Redacted CIA document about torture almost entirely blacked out

On the ACLU's blog, they have a PDF of a CIA redacted document about the use of torture. The page is entirely blacked out except for the phrase, "These enhanced techniques include:" and then farther down the page, "waterboard."

Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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anthropomorphictoast

Well, let’s see…completely ignoring the huge-ass slabs of black ink, I gather: They go surfing…?

I think they’re just getting lazy with blacking text out, there should at least be some more nouns or something visible.
flipa

“I’m as frustrated as anyone. You can’t read a single thing that’s been highlighted. Had I been there to advise [former CIA director] Allen Dulles, I would have suggested the traditional yellow color â€” or pink.”
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43014
The Unusual Suspect

That’s just ##########.

######### ### ################# ##### ############# ## ###### ############## ####### ## ### ######### ############### to really ####### #### # ##### ###########.

##### ########## #### ### ############ ###### ######### ## ## ##### again.
Lilorfnannie

I clicked on the link & it was incorrect, I got “http://www.http.com//blog.aclu.org/2008/05/28/knee-jerk-redaction/”. I believe the correct link is: http://blog.aclu.org/2008/05/28/knee-jerk-redaction/
James David

For Reasons of State is an art exhibit related to this kind of censorship. Here’s an excerpt from a review at ArtThreat:

The exhibition, which opened on May 16 at The Kitchen, explores government secrecy and censorship. Installations involve a myriad of information technologies – surveillance video, voice mail, 16 mm film, photography.
Ned613

Redacted. It’s the new black.
DKH

I’m sure the CIA will simply claim that their staff was using black highlighters.
tresser

CIA is just doing a cheap version of the Blackout poetry.

http://www.austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/
Antinous

Link fixed.
mdhatter

What did freedom ever do to us that we would torture and mock it so?
r1ch

Fans of Catch-22 are no doubt looking for Washington Irving’s signature at the bottom of the document.
codereduk

I’m thinking this is more like the CIA’s tribute to that great abstract artist Ad Reinhardt and his famous black period.

Here is some of his work at the
Guggenheim
Tenn

A thousand and one thanks for the link, Tresser @6.

That’s an interesting site with some great results, I’m going to try my hand at it next!
Anonymous

This document is not at all unusual. I spent 4 years in University studying the American Intelligence community. I would say that at least 3 out of 10 documents I viewed through archives such as the Declassified Documents Reference Service were redacted to the point of being useless. This did not occur on CIA documents only, but on National Security Council, Department of State, and often on DEA documents. Redacting is more of a face saving feature of the FOIA request process. What is far more sinister is that over the last 6 years, the CIA as well as other agencies have begun to reclassify documents that have been declassified for over thirty years. That means that documents going all the way back to Nixon that are already in the public domain have been reclassified, making it technically treasonous to have them in your possession, which essentially makes a whole school of academics and their students enemies of the state simply for having a document that prior to this administration was perfectly legal to obtain, reference and keep. The National Security Archive run by George Washington University has an excellent article on this new practice.
Takuan

why do they bother reclassifying? The shredders have been running white hot at Langley and the White House for months now. They all KNOW what is coming.
homestarrunrun

See Potter Puppet Pals “Wizard Swears” when Dumbledore tells the Elder Swear

“Your mother is a ####################### hippopatamus ######### lorem ipsum ################ with a bucket of ############# soup ######### Mickey Mouse ############### Republican ############ Daniel Radcliffe ###################### in a castle far far away where no one can hear you ############################### ################################## ############################### ################################### ALAKAZAM!”

Man, they must be doing some legal stuff in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. I sure do love George Bush.
Cpt. Tim

I like how this kind of shit is scarier than terrorism.

I have never even considered myself in danger of being killed by terrorists.

But thanks to the last 8 years i can easily see being black bagged and tortured for attending a vegan potluck.
jbettineski

This is nice and ironic:

———-
Notorious human rights abusers… have sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors…

The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.

I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, an prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment…
———

Followed immediately by 14 pages of black.
mark zero

I guess they decided the cat was out of the bag on waterboarding. :)
bpfinn

It looks like Valerie Wilson’s autobiography.
Mike

It’s a little alarming that waterboarding is the only “enhanced technique” that isn’t redacted
Frank_in_Virginia

Will boingboing post a link to the War Crimes trial for Mr. Bush, Cheney, et. al. so we can watch them hang at the Hague?

Clearly we have them on Numbers 2., 5., and 6.

War crimes are defined in the statute that established the International Criminal Court, which includes:

Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, such as:

1. Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
2. Torture or inhumane treatment
3. Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property
4. Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power
5. Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial
6. Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer
7. Taking hostages

However the court only has jurisdiction over these crimes where they are “part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes” [[No Problem there; It is the "Bush Doctrine".]]
Agent 86

To be fair, anything they deem legal can and will be used against them outside a court of law, when we deny Bush&Co a trial.
gATO

I wonder… is there any way of recovering the blacked-out text? Also, this blacking-out applies only to released documents, right? so, in a cabinet or hard drive somewhere, there’s an intact copy?
Takuan

Page last updated at 21:14 GMT, Wednesday, 28 May 2008 22:14 UK

Monbiot fails to ‘arrest’ Bolton
George Monbiot is led away by security officers
George Monbiot was led away as the tried to make his citizen’s arrest

Campaigner George Monbiot said he would continue his attempt to serve arrest paper on politicians involved in the decision to go to war in Iraq.

He was unable to make a citizen’s arrest of former American Ambassador to the UN John Bolton at the Hay Festival.

Mr Monbiot was dragged away by security officers as he tried to approach Mr Bolton, who was at the festival to talk on international relations.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Monbiot said he planned to pursue former PM Tony Blair.

He said he considered Mr Blair and other leading politicians to be war criminals who had breached international law by their involvement in the decision making process which led to the Iraq war.
Takuan

sorry Frank, they’re covered
http://www.newstrend.com/2006/10/war-crimes-detainees-bush.html
Takuan

does this count as a war crime?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/soldier.electrocutions/index.html
pauldrye

@14: Reminds me of an old joke about a guy who’s laughing about a dirty limerick and his little boy asks him to tell it. He consents, but says that since it’s a dirty limerick, he’ll say “blank” whenever the word is too harsh for his little boy’s ears. The limerick then runs:

Blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank
Blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank
Blank blank blank blank blank
Blank blank blank blank blank
Blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank f**k.
Frank_in_Virginia

So like Mr. Bush to shit on the Constitution and call it “Spreading Democracy”. I can’t help but to hope that a provision within the International Criminal Court states “local” laws can’t be used to hide from War Crimes.

Thank you Mr. Monbiot!
Frank_in_Virginia

Not sure Takuan, but it too stinks.

Such telling details in the story:

…KBR noted “several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices.” But KBR’s contract did not cover “fixing potential hazards.” It covered repairing items only after they broke down…

/////KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) NYSE: KBR is an American engineering and construction company, formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton, based in Houston./////

////Most likely they make a couple of extra bucks to fix it after they killed this soldier.////