老澳门开奖结果

The U.S. agency responsible for managing the federal prison system sent personnel to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan where detainees were tortured during the Bush administration鈥檚 鈥渨ar on terror鈥� and covered its involvement up, according to emails obtained by the 老澳门开奖结果 through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

As a result of our lawsuit, which we agreed to end yesterday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed not only that it had sent two employees to assist CIA officials at the secret prison, but that they had been instructed to take extraordinary measures to hide their involvement. As one email revealed in our lawsuit put it, 鈥淲e were not even allowed to speak with our supervisor about what was going on.鈥�

Nicknamed 鈥渢he Salt Pit鈥� and codenamed 鈥淐OBALT鈥� in the Senate torture report, this CIA 鈥渂lack site鈥� was an integral part of the CIA鈥檚 post-9/11 torture program. The CIA鈥檚 own chief interrogator later described the Salt Pit as being like a 鈥�.鈥� According to the Senate torture report, detainees were kept in total darkness, shackled to the floors or walls of their cells, and given only buckets to dispose of their own waste.

The Senate torture report also revealed that early in the Salt Pit鈥檚 operation, in November 2002, the CIA invited officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons 鈥� which runs the civilian federal prison system and provides technical assistance to state prison systems 鈥� to join them at the Salt Pit. The purpose of the visit was to evaluate the CIA鈥檚 management practices and provide technical assistance, much as the bureau does for civilian prison agencies.

But instead of raising alarms, bureau officials praised this dungeon. At one follow-up meeting described in the Senate torture report, they told CIA officials they were 鈥淲OW鈥檇鈥� by the extreme levels of sensory deprivation at the Salt Pit and had 鈥渘ever been in a facility where individuals are so sensory deprived.鈥� Nevertheless, they told the CIA officers that in their judgment, and taking into account 鈥渢he mission鈥� of the Salt Pit, 鈥渢he detainees were not being treated in humanely [sic],鈥� the facility was 鈥渟anitary鈥� and provided medical care, and 鈥渟taff did not mistreat the detainee[s].鈥�

Shortly after the Senate torture report was released, the 老澳门开奖结果 submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the bureau to find out more about this civilian agency鈥檚 potential involvement in CIA torture. At first, the bureau stonewalled, replying that no records of its CIA relationship existed and , 鈥淲e will not be providing any information regarding your inquiry.鈥� They continued to stonewall us in an administrative appeal. It was not until the 老澳门开奖结果 sued that the bureau reluctantly conducted new searches. These searches resulted in the production of several email messages and led the bureau鈥檚 attorneys to sign a remarkable sworn declaration describing the cover-up.

The emails confirm that two bureau officials traveled to both Guantanamo and an undisclosed location to provide training on, in the words of one of the two officials, 鈥渂asic correctional techniques, correctional duties, abnormal inmate behavior etc.鈥� They were instructed to keep the entire engagement secret, and 鈥淸w]e were not even allowed to speak with our supervisor about what was going on.鈥� In subsequent years, they also were interviewed twice by the FBI about the engagement.

The bureau鈥檚 sworn declaration confirms that the undisclosed location was a CIA detention site, that the dates of their visit to this site match those described in the Senate torture report, and that the CIA took extraordinary measures to prevent the bureau from generating any records of its involvement with this work. According to an interview described in the declaration, the two bureau officials (one of whom was based in bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the other of whom was based in an unnamed state in the Midwest) were not told why the other had been selected. There is no record of anyone in the bureau making the decision to select them for this assignment, and it is not clear whether the bureau or the CIA carried out that selection. They did not receive any written materials regarding the engagement. They were instructed not to discuss their participation with anyone and not to create or retain any records of it.

And although our lawsuit forced the bureau鈥檚 attorneys to search the travel records of both bureau employees, neither of their travel histories contained any records of international travel during the time when they visited the CIA black site together. Indeed, even though their travel histories did reflect travel to Guantanamo for similar training work for the Defense Department, their work for the CIA was even more secretive and off-the-books.

The 老澳门开奖结果 originally filed this lawsuit to expose past wrongs. The Bureau of Prisons鈥� work at the Salt Pit illustrates how torture 鈥� and the secrecy surrounding it 鈥� corrupts every institution it touches. This is more important than ever to remember when the man who will soon occupy the Oval Office has stated publicly the he 鈥渓ove[s] waterboarding鈥� and 鈥渨ould absolutely authorize something beyond waterboarding.鈥� Now is the time for federal officials to ask themselves: If torture once again becomes policy, will I have the courage to do the right thing and blow the whistle?