Cheney Denied on CIA Document Release

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports:  Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s request for declassification of documents he believes shows the effectiveness of the Bush administration enhanced interrogation techniques program has been denied. As a part of his very public and prolonged media tour arguing against Obama administration policies, former Vice President Dick Cheney has called for President Obama to tell more than one side of the story surrounding the recently released Justice Department memos which crafted the legal justification for employing interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which the president believes constitutes torture. A spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency cites pending lawsuits and a Bush era executive order as the reason Mr. Cheney’s request has been denied. "That [Execuitve] Order excludes from review information that is the subject of pending litigation. The two documents that former Vice President Cheney sought contain information that falls into that category,” said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. “For that reason — and that reason only — CIA did not accept Mr. Cheney’s request for a Mandatory Declassification Review. The Agency simply followed the Executive Order. This request was handled in accordance with normal practice by CIA professionals with long experience in information management and release. It was for them a straightforward issue,” he added. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of lying to her about the use of waterboarding as an interrogation tactic in a September 2002 intelligence briefing.

There is an appeals process under the Executive Order in question that ultimately ends up at the White House. ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.