[wvns] C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations
C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations
By MARK MAZZETTI
December 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/washington/06cnd-intel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed
at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda
operatives in the agency's custody, a step it took in the midst of
Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A's secret detention
program, according to current and former government officials.
The Sept. 11 commission releasing its report on July 22, 2004.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror
suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A.
custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in
part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting
controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to
greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.
The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been
made "within the C.I.A. itself," and they were destroyed to protect
the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had
intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J.
Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to
comment on the destruction of the tapes.
The existence and subsequent destruction of the tapes are likely to
reignite the debate over the use of severe interrogation techniques on
terror suspects, and their destruction raises questions about whether
C.I.A. officials withheld information from the courts and from the
presidentially appointed Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the
program. It was not clear who within the C.I.A. authorized the
destruction of the tapes, but current and former government officials
said it had been approved at the highest levels of the agency.
The New York Times informed the C.I.A. on Wednesday evening that it
planned to publish an article in Friday's newspaper about the
destruction of the tapes. Today, the C.I.A. director, General Michael
V. Hayden, wrote a letter to the agency workforce explaining the matter.
The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case
of the terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11
commission, which had made formal requests to the C.I.A. for
transcripts and any other documentary evidence taken from
interrogations of agency prisoners.
C.I.A. lawyers told federal prosecutors in 2003 and 2005, who relayed
the information to a federal court in the Moussaoui case, that the
C.I.A. did not possess recordings of interrogations sought by the
judge in the case. It was unclear whether the judge had explicitly
sought the videotape depicting the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah.
Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers had hoped that records of the interrogations
might provide exculpatory evidence for Mr. Moussaoui — showing that
the Al Qaeda detainees did not know Mr. Moussaoui and clearing him of
involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot.
General Hayden's statement said that the tapes posed a "serious
security risk," and that if they were to become public they would have
exposed C.I.A. officials "and their families to retaliation from Al
Qaeda and its sympathizers."
"What matters here is that it was done in line with the law," he said.
He said in his statement that he was informing agency employees
because "the press has learned" about the destruction of the tapes.
General Hayden said in a statement that leaders of Congressional
oversight committees were fully briefed on the matter, but some
Congressional officials said notification to Congress had not been
adequate.
"This is a matter that should have been briefed to the full
Intelligence Committee at the time," an official with the House
Intelligence Committee said. "This does not appear to have been done.
There may be a very logical reason for destroying records that are no
longer needed; however, this requires a more complete explanation. "
Staff members of the Sept. 11 commission, which completed its work in
2004, expressed surprise when they were told that interrogation
videotapes existed until 2005.
"The commission did formally request material of this kind from all
relevant agencies, and the commission was assured that we had received
all the material responsive to our request," said Philip D. Zelikow,
who served as executive director of the Sept. 11 commission and later
as a senior counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"No tapes were acknowledged or turned over, nor was the commission
provided with any transcript prepared from recordings," he said.
Daniel Marcus, a law professor at American University who served as
general counsel for the Sept. 11 commission and was involved in the
discussions about interviews with Al Qaeda leaders, said he had heard
nothing about any tapes being destroyed.
If tapes were destroyed, he said, "it's a big deal, it's a very big
deal," because it could amount to obstruction of justice to withhold
evidence being sought in criminal or fact-finding investigations.
General Hayden said the tapes were originally made to ensure that
agency employees acted in accordance with "established legal and
policy guidelines." General Hayden said the agency stopped videotaping
interrogations in 2002.
"The tapes were meant chiefly as an additional, internal check on the
program in its early stages," his statement read
In October, federal prosecutors in the Moussaoui case were forced to
write a letter to the court amending those C.I.A. declarations. The
letter stated that in September, the C.I.A. notified the United States
attorney's office in Alexandria, Va., that it had discovered a
videotape documenting the interrogation of a detainee. After a more
thorough search, the letter stated, C.I.A. officials discovered a
second videotape and one audio tape.
The letter is heavily redacted and sentences stating which detainees'
interrogations the recordings document are blacked out. Signed by the
United States attorney, Chuck Rosenberg, the letter states that the
C.I.A.'s search for interrogation tapes "appears to be complete."
There is no mention in the letter of the tapes that C.I.A. officials
destroyed in 2005. Mr. Moussaoui was convicted last year and sentenced
to life in prison.
John Radsan, who worked as a C.I.A. lawyer from 2002 to 2004 and is
now a professor at William Mitchell College of Law, said the
destruction of the tapes could carry serious legal penalties.
"If anybody at the C.I.A. hid anything important from the Justice
Department, he or she should be prosecuted under the false statement
statute," he said.
A former intelligence official who was briefed on the issue said the
videotaping was ordered as a way of assuring "quality control" at
remote sites following reports of unauthorized interrogation
techniques. He said the tapes, along with still photographs of
interrogations, were destroyed after photographs of abuse of prisoners
at Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004 and C.I.A. officers became
concerned about a possible leak of the videos and photos.
He said the worries about the impact a leak of the tapes might have in
the Muslim world were real.
It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to several
tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves
near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of
photos or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction.
"People know what happened, but to see it in living color would have
far greater power," the official said.
Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, a Democratic member of the
House Intelligence Committee, has been pushing legislation in Congress
to have all detainee interrogations videotaped so officials can refer
to the tapes multiple times to glean better information.
Mr. Holt said he had been told many times that the C.I.A. does not
record the interrogation of detainees. "When I would ask them whether
they had reviewed the tapes to better understand the intelligence,
they said `What tapes?'," he said.
Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane contributed reporting.
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