The CIA was sued by a conservative watchdog group on Monday in an effort to force the government into releasing further details about pornography recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound in 2011.
Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation that focuses on uncovering governmental misconduct, said in its lawsuit that a District Court judge should compel the CIA to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year concerning materials found by Navy SEALs during the deadly raid on the former Al Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad hideout.
In a June 2015 request for documents, Judicial Watch asked the CIA for copies of “All pornographic material collected during and/or after the U.S. military operation in Abbotabad, Pakistan on or about May 1, 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden,” along with an index cataloging the items recovered.
The CIA acknowledged in July that it had received the FOIA request, but Judicial Watch says the agency has failed thus far to provide any further details regarding the terror leader’s porn collection.
“Plaintiff is being irreparably harmed by reason of Defendant’s unlawful withholding of records responsive to Plaintiff’s FOIA request, and Plaintiff will continue to be irreparably harmed unless Defendant is compelled to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law,” Judicial Watch wrote in this week’s filing.
Existence of bin Laden’s porn collection was revealed by Reuters in an exclusive report published less than two weeks after the Al Qaeda leader was killed inside his home by U.S. Navy SEALs.
Bin Laden’s porn stash “consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive,” Reuters reported then, citing current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The case has been assigned to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a U.S. District Court judge in D.C. who has reportedly landed on President Obama’s short-list of potential Supreme Court nominees, Politico reported on Tuesday.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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