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Second Circuit rules DOD may withhold documents relating to detainee abuse

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday ruled that the US Department of Defense (DOD) may withhold from the Associated Press (AP) certain documents relating to investigations of detainee abuse at the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Monday's decision reverses an earlier decision by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that granted partial summary judgment to the AP and and ordered the DOD to disclose certain records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In his opinion, Judge Peter Hall held that the detainees have a privacy interest in their identifying information and that the AP failed to show how the disclosure of the information would serve the public interest:We find that disclosing the family members' names and addresses to the AP, and consequently to the public at large, involves a measurable privacy interest because the information that would be revealed by disclosure is the type of information that a person would ordinarily not wish to make known about himself or herself. ... We conclude that the public interest in evaluating whether DOD properly followed-up on the detainees' claims of mistaken identity have been adequately served by the disclosure of the redacted information and that disclosing names and addresses of the family members would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the family members' privacy interest because such disclosure would not shed any light on DOD's action in connection with the detainees' claims at issue here.Last month, US senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) released the executive summary of a Senate Armed Services Committee report that says senior US officials are to blame for the use of abusive interrogation techniques against detainees held at Guantanamo. The report was the result of the committee's inquiry into what caused detainee abuses and follows hearings on the matter in June and September. The Bush administration has received widespread criticism for the contents of various documents from the Department of Justice, DOD, and Office of Legal Counsel supporting the use of harsh interrogation techniques against detainees.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).