by Kenneth J. Theisen
CIA Director Michael Hayden has disclosed that the CIA has destroyed videotapes of CIA torture (called “enhanced interrogation techniques” in Bushspeak). The tapes were said to have been destroyed in 2005. While Hayden claimed the tapes were only destroyed to protect the safety of the undercover CIA officers, their destruction appears to be an attempt to cover up torture committed by the CIA and to keep the tapes out of the hands of the courts and congressional inquiries. The tapes purportedly show 2002 interrogations of detainees such as Abu Zubaydah, the first CIA detainee.
The revelation of the existence and subsequent destruction of the tapes has caused a political uproar. Hayden only made this revelation after the New York Times informed him that it would run a story on their destruction.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has announced it will “conduct a thorough review.” Hayden claims that the Senate and House intelligence committee leaders had previously been informed of the tapes and of the CIA’s intention to destroy them. But members of Congress tell a slightly different story.
Representative Jane Harman, who sat on the House Intelligence Committee, was informed of the tapes’ existence and the CIA’s intention to destroy them in 2003. She claims, “I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it.” Representative Pete Hoekstra who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from August 2004 until December 31, 2006, said he doesn’t remember being informed of the videotaping program at all. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said his committee learned of the tapes’ destruction only in November 2006.
According to the CIA, it taped the interrogation of the first two terror suspects held by the agency. The agency admits “harsh questioning,” but claims the interrogations were “legal.” Hayden claims the taping of interrogations was halted in 2002.
The tapes were allegedly destroyed in late 2005 at a time when defense lawyers for “terrorists” were seeking such evidence to defend their clients and Congress was conducting inquiries into “enhanced interrogation techniques.” In the wake of Abu Ghraib, the world was aware that “interrogations” were often nothing more than torture sessions.
In the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, his attorneys had actively sought videotapes of interrogations in order to present an exculpatory defense. In 2005 the judge had ordered the government to disclose the existence of relevant tapes but was told there were no such tapes. In November 2007 the CIA admitted to the judge in the case that it had not turned over relevant tapes of “enemy combatant witnesses.” CIA officials withheld one videotape and one audio tape which may have aided the defense. Moussaoui was convicted and sentenced to life.
The CIA, as part of its cover-up, never provided the videotapes to the 9/11 Commission or made the Commission aware of their existence. The Commission had requested that the CIA provide it transcripts and other documentary evidence taken from interrogations of CIA detainees. According to Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the Commission, “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. No tapes were acknowledged or turned over, nor was the commission provided with any transcript prepared from recordings.”
Daniel Marcus, general counsel for the Commission, stated that the destruction of the tapes may amount to obstruction of justice by withholding evidence in criminal and fact-finding investigations. “It’s a big deal, it’s a very big deal,” he stated.
The revelation of this latest cover-up came in the same week when the House and Senate intelligence committees are working on an intelligence bill that would ban the CIA from using “enhanced interrogation techniques.” On December 6, 2007 the White House announced that it will veto any bill that so limits the CIA. Bush has issued an executive ordered allowing the CIA to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” that exceed those allowed in the 2006 Army Field Manual.
In 2005 Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act which prohibited cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees, including CIA prisoners. The Army Field Manual prohibits waterboarding, sensory deprivation, the hooding of prisoners, and the putting of duct tape across the eyes or prisoners. Detainees may not be stripped naked, subjected to hypothermia, forced to perform or mimic sexual acts, beaten, electrocuted, burned, or otherwise physically hurt. Mock executions are prohibited and food, water and medical treatment can not be withheld. Dogs are not allowed as part of an interrogation. But apparently the CIA does not want to be prohibited from usually such “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The president agrees.
This is a regime that will stop at nothing in its fascistic drive to reshape the world under its thumb. The Bush Regime has invaded and occupied two countries. It is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and the torment of countless more. It has legitimized and systematized torture, and declared it “legal”. It has lied about everything it has done, everything it is doing, and everything it intends to do. It is lying now about its cover up of torture.