Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes
WASHINGTON - At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.
The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.
Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.
It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed.
One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Some other officials assert that no one at the White House advocated destroying the tapes. Those officials acknowledged, however, that no White House lawyer gave a direct order to preserve the tapes or advised that destroying them would be illegal.
The destruction of the tapes is being investigated by the Justice Department, and the officials would not agree to be quoted by name while that inquiry is under way.
Spokesmen for the White House, the vice president’s office and the C.I.A. declined to comment for this article, also citing the inquiry.
The new information came to light as a federal judge on Tuesday ordered a hearing into whether the tapes’ destruction violated an order to preserve evidence in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 16 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The tapes documented harsh interrogation methods used in 2002 on Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, two Qaeda suspects in C.I.A. custody.
The current and former officials also provided new details about the role played in November 2005 by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the agency’s clandestine branch, who ultimately ordered the destruction of the tapes.
The officials said that before he issued a secret cable directing that the tapes be destroyed, Mr. Rodriguez received legal guidance from two C.I.A. lawyers, Steven Hermes and Robert Eatinger. The officials said that those lawyers gave written guidance to Mr. Rodriguez that he had the authority to destroy the tapes and that the destruction would violate no laws.
The agency did not make either Mr. Hermes or Mr. Eatinger available for comment.
Current and former officials said the two lawyers informed the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, about the legal advice they had provided. But officials said Mr. Rodriguez did not inform either Mr. Rizzo or Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director, before he sent the cable to destroy the tapes.
“There was an expectation on the part of those providing legal guidance that additional bases would be touched,” said one government official with knowledge of the matter. “That didn’t happen.”
Robert S. Bennett, a lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, insisted that his client had done nothing wrong and suggested that Mr. Rodriguez had been authorized to order the destruction of the tapes. “He had a green light to destroy them,” Mr. Bennett said.
Until their destruction, the tapes were stored in a safe in the C.I.A. station in the country where the interrogations took place, current and former officials said. According to one former senior intelligence official, the tapes were never sent back to C.I.A. headquarters, despite what the official described as concern about keeping such highly classified material overseas.
Top officials of the C.I.A’s clandestine service had pressed repeatedly beginning in 2003 for the tapes’ destruction, out of concern that they could leak and put operatives in both legal and physical jeopardy.
The only White House official previously reported to have taken part in the discussions was Ms. Miers, who served as a deputy chief of staff to President Bush until early 2005, when she took over as White House counsel. While one official had said previously that Ms. Miers’s involvement began in 2003, other current and former officials said they did not believe she joined the discussions until 2005.
Besides the Justice Department inquiry, the Congressional intelligence committees have begun investigations into the destruction of the tapes, and are looking into the role that officials at the White House and Justice Department might have played in discussions about them. The C.I.A. never provided the tapes to federal prosecutors or to the Sept. 11 commission, and some lawmakers have suggested that their destruction may have amounted to obstruction of justice.
Newsweek reported this week that John D. Negroponte, who was director of national intelligence at the time the tapes were destroyed, sent a memorandum in the summer of 2005 to Mr. Goss, the C.I.A. director, advising him against destroying the tapes. Mr. Negroponte left the job this year to become deputy secretary of state, and a spokesman for the director of national intelligence declined to comment on the Newsweek article.
The court hearing in the Guantánamo case, set for Friday in Washington by District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. over the government’s objections, will be the first public forum in which officials submit to questioning about the tapes’ destruction.
There is no publicly known connection between the 16 plaintiffs - 14 Yemenis, an Algerian and a Pakistani - and the C.I.A. videotapes. But lawyers in several Guantánamo cases contend that the government may have used information from the C.I.A. interrogations to identify their clients as “unlawful combatants” and hold them at Guantánamo for as long as six years.
“We hope to establish a procedure to review the government’s handling of evidence in our case,” said David H. Remes, a lawyer representing the 16 detainees.
Jonathan Hafetz, who represents a Qatari prisoner at Guantánamo and filed a motion on Tuesday seeking a separate hearing, said the videotapes could well be relevant.
“If the government is relying on the statement of a witness under harsh interrogation, a videotape of the interrogation would be very relevant,” said Mr. Hafetz, of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University law school.
In addition to the Guantánamo court filings, the American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal judge to hold the C.I.A. in contempt of court for destroying the tapes. The A.C.L.U. says the destruction violated orders in a Freedom of Information Act case brought by several advocacy groups seeking materials related to detention and interrogation.
David Johnston contributed reporting.
© 2007 The New York Times
Do you think I could get away with this one:
“Sorry, your honor, I had to destroy those tapes of people gang-raping a 6 year-old to protect the identities of the people involved”.
These people really need to be prosecuted for being involved in one of the greatest cover-up schemes in United States history.
Doesnt matter. The democrats wont do anything but support Bush.
At this very moment, there is a fire in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just across the street from the West Wing of the White House. The Eisenhower building houses one of Cheney’s offices.
Do you think that maybe someone was burning evidence and it got out of control?
Coincidently, a fire broke out this morning in Cheney’s offices. What a convenient way to get rid of evidence - empty the files and set a fire. Yup, that’s the ticket!
If there were a real war between the US and the rest of the world AND the US lost the war; believe you me, history books would write up the US people in power as the dirtiest, rottenest bastards that ever lived.
You could subpoena those lawyers until the cows come home. First they’ll drag feet, then tell you the pros and cons of keeping or destroying the tapes from every possible angle of “national security.”
What they won’t tell you is what’s on the tapes, unless you can find the copies or the other tapes of similar events.
The goal is to win the 2008 election, and the press filling space with another whodunnit (instead of exposing future issues) is not likely the ticket for liberals.
Whodunnit? Conservatives dunnit. A likely ticket for liberals.
This just may be the beginning of the end.
Maybe.
Remember, we had the same sort of BS during Reagan’s Iran/Contra.
I want the names of those ‘top lawyers’.
Those people need to have their approbation revoked.
To aid a crime put You on the side of the perpetrator.
I wonder how things would have turned out, if hitler
would have had ‘top’ lawyers like bush and cheney.
To burn a room will not be sufficient. You have to burn the
whole system of deceit. Then You will see the grey light
of the devil emanating from the dark house.
The only satisfying aspect will be that all that shameless
bunch of corrupt politrickians will die the same way we all
will. 2012.
Actually I can’s wait for that to happen, as it is apparent that
only a meteor can get those christo fascists out of the dark
house.
Or Methane.
Sorry, I didn’t realize that with ‘top’ lawyers one would refer to the
scum gonzales and miers et al constitute.
Those are criminal subjects that need to be tried for treason,
like all the others.
If gonzales is a top lawyer, hitler was a top-leader.
If there were a real war between the US and the rest of the world AND the US lost the war; believe you me, US history books would write up the US people in power as the winners!
I hope Cheney’s man-sized safe is fire proof.
No all we need is for some loyal follower to put bush and cheney in a shell crater, douse them with gasoline, and burn the bodies al la Hitler.
way too many lawyers…
at least in the US of A
Nothing illustrates the decline of democracy than the fact that this story is several orders of magnitude more important and damning than Nixon’s 18-minute tape gap back in 1974, but will likely get several orders of magintude LESS coverage in this evenings news, 2007. And it didn’t start with Bush II either.
Newsweek indicates Negroponte advised Goss not to destroy the tapes.
Where is this memo? It indicates Negroponte was aware destruction of the tapes was an option.
One could not plead ignorance, but could one become guilty if they knew the destruction took place?
Does destruction of evidence apply if the reason the tapes were destroyed was to cover up potential legal action? Was it a crime to destroy the tapes? Intent, cover up, misdirection, letters advising against the destruction.
Interesting stuff
No CIA torturer worth his salt would destroy the only copy. There is another copy somewhere, someone knows who has it and with the proper interrogation techniques could be made to tell us where it is.
KEM PATRICK December 19th, 2007 1:04 pm ..Give it time and it will just be the END of another beginning. The cowardly Dems will see to that. We have to get someone to give bush a BJ…that’s the only hope to get the average sexually repressed/Judeo/Chrtistian/MSM plasma TV watching American off their McDonalds/Arby/Burger King/Kentucky fried Chicken butts.
as usual, everybody walks. no accountability.
Thank goodness, GOOD news here today.
the DC fire chief says the ‘entire’ investigation of the fire in Cheney’s office, will be conducted by the government. How about that?
Nothng going to be covered up now, ___ Cheney is finished, __ the party is over !
KEM - was it a party? So far it still seems like a bad dream to me.
Too many of you are way too optimistic for me. I tried, but since 2000, I’ve seen nothing but a consistant flow of idiot’s running this country, and no, I’m not meaning merely ignorant, I’m talking outright stupidity on both sides of the aisle.
I’d like to think justice will be served, particularly in the case of this adminsitration and their smarmy ways, but with how great the dem’s have become in coddling the right, pff, aint no way anything is gonna change.
Trust me, I really want to be optimistic here, but at this point, it’s just been beaten out of me by my own government.
Minus some kind of revolution, aint nothing gonna change, people, and history has proven it’s only gonna get worse.
Actually, when I read about that mass rape, I changed my mind about capitol punishment or imprisonment.
The testicles and the penis of the men that rape, or as a matter of fact, of all men that commit crime against
women or other humans, need to be cut off and fed to the maggots. Those can be fed to the fish in the
communal fish pond. The fish in there then will feed the rapists and murderers that work for free all those
dangerous jobs nobody wants to do. So it goes.
to: Canuck Chuck
Are you personally going to lead the effort to put Bush and Cheney in a shell crater, douse them with gasoline and burn the bodies ala Hitler? You sound like the lyncher who furnished the rope and then left the scene before the hanging. If someone has to lead this cause, why don’t you organize it and get it done? Do it. You will be world famous — until you are hanged.
You certainly have a right to dream the nasty things “we will do to Bush and Cheney,” But Who is going to do it? Not you, I venture to say.
The state bars, the regulatory agencies for lawyers, should take action against these people for conspiring to destroy evidence of felonies committed by government officials.
Just in. The cause of the fire was an over heated pacemaker in the chest of the living dead. A spokesman said, “The added strain of the permanent sneer cause the device to overload. A chimp face would reduce the overload substantially, but that is already being used.”
Busterkikki- He said loyal follower…are you asking for extra duty? Read the rape articles and then go to work, you got kids? Sell em’ to blackwater?
It’s encouraging to see, that since the Valerie Plame affair, that the White House has learned that it is a good idea to keep secret the identity of CIA agents
Cheney acts as if it’s his party Buffalo Ken, but you’re right, its’s a nightmare.
These people are idiots, including Cheney. The saber rattling against Iran is to terrorize them into continuing to sell oil for dollars. Most of the killing and terror threats around the globe right now are about keeping the trade for oil based on the dollar.
It won’t work. Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter. They have thousands of nuclear armed ICBM and submarine based missiles aimed at the U.S. on hair trigger alert. So they cannot be intimidated. Russia shipping enriched uranium to Iran last week was a signal to Cheney to lay off Iran.
The end of the dollar based global economy is coming soon, and with that a lot collapses, including the U.S. Imperialist military empire.
Many Americans will be unable to afford to pay the prices the big oil companies will be charging for the 40% of our oil that is pumped from beneath U.S. soil, let alone continue our level of imports.
I live in a very sunny part of the California desert. I am considering installing photoelectric cells on the roof of my home and I called a supplier yesterday about the availability of panels. I was told that because of the weakness of the dollar, Europeans have the upper hand regarding purchasing inventories of panels and it may mean long waits for U.S. purchasers to get their orders filled, as the suppliers will sell to the highest bidder, and U.S. markets are not willing to pay what the Europeans can afford.
If you watch the video of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11/2001, you can easily see that they did not fall over from gradual weakening of the superstructure from fire, but rather, were blown to smithereens by explosives.
The only evidence that the 9/11 Commission - comprised, incidentally, of lawyers and politicians, not structural engineers and criminal investigators - had that implicated the so called “masterminds” of the attacks, were the forced confessions under torture that were on the tapes that we recently learned were destroyed.
They were destroyed because if people saw that the only evidence that these Middle Eastern guys did 9/11 were confessions like those obtained by Stalin and Himmler more people would start looking for the actual truth about what happened that day.
When people realize that 9/11 had to be an inside job, prison is getting to be just around the corner for Cheney and his criminal associates.
So, destroy the tapes became the order of the day.
Those of you who remember Watergate will remember that the die hard criminal associates of Nixon’s biggest regret and what they considered Nixon’s biggest mistake was that he didn’t “destroy the tapes.” They didn’t care about the crimes, only that Nixon’s ego kept him from destroying the tapes that recorded his actions for “posterity.”
So naturally, Cheney learned the most important lesson of Watergate - “destroy the tapes.”
Oh Boy! More subpoenas and hearings. Know one is listening folks. America will soon validate the illusion of democracy by electing another corporate sponcered holy-roller in 08, and the beat go’s on. “We The People” need to find a way to get their attention. Any real suggestions?
Someone is listening___ China. They just bought 10% of Barnes Nobel. B/N had no choice, it was either sell or go bellly up.
We will have a depression within a few months, the clues are obvious, and this B/N sell is a BIG clue. When it hits, we won’t be worring about hearings and crap coming out of D.C., we’ll be worrying about where our food is going to come from. That is when Americans will be setting serious priorities. Number one will be for everyone to save theirs and their families asses. All of the issues and discussions like this one will be moot issues.
Yes Daneil David we couldn’t have the Dims actually challenge the Ripoffagains on thier malfeasance that would imply we havew a working democracy with a real opposition party and not just two corporate sock puppet parties like we actually have.
Elephant turds are such a common affair with this administration. One would think this a rather large and odious one… but everyone’s so used to large and odious elephant rurds that it does take effort to notice. Hell, we don’t even wipe our feet at the door anymore.
What do you think would happen if the headline read: “Bush Declares Himself Eternal Ruler of the World (insert madman laughter here)”.
Yawn. Please pass the butter and don’t feed the dog from the table.
Isn’t there anyone in our government that can bring this disaster to justice? How long will we let them change our Constitution, lie about Torture, feed the Corporations, continue to destroy a country and its people, maim our young, kill our young to bring Democracy to a nation that hasn’t the slightest idea of what Democracy is? After generations of a culture that we don’t understand, are they going to change them overnight? We are in our 231st year of Democracy and we might lose our Democracy through guile and stupidity.
The destruction of evidence in an investigation or proceeding by the government into acts of terrorism, (broad), is a FELONY VIOLATION of the USA Patriot Act.
CIA tapes of terrorist confessions and information gathered during interrogations of terrorist suspects having been destroyed by the CIA is the Felony destruction of evidence in a terrorist investigation.
Subsection 203 of the USA Patriot Act is an incredibly powerful legal tool that can be used to prosecute those that destroyed the CIA terrorist interrogation tapes.
Why am I the only person on this planet and in these United States of America who understands that the perpetrators of this crime can be successfully prosecuted using the Felony Violations provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Any lawyer who takes up the banner for these prosecutions by using the USA Patriot Act will be the most famous lawyer of this century.
Got courage?
Got Patriotism?
Got Misaprion of Felony?
Act to prosecute with Felony punishment guidelines in the USA Patriot Act and you will be soooooooo famous.