Amrit Singh [Staff attorney, ACLU]: "For almost four years now, the ACLU has been litigating under the Freedom of Information Act for the disclosure of government documents relating to the torture of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad since September 11, 2001. The Bush administration, however, continues to fight tooth and nail to withhold key policy documents authorizing the torture of prisoners. One such key policy document being withheld is an August 2002 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo specifying for CIA use numerous abusive interrogation techniques, reportedly including waterboarding. (This document was issued at about the same time as the infamous "torture memo" in which then Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee took the position that abuse does not rise to the level of torture under U.S. law unless it inflicts pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death"). In a significant ruling issued on May 8, 2008, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the CIA to produce the August 2002 OLC memo in court for in camera review.

At a hearing in January, the judge initially bought the government's argument that the August 2002 OLC memo could be withheld on grounds of the attorney client privilege, and declined at that time to conduct an in camera review of that document. He however reconsidered that decision in light of the ACLU's argument that the document could not be withheld under the attorney-client privilege because it had been adopted as official government policy. Indeed, on February 7, 2008, in an oversight hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Michael Mukasey specifically acknowledged that the OLC had issued an opinion "authorizing" the CIA to use a number of interrogation methods including waterboarding, and that the Justice Department could not therefore criminally investigate the CIA for using that method.

The memo was reviewed in camera by Judge Hellerstein on May 12, 2008. That review should only confirm that the memo should be released so that the administration's illegal and immoral torture policies can be fully exposed."