Two years ago the ACLU filed a request for records about torture and detainee abuse. Part of what they got was a list of 181 documents the government considered exempt from release. But when the feds took another look this year, they couldn’t find ten of the documents on the original list. What happened? Nick Baumann speculates:
“It was impossible to ascertain whether the discrepancy was the result of an error by the prior administration when it created the original…index or whether the prior administration misplaced the documents in question,” Tracy Schmaler,
a Justice Department spokeswoman, told Mother Jones. In other words, CIA and Justice Department lawyers might have mistakenly listed documents that never existed in the first place.
But is it plausible that the inconsistency could be merely a clerical error? After the Bush administration created the index, a CIA official swore under oath that she had reviewed the documents on the original list. And one of the disputed documents was listed on the original index as a 46-page memo “providing legal advice,” classified as top secret and dated 25 July 2002. Schmaler says the Obama administration’s search never found a document matching that description. Could the CIA and Justice Department lawyers who composed the original list have mistakenly included a non-existent memo — complete with a date and precise page count?
Well, maybe there were two 46-page memos written on 25 Jul 2002. Or, um, maybe it was actually a memo about restraining booze, not detainee abuse. Or something. I’m sure it will all be cleared up soon. Move along folks. Nothing to see here.
