For this week’s FOIA round-up, the Central Intelligence Agency won’t tell the family of a tortured suspect where his body is, journalists file over 500 public records request to track police use of force, and the University of Arizona spends big money on NCAA corruption investigations.
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CIA won’t disclose location of Afghan suspect’s body
Gul Rahman was tortured by the CIA over the course of three weeks in late 2002. While in CIA custody, Rahman died of hypothermia after being left half-nude in his cell overnight where temperatures dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rahman’s family was not notified of his death at the time, and the CIA only confirmed his death in December 2014 after the agency released a summary of a 6,000-page report on its detention and interrogation methods. The CIA did not disclose the location of Rahman’s body, and his family and the ACLU have filed a FOIA lawsuit to produce all records related to his death, according to the Huffington Post. Rahman’s daughter spoke on the issue in an ACLU press release:
“I have faith that people in America will know the right thing for their government to do is to tell me and my family what happened to my father’s body,” Hajira Hematyara, Rahman’s daughter, said in an ACLU press release. “Only then will we be able to do right by my father and give him a proper funeral.”
Read more here.
Tracking use of force by NJ police
This week, NJ Advance Media launched the “Force Report” a comprehensive database of “every punch, kick and pepper spray by N.J. police from 2012 to 2016.”
The investigation was the result of a team of reporters work over 16 months, and involved data from 506 public records requests.
Explore the database here.
University of Arizona spends $1.4 million on legal fees
According to the Arizona Republic, the University of Arizona spent $1.4 million in legal bills in connection to the FBI’s investigation into corruption in NCAA basketball. An assistant men’s basketball coach at the university, Emanuel “Book” Richardson, was arrested for federal bribery and conspiracy crimes last year. University spokesman Chris Sigurdson said the following about the legal expenses:
The university is paying for the independent investigation while the Athletics Department covers the cost of the law firm advising the university on potential NCAA matters. He said the legal bills are being paid from university revenues other than state money or tuition dollars.
The bills obtained by the Republic are heavily redacted and provide little information on the services provided by the law firms.
Read more here.
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Image via Dover Air Force Base
