According to a press release from Chairman Feinstein yesterday, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has “voted to declassify the 480-page executive summary as well as 20 findings and conclusions of the majority’s five-year study of the CIA Detention and Interrogation Program, which involved more than 100 detainees.”
But, wait, SSCI can’t “declassify” anything. Classification and declassification are internal executive branch procedures. Indeed, the press release goes on to say:
The executive summary, findings, and conclusions—which total more than 500 pages—will be sent to the president for declassification review and subsequent public release. President Obama has indicated his support of declassification of these parts of the report and CIA Director Brennan has said this will happen expeditiously. Until the declassification process is complete and that portion of the report is released, it will remain classified.
That makes it sound as if SSCI has merely asked the executive branch to declassify the materials, which is quite different from actually declassifying them.
So what is actually going on here? Continue reading “Is SSCI Following the Senate Rules?”