As I've written before, the
only lesson(*)Dick Cheney(*)learned from Richard Nixon and Watergate(*)was to destroy the tapes. We previously knew the CIA destroyed torture(*)
3 tapes; today the CIA admitted
it destroyed 92 tapes.
Jason Leopold reports,
The CIA destroyed videotapes that showed its agents subjecting high-level al-Qaeda detainees to waterboarding and other brutal interrogation methods after the agency's inspector general issued a classified report in the spring of 2004 that concluded the techniques used on the prisoners "appeared to constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, as defined by the International Convention Against Torture."
Mega-kudos to the ACLU for filing the lawsuit that forced this disclosure. Leopold continues,
It is widely believed that the videotapes were destroyed to cover-up illegal acts. It is also believed that the tapes were destroyed because Democratic members of Congress who were briefed about the tapes began asking questions about whether the interrogations were illegal, according to Jane Mayer, author of the book The Dark Side and a reporter for The New Yorker magazine.
“Further rattling the CIA was a request in May 2005 from Senator Jay Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, to see over a hundred documents referred to in the earlier Inspector General's report on detention inside the black prison sites,” Mayer wrote in her book. “Among the items Rockefeller specifically sought was a legal analysis of the CIA's interrogation videotapes.
"Rockefeller wanted to know if the intelligence agency's top lawyer believed that the waterboarding of [alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu] Zubayda and [alleged 9/11 mastermind] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as captured on the secret videotapes, was entirely legal. The CIA refused to provide the requested documents to Rockefeller. But the Democratic senator's mention of the videotapes undoubtedly sent a shiver through the Agency, as did a second request the made for these documents to [former CIA Director Porter] Goss in September 2005.”
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This refutes the claim by some critics of intelligence committee Democrats like Rockefeller and(*)Nancy Pelosi(*)that they approved CIA torture. Pelosi vigorously refuted this claim recently in an interview with Rachel Maddow. Only a few key Democrats were briefed about CIA interrogations, and they did
not approve torture. More from Leopold:
One person who assisted CiA Inspector General John Helgerson with his probe was Mary O. McCarthy, who alleged CIA officials lied to members of Congress during an intelligence briefing when they said the agency did not violate treaties that bar, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees during interrogations, according to a May 14, 2006, front-page story in The Washington Post...
In April 2006, ten days before she was due to retire, McCarthy was fired from the CIA for allegedly leaking classified information to the media, a CIA spokeswoman told reporters at the time.
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I suspect McCarthy will have a lot more to say now that Cheney no longer runs the Dark Side.
But(*)why hasn't Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a Special Prosecutor to listen to McCarthy and other whistleblowers(*)like CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, who
viewed the videotapes that showed two detainees being subjected to waterboarding by CIA officers, which formed the foundation for his still classified report on the CIA's methods of interrogation.
"In his report, Mr. Helgerson also raised concern about whether the use of the techniques could expose agency officers to legal liability," according to a November 9, 2005, story in The New York Times published the same month the tapes were destroyed. "They said the report expressed skepticism about the Bush administration view that any ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment under the treaty does not apply to CIA interrogations because they take place overseas on people who are not citizens of the United States."
"The officials who described the report said it discussed particular techniques used by the CIA against particular prisoners, including about three dozen terror suspects being held by the agency in secret locations around the world," The New York Times reported."
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Why were Helgerson's questions ignored? We might find out if a Special Prosecutor indicts Dick Cheney:
According to Mayer, Vice President Dick Cheney stopped Helgerson from fully completing his investigation. That proves, Mayer contends, that as early as 2004 “the Vice President’s office was fully aware that there were allegations of serious wrongdoing in The [interrogation] Program.”
“Helgerson was summoned repeatedly to meet privately with Vice President Cheney” before his investigation was “stopped in its tracks.” Mayer said that Cheney’s interaction with Helgerson was “highly unusual.”
Cheney has admitted in several interviews over the past month that he personally “signed off” on waterboarding three terrorist detainees.
In October 2007, former CIA Director Michael Hayden ordered an investigation into Helgerson’s office, focusing on internal complaints that the inspector general was on “a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention programs.”
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(Source Link)
03-02-2009, 12:40 PM
CIA Destroyed 92 Torture Tapes
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