DOJ IG Report Takes It Easy on FBIThe DOJ inspector general’s report on the FBI’s role in detainee interrogations that we previewed yesterday has now been released — all 370 pages plus appendices.
You can read the report in its entirety here (.pdf).
As Andrew Zajac at The Swamp notes, “The tortured title of the report — A Review of the FBI’s Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq — suggests a certain amount of hairsplitting and eggshell-walking.”
We’ll have more shortly.
Late Update: The bottom line of the report?
In Sum, while our report concluded that the FBI could have provided clearer guidance earlier, and while the FBI and DOJ could have pressed harder for resolution of FBI concerns about detainee treatment, we believe the FBI should be credited for its conduct and professionalism in detainee interrogations in the military zones and in generally avoiding participation in detainee abuse.
Later Update: The ACLU finds the report more troubling than exculpatory:
Jameel Jaffer, national security director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the report “shows a failure of leadership on the part of senior FBI officials.”“Senior FBI officials knew as early as 2002 that other agencies were using abusive interrogation methods,” Jaffer said. “The report shows unequivocally, however, that the FBI’s leadership failed to act aggressively to end the abuse.”
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.