Leahy To White House: Declassify Torture Document

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Three Of Four Documents Made Available To Judiciary Committee Previously In Public Domain

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, Oct. 30) – Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday repeated his call for the White House to declassify one of four torture documents provided to the Committee last week. The documents were supplied to Leahy after repeated requests for full disclosure of the Administration’s interrogation policies and the legal basis for those policies.

In a letter sent Oct. 26 to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Leahy renewed those requests and asked that the Administration declassify a memorandum dated March 13, 2003, from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo to William J. Haynes, the Defense Department’s General Counsel.

On Tuesday, Leahy released the three unclassified documents, noting that all three had been previously available in the public domain.

“I was encouraged when the White House provided four documents for review concerning this Administration’s position on torture. Now we learn that three of those long-delayed documents have already been in the public domain,” said Leahy. “I am again calling on the White House to provide a declassified version of the memorandum of March 13, 2003, and to promptly fulfill my longstanding requests for documents relating to this Administration’s policies, both past and present, on torture.”

The three unclassified documents provided to Leahy are available online:

July 14, 2004, testimony of Patrick Philbin to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

December 30, 2004, memo from Daniel Levin, Acting Assistant Attorney General, to James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General

February 4, 2005, letter from Daniel Levin, Acting Assistant Attorney General, to William J. Haynes II, General Counsel, Department of Defense

Source: Senator Patrick Leahy