Obama to Release Key Torture Report

Mark your calendars: Next Friday, the Obama administration plans to release a once-secret report on the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program which many experts and critics consider the Rosetta Stone to understanding how agency officers conducted themselves in the operation, the New York Times reports today.

Bits and pieces of the report – the result of a 2004 investigation by then-CIA Inspector General John Helgerson – are already public.

In particular, Helgerson reportedly concluded the program, which sought to elicit actionable intelligence from the agency’s “high-value” terror detainees, violated international bans on torture, including the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the United States signed.

Helgerson’s report contains “the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses” in the controversial interrogation program, knowledgeable officials told the Washington Post earlier this year.

Helgerson’s investigation included “more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents,” the Post said.

In short, it’s the most thorough investigation of the program to date, and it’s been kept secret until now. No word on how heavily the Obama administration might redact the report. But expect it to fuel more criticism of the now-defunct program.