| Show Intelligence chiefs back Guantanamo reversal Carol Caro D. D Leonnig f The Th Ya ost t r The Bush administrations administration's top intelligence officials have all filed declarations to a federal appeals court including two classified top-secret top warning that its recent ruling ordering the release of information about detainees at Guantanamo Bay Cuba will cause grave harm hann to national security The warnings including the directors of the National Security Agency the FBI and the CIA were filed Friday by the Justice Department as it seeks a reversal of the courts court's July ruling That decision allowed detainees' detainees lawyers to have access to information about their clients clients f as they challenge the detainees detainees' imprisonment The breadth of dis discovery overy apparently required by the Cour Courts Court's s decision will include information about virtually every weapon in the CIAs CIA's arsenal to co combat the terrorist threat to the United States CIA Director Michael chael Hayden said in a public version of his statement asking the court to reconsider He said exceptionally grave damage can be expected to too result if the ruling stands Director Keith Alexan Alexander er Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and FBI Director Robert Mueller also submitted declarations to persuade the court Haydens Hayden's and Alexanders Alexander's declarations were classified as top-secret top while Mueller's was classified as secret Justice Department attorneys made the highly unusual request that Haydens Hayden's and Alexanders Alexander's full arguments be stored in courthouse safes be viewed only by judges of the US U.S. Court of Appeals for forthe forthe forthe the District of Columbia Circuit and be kept out of sight of any 1 other court p so l the judges judges' law clerks because of the highly classified information the documents contain V Versions that do not convey convey classified information were also provided to the court These declarations generally explain the risks to national security imposed by the panels panel's decision the Justice Department attorneys wrote The July 20 ruling centered on how much information detainees should be able to see about the Defense Departments Department's decision to imprison them indefinitely as enemy combatants The appeals court ruled that the government must provide to judges and opposing counsel all alJ information n including classified d information used by Combatant Status Review Tribunals in making such determinations Courts need that information the judges wrote to properly determine whether the tribunals were fair to the detainees and whether the individuals should in fact be considered enemy combatants 1 Government lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the court courts s should uld review only wl what at was in the official records of the tribunals not all an all the evidence they had gathered to support the hearings The ruling was rendered by a three three judge judge panel of the appeals court and the government is asking the full member 10 court court to reconsider that decision To Todo Todo Todo do otherwise Justice Department attorneys wrote would severely restrict the governments government's a ability to collect intelligence and detect defect plots Each officials officials' declarations alleges that providing such classified information to detainees will likely lead to disclosure of secrets and harm the country's abil ability ty to gather intelligence |
