CIA Destroyed Videos of Terrorist Milk & Cookie Questioning, Oops...

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/cia_videos_hayden_destroy/2007/12/06/55264.html

Hayden Says CIA Destroyed Terrorist Videos

Thursday, December 6, 2007

The CIA videotaped its interrogations of two top terror suspects in 2002 and

destroyed the tapes three years later out of fear they would leak to the

public and compromise the identities of U.S. questioners, the director of

the agency told employees Thursday.

The disclosure brought immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill and from a

human rights group which charged the spy agency's action amounted to

criminal destruction of evidence.

The Senate Intelligence Committee promised a full review of the situation.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said the CIA began taping the interrogations as

an internal check on the program after President Bush authorized the use of

harsh questioning methods. The methods included waterboarding, which

simulates drowning, government officials said.

"The Agency was determined that it proceed in accord with established legal

and policy guidelines. So, on its own, CIA began to videotape

interrogations," Hayden said in a written message to CIA employees, obtained

by The Associated Press.

The CIA decided to destroy the tapes in "the absence of any legal or

internal reason to keep them," Hayden wrote. He said the tapes were

destroyed only after it was determined "they were no longer of intelligence

value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries."

"The tapes posed a serious security risk," Hayden wrote. "Were they ever to

leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served

in the program, exposing them and their families to retaliation from

al-Qaida and its sympathizers."

Hayden said House and Senate intelligence committee leaders were informed of

the existence of the tapes and the CIA's intention to destroy them. He also

said the CIA's internal watchdog watched the tapes in 2003 and verified that

the interrogation practices were legal.

Rep. Jane Harman of California, then the senior Democrat on the House

Intelligence Committee and one of only four members of Congress informed of

the tapes' existence, said she objected to the destruction when informed of

it in 2003.

"I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea

and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman said. While key lawmakers

were briefed on the CIA's intention to destroy the tapes, they were not

notified two years later when the spy agency went through with the plan.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the

committee only learned of the tapes' destruction in November 2006.

Jennifer Daskal, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, said destroying the

tapes was illegal. "Basically this is destruction of evidence," she said,

calling Hayden's explanation that the tapes were destroyed to protect CIA

identities "disingenuous."

The CIA only taped the interrogation of the first two terror suspects the

agency held, one of whom was Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah, under harsh

questioning, told CIA interrogators about alleged 9/11 accomplice Ramzi

Binalshibh, Bush said in 2006.

Binalshibh was captured and interrogated and, with Zubaydah's information,

led to the capture in 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the purported

mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Hayden said a secondary reason for the taped interrogations was to have

backup documentation of the information gathered.

"The Agency soon determined that its documentary reporting was full and

exacting, removing any need for tapes. Indeed, videotaping stopped in 2002,"

Hayden said.

The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners since the Sept. 11

terrorist attacks, but not since 2003. Hayden banned the use of the

procedure in 2006, according to knowledgeable officials.

The disclosure of the tapes' destruction came on the same day the House and

Senate intelligence committees agreed to legislation prohibiting the CIA

from using "enhanced interrogation techniques." The White House Thursday

threatened to veto the bill.

Hayden's message was an attempt to get ahead of a New York Times story about

the videotapes.

"What matters here is that it was done in line with the law," Hayden said.

"Over the course of its life, the Agency's interrogation program has been of

great value to our country. It has helped disrupt terrorist operations and

save lives. It was built on a solid foundation of legal review. It has been

conducted with careful supervision. If the story of these tapes is told

fairly, it will underscore those facts."

The CIA says the tapes were destroyed late in 2005, a year marked by

increasing pressure from defense attorneys to obtain videotapes of detainee

interrogations. The scandal over harsh treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib

prison in Iraq had focused public attention on interrogation techniques.

Beginning in 2003, attorneys for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui

began seeking videotapes of interrogations they believed might help them

show their client wasn't a part of the 9/11 attacks. These requests heated

up in 2005 as the defense slowly learned the identities of more detainees in

U.S. custody.

In May 2005, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered the government to

disclose whether interrogations were recorded. The government objected to

that order, and the judge modified it on Nov. 3, 2005, to ask for

confirmation of whether the government "has video or audio tapes of these

interrogations" and then named specific ones. Eleven days later, the

government denied it had video or audio tapes of those specific

interrogations.

Last month, the CIA admitted to Brinkema and a circuit judge that it had

failed to hand over tapes of enemy combatant witnesses. Those interrogations

were not part of the CIA's detention program and were not conducted or

recorded by the agency, the agency said.

"The CIA did not say to the court in its original filing that it had no

terrorist tapes at all. It would be wrong to assert that," CIA spokesman

George Little said.

Patriot Games wrote:

>

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/cia_videos_hayden_destroy/2007/12/06/55264.html

>

> Hayden Says CIA Destroyed Terrorist Videos

>

> Thursday, December 6, 2007

>

> The CIA videotaped its interrogations of two top terror suspects in

> 2002 and destroyed the tapes three years later out of fear they

> would leak to the public and compromise the identities of U.S.

> questioners, the director of the agency told employees Thursday.

>

> The disclosure brought immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill and

> from a human rights group which charged the spy agency's action

> amounted to criminal destruction of evidence.

>

> The Senate Intelligence Committee promised a full review of the

> situation.

>

This is unreal. First they deny having any tapes of their "enhanced"

interrogations. Then they say they had tapes but destroyed them.

There will be a little noise. Some wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Stern announcements of investigations to come. Then nothing. Nobody

in the CIA will receive so much as a reprimand. Then the CIA will

turn around and do the exact same thing again....or worse.

Who dreams this shit up? It's time to disband this renegade agency.

Or maybe we would be better served to disband this government and

hit the reset button on the republic.

"nobody" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message

news:13lif3lf1n83ke8@corp.supernews.com...

> Patriot Games wrote:

> http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/cia_videos_hayden_destroy/2007/12/06/55264.html

>> Hayden Says CIA Destroyed Terrorist Videos

>> Thursday, December 6, 2007

>> The CIA videotaped its interrogations of two top terror suspects in

>> 2002 and destroyed the tapes three years later out of fear they

>> would leak to the public and compromise the identities of U.S.

>> questioners, the director of the agency told employees Thursday.

>> The disclosure brought immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill and

>> from a human rights group which charged the spy agency's action

>> amounted to criminal destruction of evidence.

>> The Senate Intelligence Committee promised a full review of the

>> situation.

> This is unreal. First they deny having any tapes of their "enhanced"

> interrogations. Then they say they had tapes but destroyed them.

> There will be a little noise. Some wailing and gnashing of teeth.

> Stern announcements of investigations to come. Then nothing. Nobody

> in the CIA will receive so much as a reprimand. Then the CIA will

> turn around and do the exact same thing again....or worse.

Yep. So?

> Who dreams this shit up?

Some really good people.

> It's time to disband this renegade agency.

Funny... I was thinking we need to TRIPLE the size of it.

> Or maybe we would be better served to disband this government and

> hit the reset button on the republic.

You have your own reset button. You can leave any time.

Do you need help packing, maybe a ride to the airport?

Patriot Games wrote:

>

>> Who dreams this shit up?

>

> Some really good people.

>

Domestic enemies of the Constitution. What our soldiers, sailors and

marines are supposed to protect us from.

>> It's time to disband this renegade agency.

>

> Funny... I was thinking we need to TRIPLE the size of it.

>

I bet you just loved Mao, Stalin or perhaps Hitler.

>> Or maybe we would be better served to disband this government and

>> hit the reset button on the republic.

>

> You have your own reset button. You can leave any time.

>

> Do you need help packing, maybe a ride to the airport?

I was thinking the same thing about you. I hear that Nazi

sympathizers do really well in the third world. Shall I send you a

ticket and boarding pass?

"nobody" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message

news:13likubhldkv001@corp.supernews.com...

> Patriot Games wrote:

>>> Who dreams this shit up?

>> Some really good people.

> Domestic enemies of the Constitution.

Yep, that's you!

>> You have your own reset button. You can leave any time.

>> Do you need help packing, maybe a ride to the airport?

>

> I was thinking the same thing about you. I hear that Nazi

> sympathizers do really well in the third world.

We know who the Nazis are:

Who oppressed Jewish religious freedom in Germany? Nazis.

Who oppressed Christian religious freedom in America? Democrats.

Who consolidated all state security organizations in Germany? Nazis.

Who consolidated all state security organizations in America? Democrats.

Who confiscated firearms in Germany? Nazis.

Who confiscated firearms in America? Democrats.

Who banned firearms in Germany? Nazis.

Who banned firearms in America? Democrats.

Who wants to ban firearms in America, again? Democrats.

Now we know who the REAL Nazis are.

Democrats = Nazis.

Remember that next time you vote.