The CIA Photos and the Gitmo Lawyers

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Last August, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had launched an inquiry—later headed by famed leak investigator Patrick Fitzgerald—after Guantanamo defense lawyers allegedly showed pictures of CIA personnel to their clients, a group of high value detainees that included the most notorious terrorism suspects in US custody. Along with their military lawyers, these detainees were represented by civilian defense lawyers affiliated with an ACLU-backed initiative called the John Adams Project. Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, later acknowledged that the ACLU had indeed retained private investigators to identify CIA officers involved with the so-called “enhanced interrogation” of accused terrorists. And he insisted the John Adams lawyers had violated no laws. But the ACLU refused to comment further on its apparent targeting of CIA personnel.

The controversy has simmered on for almost a year, and there remain a number of unknowns in the case. Today, in a piece that appears in July/August issue of Mother Jones, Daniel Schulman and I shed some light on one of them: The identity of the investigator the ACLU tapped to identify and obtain photographs the CIA personnel. You can read the whole piece here.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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