Today's News From the Dark Side
Dec. 7th, 2007 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythThe CIA Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations
"The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said."
So the tapes were destroyed in 2005. Before they were destroyed, tapes of interrogations were requested by the 9/11 commission, a Congressional investigatory panel, and at least one judge. They weren't turned over to any of them. What's the CIA's excuse?
"General Hayden’s statement said that the tapes posed a “serious security risk,” and that if they were to become public they would have exposed C.I.A. officials “and their families to retaliation from Al Qaeda and its sympathizers.”
“What matters here is that it was done in line with the law,” he said. He said in his statement that he was informing agency employees because “the press has learned” about the destruction of the tapes."
This deserves only one word of response. BULLSHIT.
The CIA can easily reassign agents, so said agents would be nowhere near any "Al Queda" assassins. But even if they were such a security risk, and "no longer had intelligence value", why did they wait until the press found out about them?
"A former intelligence official who was briefed on the issue said the videotaping was ordered as a way of assuring “quality control” at remote sites following reports of unauthorized interrogation techniques. He said the tapes, along with still photographs of interrogations, were destroyed after photographs of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004 and C.I.A. officers became concerned about a possible leak of the videos and photos.
He said the worries about the impact a leak of the tapes might have in the Muslim world were real.
It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to several tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of photos or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction."
In other words, it'd be a lot harder to keep up the pretense that waterboarding isn't torture, and we haven't been torturing people, if people actually got to see it as it was done.
This is what George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of their gang have brought our country to. Impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, impeach them now. And throw them in jail, along with the rest of their corrupt administration.
Spenser Ackerman has more.
"The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said."
So the tapes were destroyed in 2005. Before they were destroyed, tapes of interrogations were requested by the 9/11 commission, a Congressional investigatory panel, and at least one judge. They weren't turned over to any of them. What's the CIA's excuse?
"General Hayden’s statement said that the tapes posed a “serious security risk,” and that if they were to become public they would have exposed C.I.A. officials “and their families to retaliation from Al Qaeda and its sympathizers.”
“What matters here is that it was done in line with the law,” he said. He said in his statement that he was informing agency employees because “the press has learned” about the destruction of the tapes."
This deserves only one word of response. BULLSHIT.
The CIA can easily reassign agents, so said agents would be nowhere near any "Al Queda" assassins. But even if they were such a security risk, and "no longer had intelligence value", why did they wait until the press found out about them?
"A former intelligence official who was briefed on the issue said the videotaping was ordered as a way of assuring “quality control” at remote sites following reports of unauthorized interrogation techniques. He said the tapes, along with still photographs of interrogations, were destroyed after photographs of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004 and C.I.A. officers became concerned about a possible leak of the videos and photos.
He said the worries about the impact a leak of the tapes might have in the Muslim world were real.
It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to several tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of photos or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction."
In other words, it'd be a lot harder to keep up the pretense that waterboarding isn't torture, and we haven't been torturing people, if people actually got to see it as it was done.
This is what George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of their gang have brought our country to. Impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, impeach them now. And throw them in jail, along with the rest of their corrupt administration.
Spenser Ackerman has more.
