Redactions

[trudogg]

Shortly after 9/11, an Egyptian national named Abdallah Higazy was
rounded up by the FBI and told to confess that he had been part of the
plot. If he didn't, he was warned, things would go badly for his
family. So he confessed. But then it turned out the FBI had made a
mistake. He wasn't part of the 9/11 plot after all.

So he sued the FBI. On Thursday the Second Circuit Court issued an
opinion in the case, but a few minutes later the decision was pulled
down from the court's website. Steve Bergstein tells the story:

http://tinyurl.com/35mqxp

The next day, the Court of Appeals reissued the Higazy opinion.
With a redaction. The court simply omitted from the revised decision
facts about how the FBI agent extracted the false confession from
Higazy. For some reason, this information is classified. Just as the
opinion gets interesting, when we are about to learn how an FBI agent
named Templeton squeezed the "truth" out of Higazy, the opinion reads
at page 7: "This opinion has been redacted because portions of the
record are under seal. For the purposes of the summary judgment
motion, Templeton did not contest that Higazy's statements were
coerced."

Obvious lessons here: (a) forced confessions aren't worth the tape
they're recorded on, and (b) redactions for national security reasons
often aren't for national security reasons at all. But you already
knew that, didn't you?

Read the full story at Bergstein's blog, complete with many links and
a copy of the redacted portion of the opinion. (Via Howard Bashman via
Patterico via Instapundit.)

http://tinyurl.com/36zvtq
http://tinyurl.com/2sh7tu
http://tinyurl.com/2tddpv

揖evin Drum

[trudogg]

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:28:57 -0800, "Wade Ward" <zax...@invalid.net>
wrote:

>> Obvious lessons here: (a) forced confessions aren't worth the tape
>> they're recorded on, and (b) redactions for national security reasons
>> often aren't for national security reasons at all. But you already
>> knew that, didn't you?

>This is the part that frosts me about repug "national defense" policies.
>The effect of torturing people isn't good for intelligence or for trying to
>make yourselves a new country. All they do is strengthen our enemies. I
>have no doubt why they are currently so numerous.

...the other side of that coin is they are, seemingly against all
evidence, unaware of the real effect their policies are having. The
Ugly American has never been uglier thanks to Bush and Cheney. And now
that fucking draft dogding chickenshit is trying to start more with
Iran. Toto, we ain't in Kansas no mo'...