA from interfering with the Congressional committees that are charged with ensuring that government intelligence agencies are complying with the law. “The public has a right to know the details of the detention and interrogation program,” said ABFFE President Chris Finan. “It also needs assurance that Congress is not prevented from overseeing secret government programs that could threaten civil liberties.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the intelligence committee, charged last week that the CIA had spied on the committee staff and surreptitiously removed hundreds of pages of documents from a committee computer. The CIA denies this and accuses the committee of illegally obtaining a copy of its internal review of the interrogation program. Both charges are being investigated by the Obama administration.