2005 CIA interrogation videotapes destruction

Last updated

The CIA interrogation videotapes destruction occurred on November 9, 2005. [1] The videotapes were made by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during interrogations of Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002 at a CIA black site prison in Thailand. [2] Ninety tapes were made of Zubaydah and two of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using "enhanced interrogation techniques", a euphemism for torture. [3] The tapes and their destruction became public knowledge in December 2007. [4] A criminal investigation by a Department of Justice special prosecutor, John Durham, decided in 2010 to not file any criminal charges related to destroying the videotapes. [5]

Contents

Creation and destruction

Abu Zubaydah, the subject of many of the videotapes. Abu Zubaydah.jpg
Abu Zubaydah, the subject of many of the videotapes.

Abu Zubaydah was held at a black site in Thailand starting in the spring of 2002. [6] Near the beginning of Zubaydah's detention, a video camera was set up to continuously tape him. Tapes were also made of another early CIA detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who arrived in October. The tapes were made from April to December 2002. [7] Ninety tapes were made of Zubaydah and two of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using "enhanced interrogation" techniques, [3] reportedly including Zubaydah "vomiting and screaming" during a waterboarding session. [8]

Soon after the taping had stopped, CIA clandestine operation officers were pushing for the tapes to be destroyed. However, the General Counsel of the CIA, Scott W. Muller, advised the CIA director, George Tenet, to not destroy the tapes on the CIA's authority. Instead, Muller notified the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in February 2003 that the CIA would like to have them destroyed. Representatives Porter Goss (who later served as CIA Director) and Jane Harman thought that would be politically and legally risky. [1] [2]

Days after the photographs from Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004, the CIA tapes were discussed among CIA and White House lawyers. Muller, representing the CIA, met with Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and John B. Bellinger III. The three White House lawyers recommended that the tapes not be destroyed. [1]

Tenet and Muller left the CIA in mid-2004. [2] By late 2004, several top leadership positions at the CIA had changed. Goss was Director, John A. Rizzo was acting General Counsel, and Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. was chief of the Directorate of Operations. There was also a new White House Counsel, Harriet Miers. In early 2005, Miers told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first. [1]

On November 4, 2005, just after the Washington Post had printed a story about the existence of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe, Rodriguez called two CIA lawyers for their opinions. Steven Hermes, a clandestine service lawyer, told Rodriguez he had the authority to destroy the tapes. Robert Eatinger, the top lawyer at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, said there was no legal requirement to keep the tapes. [1] The AP reported that, as both lawyers knew of standing orders from the White House not to destroy the tapes, neither thought Rodriguez would immediately act based on their advice. [1]

Rodriguez sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8, 2005. [1] [9] The cable was not copied to anyone other than Rodriguez's chief of staff. It was against standard procedure to act on the advice of agency lawyers without copying them on a decision. [1] Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo on November 10, 2005. [1] Rodriguez was never reprimanded for the destruction of the tapes. [9] According to Rodriguez's memoir, Gina Haspel was responsible for "draft[ing] a cable" ordering the destruction. [10]

Requests for interrogation tapes

Beginning in 2003, lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui asked for videotapes of interrogations of detainees that might help prove Moussaoui was not involved in the September 11 attacks. [11]

In May 2005, Senator Jay Rockefeller made a request on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the CIA to turn over a hundred documents related to the alleged torture of prisoners in American custody. In September, after Porter Goss was named as the new Director of the CIA, Rockefeller renewed his request. Both times, he also mentioned the videotapes, which "undoubtedly sent a shiver through the agency". [12]

From May to November 2005, Judge Leonie Brinkema was also pressuring the CIA to turn over any videotapes of detainee interrogations as evidence in the trial against Moussaoui. [4] On November 14, the Department of Justice told the court that the CIA did not possess the videotapes that were requested. [4] [11] [13]

The tapes were not provided to the 9/11 Commission, which used classified transcripts of interrogations of Zubaydah in writing its report. [4] [11] Philip D. Zelikow, the executive director of the Commission, stated, "We believe that we asked for such material and we are sure that we were not provided such material." [14]

The ACLU claimed that at the time they were destroyed, the tapes should have been turned over according to a federal court order to comply with a FOIA request for information about interrogations. [4] A federal judge ruled in 2011 that the CIA would not be sanctioned for the destruction. [3] [15]

Making the destruction of the tapes public, December 2007

On December 6, 2007, The New York Times advised the Bush administration that they had acquired, and planned to publish, information about the destruction of tapes made of Zubaydah's interrogation, believed to show instances of waterboarding and other forms of possible torture. [4] [11] [16]

Michael Hayden, the Director of the CIA, sent a letter to CIA staff the next day, briefing them on the destruction of the tapes. [11] [14] Hayden asserted that key members of Congress had been briefed on the existence of the tapes, and the plans for their destruction. [11] Senator Jay Rockefeller, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, disputed Hayden's assertion, saying that he only learned of the tapes in November 2006, a year after their destruction. [4] [11] [14]

Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and one of just four senior members of Congress who was briefed on the existence of the tapes, acknowledged being briefed. [11] [14] Harman responded to Hayden's assertions by saying she had objected, in writing, to the tapes' destruction. "I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman stated. [11]

Investigation

On December 8, 2007, the CIA Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice announced a preliminary joint investigation into the destruction of videotapes of interrogations of the first two detainees in the CIA's custody. [17] [18] Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced the appointment of Connecticut federal prosecutor John Durham to start a criminal investigation of the destruction of the tapes on January 2, 2008. [18] [19] Hayden claimed that the continued existence of the tapes represented a threat to the CIA personnel involved, saying that if the tapes were leaked they might result in CIA personnel being identified and targeted for retaliation. [4] [11] [14] [16] Hayden stated that 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." [14] In February 2009, the Obama administration revealed that the CIA had destroyed ninety-two videotapes that contained hundreds of hours of the interrogations. [20]

On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Zubaydah</span> Saudi Arabian Guantanamo detainee

Abu Zubaydah is a Palestinian citizen and alleged terrorist born in Saudi Arabia currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waterboarding</span> Torture method simulating drowning

Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method of waterboarding, the captive's face is covered with cloth or some other thin material and immobilized on their back at an incline of 10 to 20 degrees. Torturers pour water onto the face over the breathing passages, causing an almost immediate gag reflex and creating a drowning sensation for the captive. Normally, water is poured intermittently to prevent death; however, if the water is poured uninterruptedly it will lead to death by asphyxia. Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, and lasting psychological damage. Adverse physical effects can last for months, and psychological effects for years. The term "water board torture" appeared in press reports as early as 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri</span> Alleged al-Qaeda mastermind

Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the bombing of USS Cole and other maritime attacks. He is alleged to have headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.

Leonie Helen Milhomme Brinkema is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jose Rodriguez (intelligence officer)</span> American spy

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is an American former intelligence officer who served as Director of the National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was the final CIA deputy director for operations (DDO) before that position was expanded to D/NCS in December 2004. Rodriguez was a central figure in the 2005 CIA interrogation videotapes destruction, leading to The New York Times Editorial Board and Human Rights Watch to call for his prosecution.

"Enhanced interrogation techniques" or "enhanced interrogation" was a program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and various components of the U.S. Armed Forces at remote sites around the world—including Bagram, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and Bucharest—authorized by officials of the George W. Bush administration. Methods used included beating, binding in contorted stress positions, hooding, subjection to deafening noise, sleep disruption, sleep deprivation to the point of hallucination, deprivation of food, drink, and medical care for wounds, as well as waterboarding, walling, sexual humiliation, rape, sexual assault, subjection to extreme heat or extreme cold, and confinement in small coffin-like boxes. A Guantanamo inmate's drawings of some of these tortures, to which he himself was subjected, were published in The New York Times. Some of these techniques fall under the category known as "white room torture". Several detainees endured medically unnecessary "rectal rehydration", "rectal fluid resuscitation", and "rectal feeding". In addition to brutalizing detainees, there were threats to their families such as threats to harm children, and threats to sexually abuse or to cut the throat of detainees' mothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard W. Roberts</span> American judge (born 1953)

Richard Warren Roberts is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Deuce Martinez is an American intelligence professional. "Deuce" is not his given first name, but a nickname that was used in the first newspaper article naming him. He was involved at the start of the Central Intelligence Agency's Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program of "high-value detainees," including Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Soufan</span> Lebanese-American former FBI agent (born 1971)

Ali H. Soufan is a Lebanese-American former FBI agent who was involved in a number of high-profile anti-terrorism cases both in the United States and around the world. A 2006 New Yorker article described Soufan as coming closer than anyone to preventing the September 11 attacks and implied that he would have succeeded had the CIA been willing to share information with him. He resigned from the FBI in 2005 after publicly chastising the CIA for not sharing intelligence with him which could have prevented the attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Mazzetti</span> American journalist

Mark Mazzetti is an American journalist who works for the New York Times. He is currently a Washington Investigative Correspondent for the Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interrogation of Abu Zubaydah</span> Interrogation of a Saudi Arabian in U.S. custody

Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi citizen who helped manage the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan. Captured in Pakistan on March 28, 2002, he has since been held by the United States as an enemy combatant. Beginning in August 2002, Abu Zubaydah was the first prisoner to undergo enhanced interrogation techniques. There is disagreement among government sources as to how effective these techniques were; some officials contend that Abu Zubaydah gave his most valuable information before they were used; CIA lawyer John Rizzo said he gave more material afterward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torture Memos</span> 2002 US government legal memoranda

A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice. They advised the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Department of Defense, and the President on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques—mental and physical torment and coercion such as prolonged sleep deprivation, binding in stress positions, and waterboarding—and stated that such acts, widely regarded as torture, might be legally permissible under an expansive interpretation of presidential authority during the "War on Terror".

In 2003, a secret compound, known as Strawberry Fields, was constructed near the main Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. In August 2010 reporters found that it had been constructed to hold CIA detainees classified as "high value". These were among the many men known as ghost detainees, as they were ultimately held for years for interrogation by the CIA in its secret prisons known as black sites at various places in Europe, the Mideast, and Asia, including Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Rizzo</span> American attorney (1947–2021)

John Anthony Rizzo was an American attorney who worked as a lawyer in the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years. He was the deputy counsel or acting general counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe.

The Panetta Review was a secret internal review conducted by Leon Panetta, then the Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, of the CIA's torture of detainees during the administration of George W. Bush. The review led to a series of memoranda that, as of March 2014, remained classified. According to The New York Times, the memoranda "cast a particularly harsh light" on the Bush-era interrogation program, and people who have read them have said parts of the memos are "particularly scorching" of techniques such as waterboarding, which the memos describe as providing little valuable intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Eatinger</span> American lawyer

Robert Joseph "Bob" Eatinger was Deputy General Counsel for Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, serving as Acting General Counsel of the CIA from 2009 to March 2014. He has served as a lawyer in various capacities, in the CIA and Navy during the U.S. War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Senate report on CIA torture</span> Report of the United States government

The Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program is a report compiled by the bipartisan United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s Detention and Interrogation Program and its use of torture during interrogation in U.S. government communiqués on detainees in CIA custody. The report covers CIA activities before, during, and after the "War on Terror". The initial report was approved on December 13, 2012, by a vote of 9–6, with seven Democrats, one Independent, and one Republican voting in favor of the report and six Republicans voting in opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gina Haspel</span> American intelligence officer (born 1956)

Gina Cheri Walker Haspel is an American intelligence officer who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from May 21, 2018, to January 20, 2021. She was the agency's deputy director from 2017 to 2018 under Mike Pompeo, and became acting director on April 26, 2018, after Pompeo became U.S. secretary of state. She was later nominated and confirmed to the role, making her the first woman to become CIA director on a permanent basis.

<i>The Report</i> (2019 film) 2019 film by Scott Z. Burns

The Report is a 2019 American historical political drama film written and directed by Scott Z. Burns that stars Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Ted Levine, Michael C. Hall, Tim Blake Nelson, Corey Stoll, and Maura Tierney. It depicts the efforts of staffer Daniel Jones as he led the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency's use of torture following the September 11th attacks, covering more than a decade's worth of real-life political intrigue related to the contents, creation, and release of the 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIA black sites</span> Secret headquarters used by the CIA

Following the September 11 attacks of 2001 and subsequent War on Terror, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established a "Detention and Interrogation Program" that included a network of clandestine extrajudicial detention centers, officially known as "black sites", to detain, interrogate, and often torture suspected enemy combatants, usually with the acquiescence, if not direct collaboration, of the host government.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Apuzzo, Matt; Goldman, Adam (July 25, 2010). "Key omission in memo to destroy CIA terror tapes". Seattle Times. AP. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Shane, Scott; Mazzetti, Mark (December 30, 2007). "Tapes by C.I.A. Lived and Died to Save Image". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 30, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Klasfeld, Adam (October 6, 2011). "CIA Won't Face Sanction for Destroying Tapes". Courthouse News Service. Archived from the original on December 5, 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Eggen, Dan; Warrick, Joby (December 7, 2007). "CIA Destroyed Videos Showing Interrogations: Harsh Techniques Seen in 2002 Tapes". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  5. 1 2 Mazzetti, Mark; Savage, Charlie (November 9, 2010). "No Criminal Charges Sought Over C.I.A. Tapes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 29, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  6. ↑ Johnston, David (September 10, 2006). "At a Secret Interrogation, Dispute Flared Over Tactics". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  7. ↑ Smith, R. Jeffrey (May 10, 2009). "Hill Panel Reviewing CIA Tactics". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 21, 2011. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Peter (May 9, 2012). "BBC News – 'Vomiting and screaming' in destroyed waterboarding tapes". BBC Newsnight. Archived from the original on April 20, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Mazzetti, Mark; Shane, Scott (February 20, 2008). "Tape Inquiry: Ex-Spymaster in the Middle". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  10. ↑ Miller, Greg (February 2, 2017). "CIA officer with ties to 'black sites' named deputy director". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hess, Pamela (December 7, 2007). "Hayden Says CIA Videotapes Destroyed". Washington Post. AP. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  12. ↑ Mayer, Jane (2008). The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. Anchor. p.  292. ISBN   978-0-307-45629-8.
  13. ↑ Benjamin, Mark; Horton, Scott (December 10, 2007). "Did CIA Destroy Tapes Showing Waterboarding and Involvement of Psychologists in Torture?". Democracy Now! (Interview). Interviewed by Amy Goodman. Archived from the original on October 17, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Miller, Greg (December 7, 2007). "CIA destroyed secret tapes of interrogations". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  15. ↑ Kravets, David (October 6, 2011). "Judge Refuses to Sanction CIA for Destroying Torture Tapes". Wired. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
  16. 1 2 Mazzetti, Mark (December 7, 2007). "C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 22, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  17. ↑ Meyer, Josh (December 9, 2007). "Inquiry begins into CIA tape destruction". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  18. 1 2 Leinwand, Donna (January 3, 2008). "CIA to yield to criminal probe into interrogations". saukvalley.com. Gannett News Service. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  19. ↑ Mazzetti, Mark; Johnston, David (January 2, 2008). "Justice Dept. Sets Criminal Inquiry Into C.I.A. Tapes". The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  20. ↑ Mazzetti, Mark (March 3, 2009). "U.S. Says C.I.A. Destroyed 92 Tapes of Interrogations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.