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Destruction of Torture Videotapes Documented in CIA Email
WASHINGTON — Internal CIA e-mails show the former agency head, Porter Goss, agreed with a top aide's 2005 decision to destroy videotapes of the harsh interrogation of a terror suspect, a controversial action that remains the focus of an FBI investigation.
Porter J. Goss, shown in May 2006, joked with Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the former head of the C.I.A.'s clandestine service, after the latter offered to "take the heat" for destroying tapes that documented brutal interrogation of detainees, agency documents show. (Andrew Councill for The New York Times) The
documents show that, despite Goss' apparent agreement, CIA officials
almost immediately began worrying they'd done something wrong. The
e-mails also indicate that President George W. Bush's White House
counsel, Harriet Miers, hadn't been informed of the tapes' destruction
and was "livid" to find out later.
The videos showed CIA interrogators using waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that's widely considered torture, on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah. The videos showed that interrogators did not follow the waterboarding procedures authorized by the Bush administration, the documents indicate.
Jose Rodriguez, the agency's top clandestine officer, worried the 92 tapes would be "devastating" to the CIA if they ever surfaced, the documents show. He approved the destruction of the tapes.
Rodriguez told Goss and others he "felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes and that if there was any heat, he would take it," according to a November 2005 e-mail.
Goss, according to the e-mail, laughed and said he'd be the one to take the heat.
The e-mail then states: "PG, however, agreed with the decision."
The author's name is blacked out. The e-mail amounts to an after-the-fact summary and does not prove that Goss approved destroying the tapes. Current and former intelligence officials have said he did not, and was angry to find out about it.
Rodriguez's lawyer has disputed that and Goss has not discussed the matter publicly.
The e-mails, released late Thursday by the Justice Department under a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union, showed that Bush's top lawyer, Miers, and her CIA counterpart, John Rizzo, didn't find out the tapes were destroyed until two days later and were both angry.
"Rizzo is clearly upset because he was on the hook to notify Harriet Miers of the status of the tapes because it was she who had asked to be advised before any action was taken," reads a November 2005 e-mail from an unidentified CIA officer to the agency's No. 3 official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. "Apparently, Rizzo called Harriet this afternoon and she was livid."
Miers' predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, had told CIA lawyers in 2004 not to destroy the tapes.
A year later, Rodriguez sent a memo approving the destruction, saying the agency had no legal requirement to keep the tapes.
It's unclear who told Rodriguez that, but a subsequent e-mail suggest that either someone lied to Rodriguez or that Rodriguez lied about having received approval.
The e-mail correctly predicts: "Rizzo does not think this is likely to just go away."
Years later, prosecutor John Durham is still investigating whether any crime was committed.
"These documents provide further evidence that senior CIA officials were willing to risk being prosecuted for obstruction of justice in order to avoid being prosecuted for torture," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said. "If the Department of Justice fails to hold these officials accountable, they will have succeeded in their cover-up."
CIA spokesman George Little said the agency continues to cooperate with that investigation.
"We hope that this issue is resolved soon," Little said.
The tapes were destroyed in Thailand. The agency's former top officer there has not responded to repeated messages seeking comment.
44 Comments so far
Show AllAccording to this article he following people are not responsible for the destruction of the tapes: Goss, Miers (therefore Bush), Addington (therefore Cheney) and Gonzales.
No crime here folks, nothing to see.
"If the Department of Justice fails to hold these officials accountable, they will have succeeded in their cover-up."
Mission Accomplished! Enjoy your weekend folks!
Evidently Jose Rodriguez, "the agency's top clandestine officer" has been designated to take the heat, if there will ever be any heat to take. What is a top clandestine officer, anyway?
Joe
"These documents provide further evidence that senior CIA officials were willing to risk being prosecuted for obstruction of justice in order to avoid being prosecuted for torture," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said. "If the Department of Justice (sic) fails to hold these officials accountable, they will have succeeded in their cover-up."
Judging from news stories about Barry's policy of looking forward, moving on and ignoring the continuing war crimes that were started in the Bush/Cheney administration and carried forth in the present one, nothing will come from these revelations. As usual, the guilty will get promotions, nobody will get fired (except some low-level grunts) and life in Amerikkka will continue on its course toward its own demise.
Jill -
Thanks for the trip down memory lane from March of last year. Usually, federal judges treat the deliberate destruction of physical evidence by one party in the middle of a contested lawsuit as a very serious matter. The CIA's decision to destroy the videotapes of its waterboarding sessions constituted contempt in both the traditional, technical legal sense and as broader metaphor.
"The tapes were also withheld from the 9/11 Commission, appointed by former president Bush and Congress, which had formally requested the CIA hand over transcripts and recordings documenting the interrogation of CIA prisoners."
Torture-induced statements attributed to Khalid Sheik Mohammed (the WTC attack conspiracy "mastermind") were a central component of the official US government narrative about what happened on September 11, 2001 contained in the 911 Commission's final published report. These videotapes were withheld, and then deliberately destroyed by the CIA - thus preventing any independent assessment (by a judge in a black robe, by a House or Senate oversight Committee, or by the special, Congressionally-created blue ribbon 911 Commission itself) from ever comparing the words uttered on the audiotape with the written transcript version of the interrogations typed up by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The destruction of the video evidence also destroys the context: nobody can ever assess the reliability or credibility of KSM as a potential intelligence source at the time he was being debriefed. We all know now that when he appeared publicly for his Gitmo military tribunal sessions, Khalid Sheik Mohammed appeared to be crazy as an outhouse rat. Was KSM always a babbling loon? We shall never know.
The contemporaneous tapes of the detainees' multiple confessions were all shit canned by the spooks who conducted the interrogations, thus leaving only the paper trail that they created after-the-fact to serve as the historical record of what supposedly happened on 9/11/01. Major crime. Major contempt indeed.
Bill from Saginaw
How much more evidence do you need?
The Bush Administration (2000 -2008) was a criminal enterprise from top to bottom. There are no innocent parties.
The Obama Administration, in refusing to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft et al. are aiding and abetting the commission of those crimes.
Nothing will change until there is a comprehensive CRIMINAL investigation of the events of 9/11, and a criminal investigation of every act of torture, collusion, massacre, theft and embezzlement by the US military, Justice and Treasury.
By their actions, the CIA has confirmed that this was
torture and they knew it --
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
And why exactly aren't these people in prison right now?
Members of the Executive Branch don't go to prison. Nor CIA. Nor Bankers.
The penal system is for serfs.
Obama's military commissions, with different courts providing different levels of justice, is proof.
Soon this multi-tiered system of justice will be the standard for American citizens.
The 60 million people who voted for him must agree with this philosophy because I don't see any of them protesting.
Just a reminder from one of the 60 million who voted for our evil prez:
It was his Justice dept that released this info that we are reading and protesting.
They didn't voluntarily hand them over:
"...The e-mails, released late Thursday by the Justice Department under a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union..."...
Oh like the CIA doesn't have a long record of nixing requests from the civil liberty Union.
This would not have been released under bomb Iran McCain/Palin because Obama made it harder to deny info requests.
Yeah, it is, probably to distract us from the fact that the Obama Administration Still Tortures.
I've talked with a number of them (the 60 million voters)...they've all gone back to their self-absorbed lives, once again safe and secure, knowing that a Democrat is in the White House.
So who out of all who voted have not gone back to their "self-aborbed" lives?
Any favorite block of voters?
Another huge injustice to add to the huge number of crimes committed by the US government and military over the past ten years. The US government and military are one huge criminal organization and it will take the will of the international community to stop this beast from it's murderous and torturous course!
The Downing Street Memo set a precedent, of UNACCOUNTABILITY!
We ARE living the big lie, frogs in the pot so to speak.
Enough is enough
Horrible stuff
Ending the War is paramount to our lives and souls.
I want a peace revolution, not a civil War.
What do you think?
The Hippies were right all along.
I wanna Love Revolution...
Jill, this is out of control sadism. Pure and simple.
It is also an ongoing experimentation to break people down mentally and emotionally. It is related to naomi klein's Shock Doctrine. But you probably know this already.
If you can torture somebody you can torture anybody. And of course you know, the torturers suffer just as much. No one is exempt. They are self destructing.
So, what is the end game? That is what i wonder. Full spectrum dominance of a dying planet? Mindless slaves?
Sounds a lot like a sci fi plot at times, doesn't it?
rita
Hmm. "The tapes were destroyed in Thailand." smuggled to Thailand? why not just toss them on the BBQ if you wanted them destroyed?
I have $50 that says at least some of the tapes are still out there in a safe somewhere. these spooks don't trust anyone (and rightly so, just ask Ms Plame). a couple of these tapes would be golden insurance.
Gridoffer -
The CIA interrogation videotapes were destroyed in Thailand because (as I understand it) KSM, Zubaydeh, and some other detainees deemed to have significant intelligence value were rendered to Thailand and waterboarded in Thailand before eventually being sent to Gitmo.
Not only did the deliberate destruction of these tapes deprive the federal courts, the Congress, and the 911 Commission of the best available evidence of Khalid Sheik Mohammed as a supposedly reliable, credible source of information about Al Qaeda and the 9/11 conspiracy, but it also destroyed key evidence that could disprove (or corroborate) Dick Cheney's repeated public claims that the Bushies' use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation/torture techniques in fact unearthed valuable information which successfully thwarted other terrorist strikes during the last seven years' of George W's watch, thus saving thousands of innocent American lives that otherwise would have been lost.
Destroy whatever existing contemporaneous evidence there is. Now rely solely upon my reconstructed, documentary version of what was said, when it was said, and in what context.
If your local police department did the same thing to an audiotape record of their detectives' in-custody questioning of a homicide suspect, such destruction of evidence would violate well established professional standards of law enforcement. At a minimum, somebody in the chain of custody would get reprimanded or fired. Most prosecutors and judges would be furious.
Spies and spooks are different, I guess. They get to make up the rules as they go along. We are supposed to just trust their self-serving version of events and pretend like it's no big deal.
Bill from Saginaw
Thats right, I forgot about the Thai rendition black sites.
Its tough to keep track.
" 92 tapes would be devastating". What further proof does one need that we no longer have a Government but are governed by fascist criminals who condoned torture. What is really horrible about this is if our soldiers are captured alive they could be subjected to the same torture and our military would not have any right to protest or indict for war crimes. When one joins the military they take an oath to protect America from all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC. The biggest threat to America is absolutely from DOMESTIC ENEMIES, not foreign. So it is time for our military to keep their oath and protect America from its evil,TERRORIST, DOMESTIC ENEMIES! The terrorists are our own Government. I saw an interview by Steven Hatfill, who was accused and illegally harassed by the F.B.I in the anthrax investigation, and he said the same thing that he really fears our Government.
The tea baggers better get on this immediately.
oh my ..."that much?" ..one would think they'd have stopped at ONE....but then GHOULS are GHOULS...kinda like the USA ZOMBIELAND of every-walking Ghoulish THugs...
what's that saying?
LOCK STOCK AND BARREL - GHOULAND....
it's amazing reading the news or what comes out:
from OBAMA with his Warmongering, the US Congress in lockstep on War and Exploitation
Wall Street Creating and launching Ghoulish schemes spread globally, the "resurrection" of White Supremacist "tea party *anger*" and paranoia, Parents torturing and killing their kids for CRYING or WETTING ..kids stalking other kids driving them to Suicide.."christians" getting all ARMIED-up,
corporations taking a bath in worker-exploitation, ...the works....
breathtaking in its Ghoulishness...
-Goss, according to the e-mail, laughed and said he'd be the one to take the heat.
If the FBI ever is able to investigate this without, of course, looking back, does anyone here think there will be any "heat" to take while Obama is president?
I imagine presidents are in a special club and they have to watch each others back because they know they all have some blood on their hands ...some more than others but,,, Group Think applies to everybody.
I imagine they don't like to rock the boat or make US policy look worse than it already is.
"Display of unaccountability defines status as a member of the elite.
In order to be unaccountable one must err or transgress.
For unaccountability to be displayed error or transgression must be displayed.
Genuine incompetence is the most reliable path to error and transgression and their display.
Ergo: Given competition and over time the elite will approach and display complete incompetence in all its acts and their immunities...."
EAC
See how insidious the propaganda is? Even in an article pointing out the deceit of Goss covering up crimes, there is embedded an actual defense of the Bush Administration. See if you can spot it!
AP writes…
The videos showed that interrogators did not follow the waterboarding procedures authorized by the Bush administration, the documents indicate.
Are these videos of "harsh interrogations" which may be deplorable but legal or torture which is an abomination and a crime in every civilized country?
When is Goss going to be arrested?
Can someone destroy evidence of a possible crime without being prosecuted? Is the CIA above the law? On what authority?
Supposedly --- the USA is the self-styled "protector" of Law and Justice, Truth , Accountability and Fairness.
it even was Authorial in imposing that very principle during the Nuremberg Trials --
USING the Nazis' OWN films and other records of their atrocities.
so.........what has the USA been doing HIDING the evidence of its own atrocities?.
the presence and existence alone of the NSA, CIA, even FBI - which clearly are designed and devised by the ruling class to protect - ostensibly - the rights and liberties of people - but really the privileges of the powers-that-be and often as the case , their minions and enablers -
is in itself evidence that the USA HAS and continues to flout the very "justice" that it proclaims itself to be the greatest promoter and protector of.
and the reason is the same as that of the Nazis:
they BOTH know that these atrocities are what they are:
EVIL ....
but KNOWINGLY and INTENTIONALY committed them ANYWAY ...and therefore have gone to all extent to hide the evidence against the obvious potential of being found out and shown to be
the EXACT opposite of their high and mighty and glorious claims.
but of course we know there was that notoriously world-famous example of
a US president - NIXON - that tried to evade "responsibility" for high crimes by attempting to cover up the original crimes.
BOTH of course were considered crimes .
so - in this case - where precedent (a favorite process under supposedly "law abiding" US "justice") goes - the CIA of course committed double crimes:
the tortures and indefinite detentions under mere suspicion or branding of any individual as a "threat" - and the cover-ups , misleading statements, double-talk, denials, procrastinations, changing of nomeclature to disguise the same methods (as the obama administration habitually does), are all within the realm of the SAME THING:
covering up crimes against humanity and war crimes.
in many ways - the USA has policies resembling those of the NAZIS in every way - except that they are not as EASILY distinguishable as such because they are not OPENLY practiced with such CRUDE but nevertheless efficient methods as the Nazis had: Ovens, open slavery and outright unabashed starvation of prisoners...but instead does it UNDER the CoVER of DOMESTIC-sanctioned "law and order and constitutionality"...which makes it "normal" for the population....such as incarcerating towards slavery prisoners of mostly colored or black descent due to being POOR while excusing white collar crimes such as those in wall street and politicians' crimes .....
but they are STILL in principle the SAME crimes against humanity.
they are such because NO ONE in this world can conceive of it being other THAN a WAR CRIME and CRIME against humanity -- when the USA engages in criminalizing people, such as blacks, BECAUSE of their skin color, especially after literally forcing them into the legacy of slavery's descendants - which is another crime against humanity by the USA.
i mean - if one were REALLY to list such things, and DEFINE them with precision right down to their last details -- the USA
is the ONE country on earth that has committed the most atroctious and greatest and broadest and most prolonged cases of crimes against humanity .
and what makes it insidious is that it hides them in PLAIN DAYLIGHT under the mask of "constitutionality" or "lawfulness" and "freedom" -- as well as general POPULAR TOLERANCE for it while SEPARATING itself from other countries such as Hitler's germany, China, Iran, Russia, etc... in committing crimes of the SAME SPECIES.
CIA stands for Cold-blooded & Incorrigible Always. No matter what terrorists who are captured, there are many "mild tortures" which could be as just effective as such cruel tortures. The use of tortures are meant to force someone to spill the beans, not for personal vengeance or to fulfill the joy of being a pervert.
If CIA is as wicked as the terrorists, it is likened to the pot calling the kettle black. CIA is no difference from the terrorists. Of course tortures may be neccessary but must CIA go to the extend of torturing someone to death? If tortures are meant to kill terrorists, it is cruel than sentencing them to death by hanging or beheading then!
and the winner of the nobel peace prize, the neo-tom of the decade, stands aside. he is too afraid of dick and triple d liz to do anything. they have muzzled our spineless president. don't worry, liberal ladies, the ddd stands for daddy's draft deferment, as liz was born 9 months and five days after dick's last college deferment ended. if chelsea had such pedigree, it would have been headlines everywhere. maybe 2% of the people know this fact about the cheneys. damn liberal media!
Without torture how could the spirit of the insurgency have galvanized? Why would massive amounts of people willingly die to fight the most lethal best, equipped, military ever to walk the face of the earth? However, by creating inhumane acts not seen since the inquisitions on the Iraqis friends, wives, and children the insurgences fought and died willingly. Cheney and bush needed torture and lots and lots of it to keep the war going.
I still remember Rumsfeld joking about torture, how he stood at his desk and worked and did not think he was being tortured.
Cheney’s old companies Halliburton and its subsidiaries were paid hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to perform services never before out-sourced(with billions in fraud). In fact, the bush/cheney administration spent a great deal of time and effort to rewrite the laws making it “legal” to out-source all the services the military always performed for themselves since the revolutionary war. While the US is destroying everything in Iraq this only strengthens the Saudis grip on the world oil market, making the bush oil cartel hundreds of billions of dollars probably trillions of dollars. Additionally it distracted Americans while bushes banking buddies stole the rest of our tax dollars and lamost every other dollar with the unregulated financial markets schemes. To bad we do not have a "free press" or the simple plots would have been uncovered years ago. They started right after bush1 and his son Neil stole billions from the S&L's.
With all the terror, grieve, destruction, and horrors the bush administration with their republican aided congress caused the world and all this country lost during this republican reign of terror, much of the worst horrors will never be told, personally I believe anyone that supports these individuals should be tried for treason.
All horrific animals that tortured, ordered torture, or knew of torture should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If not; since each republican cabal becomes more brutal than the one before they will be raping, killing, and torturing anyone they want. This is the republican party of the 21st century.
The CIA does not work for the American people, they work for the real power elite in the USA, to protect this country's true plutocracy.
How else could Valarie Plame have been outed, and Dick Chenney not even get a slap on the hand.
If you step out of line on the plutocracy, they will feed you to the wolves. Valarie husband stepped out of line, Valarie was punished.
Bradley Birkenfeld, who helped expose widespread tax evasion involving wealthy American clients of UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N), said on Friday U.S. authorities should launch a sweeping new crackdown on the Swiss bank, from his jail cell.
He is in jail on a 5 year sentence, for reporting tax fraud of 50000 Americans with money in Swiss banks.
He reported the fraud , and he was the only one that went to jail, for helping the IRS collect billions in tax fraud.
Out of 50000 Americans that committed felony fraud tax evasion, only the whistle bower with a deal from the DOJ went to jail.
If you step out of line on the plutocracy, they will feed you to the wolves.
The CIA and IRS work for the Elite.
This just shows that the US Government knew what it was doing was/is illegal and immoral and repugnant. If you cant do somwthing in the light of day, then its a good bet you should not be doing it.
The EVIL that is Torture , when human character is looked at with honesty, stripped of ALL "explanations" and justifications boils down to ONE thing, as a scientist studying torture said:
"THE ONLY and TRUE reason for Torture is........TO TORTURE".
"national security?"..."imminent crimes and destruction?" ...."your loved one is about to die or be tortured also?" .........
VERY POWERFUL reasons to commit torture to "get information that can save lives"...
very , very powerful......
but ultimately - it is about TORTURE and NOTHING else. torture is only for ITS own reason, in the final analysis. it is at bottom, in essence, deeply hidden by justifications , including those that are veyr powerful...
a LUST for inflicting pain on a captive...no different from a twisted child's pleasure in painfully taking off the wings of a dragonfly -- because it gives secret pleasure.
everything else, no matter how powerful, is an excuse.
......unfortunate to show our carefree citizens what's done to the "enemy's" children in our name.
Thailand? Gitmo? it's o.k.to torture people as long as they aren't on U.S. soil? A U.S. soldier ( per one of the posters) can't get medical help from an on- the- job injury and has to sign a waiver that it's not the military's fault? Halibutron and Blackwater/Xe take over what used to be the U.S. military's job?
We don't have a federal deficit money problem...we have a DEFICIT of Ethics problem.