Zahir v. Bush ( 2011 )

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
______________________________
)
ABDUL ZAHIR, )
)
Petitioner, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 05-1623 (RWR)
)
GEORGE W. BUSH et al., )
)
Respondents. )
______________________________)
ORDER
On December 22, 2010, the respondents filed a consent motion
to deem protected information highlighted in the proposed public
factual return for petitioner Abdul Zahir. On May 12, 2011,
Judge Hogan issued an order granting the government’s motion to
designate as protected under the Protective Order governing the
Guantánamo Bay detainee litigation “sensitive but unclassified
information falling within one of the following six categories”:
1. Names and/or other information that would tend to
identify certain U.S. government employees, FBI Joint
Terrorism Task Force members, or contractors —
specifically, law enforcement officers, agents,
translators, intelligence analysts, or interrogators,
all below the Senior Exectuive Service or General
Officer level — [or] the family members of detainees.
2. Information that would reveal the existence, focus,
or scope of law enforcement or intelligence operations,
including the sources, witnesses, or methods used and
the identity of persons of interest.
3. Information indicating the names or locations,
including geo-coordinates, of locations of interest as
they pertain to counter-terrorism intelligence
gathering, law enforcement, or military operations,
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where the Government has not previously acknowledged
[publicly] its knowledge of those names or locations.
4. Information that would reveal the Government’s
knowledge of telephone numbers, websites, passwords,
passcodes, and e-mail addresses used by known or
suspected terrorists, or discussions of the manner in
which known or suspected terrorists use these methods
for communications with one another.
5. Information regarding the use, effectiveness, or
details regarding the implementation of certain
interrogation approaches and techniques approved by
Executive Order 13491 and described in the Army Field
Manual No. 2-22.3.
6. Certain administrative data, operational
“nicknames,” code words, dates of acquisition,
including dates of interrogations, and FBI case names
and file numbers, contained in the intelligence
documents included in the factual returns.
In re Guantánamo Bay Detainee Litig., 08-MC-442 (TFH), 2011
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58856, at *5-7 (D.D.C. May 12, 2011). Upon
review of the material submitted by the respondents, and in light
of the petitioner’s consent and lack of public objection, it is
hereby
ORDERED that the respondents’ motion [163] to deem as
protected the material highlighted in the accompanying proposed
public factual return be, and hereby is, GRANTED, and the
information identified by the respondents with green highlighting
in the version of the factual return submitted under seal is
deemed protected under paragraphs 10 and 34 of the Protective
Order governing the Guantánamo Bay detainee litigation. It is
further
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ORDERED that the respondents file by October 4, 2011, a
properly redacted public version of this factual return on the
public docket.
SIGNED this 20th day of September, 2011.
/s/
RICHARD W. ROBERTS
United States District Judge