US News
Washington scrambles on destroyed CIA interrogation tapes
Dec 9, 2007, 16:29 GMT
File photo showing Human rights activists demonstrate waterboarding on volunteer Maboud Ebrahimzadeh outside the Justice Department in Washington, DC, USA, 05 November 2007. The question of who knew what and when about the CIA\'s destruction of video tapes of harsh interrogation techniques sent Washington scrambling this weekend, with the announcement of a joint investigation and reports that Congress members from both parties were briefed on the practices. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH
Washington - The question of who knew what and when about the CIA's destruction of video tapes of harsh interrogation techniques sent Washington scrambling this weekend, with the announcement of a joint investigation and reports that Congress members from both parties were briefed on the practices.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Hayden revealed on Friday that in 2005, it destroyed video tapes of officers subjecting two al-Qaeda terrorist suspects to harsh interrogation techniques.
Responding to a request for a criminal probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the CIA and Justice Department said Saturday they would conduct a joint investigation into the destruction. The White House has said it will help with the probe.
'I welcome this inquiry, and the CIA will cooperate fully,' Hayden said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg news. 'I welcome it as an opportunity to address questions that have arisen over the destruction back in 2005 of videotapes.'
The Washington Post, quoting unnamed officials, reported Sunday that at least four members of Congress were briefed about controversial techniques such as water-boarding as early as 2002. With the 2001 terrorist attacks fresh in mind, several of them even approved of the approach. The group included current Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Post reported, but it was not clear if she had condoned the methods.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that White House and Justice Department officials advised the CIA against plans to destroy hundreds of hours of the tapes. The CIA's top lawyer, John Rizzo, was not consulted on the decision, which was reportedly taken by the head of the CIA's clandestine service, the Times wrote, quoting unnamed officials.
At least two tapes, made in 2002, documented the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, an associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and another high-level, unidentified al-Qaeda member.
The Washington Post reported that Zubaydah had been subjected to water-boarding, a controversial practice which simulates drowning, though it was unclear whether the video tapes specifically showed that technique.
The method has been condemned as torture by human rights organisations. Republican Senator John McCain, a one-time victim of torture as a prisoner of war held for years in Vietnam, successfully led efforts to get Congress to specifically ban its use by US security officials.
Hayden made the announcement Friday after being tipped off that US media were about to publish articles on the tapes. He said the CIA disposed of the tapes after ensuring they were not the focus of any legislative or judicial inquiries and that videotaping stopped in 2002.
Hayden said the tapes were destroyed because they no longer contained valuable intelligence and posed a security risk to the agents involved if they ever became public.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a US human rights group has accused the CIA of destroying the tapes to protect the operatives from legal consequences.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
What did Nancy know and when did she know it?!!!!
...into Sandy Berger's pants!
'Mrs Clinton....I think you need to see these! I got them from...well...a guy who knows a guy and...
'Bring them here...bring em to Momma sandy...or momma will have to slap a bitch...OK?'
'Sure senator...just don't hit me with the riding crop...or the lamp ....again...'
'Shut up....where'd you get these...'
'well, a guy who works for state knew a guy who works for the CIA and he needed some christmas money so...'
'WHACK'
'OH...F---K!...NOT AGAIN...NO...OT THE PLIERS...!'
'Shut up bitch and give momma the abbreviated version...'
'THE CIA...THE CIA!'
'Good...you make a good.....whatever...Sandy...3 weeks with Al Gore and you'll learn how to rebuild your career....now get out.'
'Yes Ma'am!'
'Now...bark like a dog for momma...'
As usual not one neocon ,even here stands up against torture .Democracy went down the drain together with the most essential values ,and apparently simpleminded posters even condone to this right here .What az bunch of morons .Mark my words,the idiot leading your governments seems to have problems with his memory;he has no recollections of being told .Pile scandals upon scandals upon scandals against this bunch of warmongers and still they try to divert it to the opposition .Don't you see the obvious contradiction in your posts ?You can't drag the democrats into the bathtub and claim at the same time your government does nothing wrong .Now which way is it gonna be ?
Who are they fooling - with or without the tapes, the public isn't naive enough to think that the torture of prisoners doesn't exist!!
I doubt this has been a big secret kept from most of the government or the President - they were dumb enough to think it wouldn't get out. LOL
'As usual not one neocon ,even here stands up against torture '
Why don't you condemn the very real torture in YOUR country (Iran) before you lecture us on the non existent torture in ours.
In 2002, Nancy Pelosi was a member of a bipartisan group that was made aware of harsh interrogation techniques being used with Islamic terrorists in US custody—and the group not only approved of the tactics (including waterboarding), they asked the CIA to push harder!
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR200712080166 4.html?hpid=topnews
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.
“The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.
Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup.
Yet long before “waterboarding” entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.
With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).
LOL! When does Nancy get charged with war crimes and dragged before The Hague? Someone alert the UN! Nancy Pelosi is on the loose!
OMG, this is just too f-ing funny.....
The US is the cheapest form of entertainment there is. Watching you neocon turkeys gobble about is so funny. Your government is a pigsty, your morals are those of skanks, your ethics stink as bad as a septic system. You are a joke. Walt Disney created a character long ago and a club to go with it. Join me in singing the theme song: M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E, mickey mouse, mickey mouse...
'Frank
The US is the cheapest form of entertainment there is.'
Well 'cheap' suits you wank, but glad you find it entertaining. You are too boring for us to notice.
...laugh at that...
...was when we threw out the f--king British!
We're all broke up, Frank.
We freed ourselves from our colonial masters, settled the issue of slavery, a business we inherited from the Brits, on the battlefield, built the Trans-continental Railroad, invented mass production, modern research and development, the telephone, the electic light, the airplane, the model T, won two world wars, freed Europe and East Asia, Fought and won the cold war, invented commerical jet travel, cured Polio, landed on the moon, invented the Internet, the PC, and Windows.
We spend half of our defense dollars keeping other people free (250 Billion a year), and our trade partners are the most prosperous nations in the world. Our neighbors enjoy the protection and prosperity of our friendship, and can count on us in a heartbeat to stand by them, no matter what. Our courts are the fairest in the world. Our leaders operate under the most stringent laws of any democratic republic on earth.
Do we, sometimes look rediculous? Yes, until someone like Chavez opens his mouth.
Frank, we have a saying in America: Go f--k yourself.
'I'm not british you morons. '
Who cares where you are from? You are an idiot regardless of whatever hovel you crawled out of.
Congratulations on getting the internet in irrelevant land...
You may have freed youselves from your betters, but you have been on a down-hill slide ever since. The rest of what you say also has a downside, like pollution and comsumerist trash that breaks one day after the useless warrantee expires. You morons also brought us international criminal like Oliver North, Bush(both of them), Cheney, and thousands of others. If you arses are so great, then why is most of what is for sale in your stores come from China?
Unfortunately for some of you I am not from Iran.Congratulations SP4 for inventing all those things ,did you really or is it just rubbing off on you .Last comments I read from you make me rather skeptical on your ability to invent anything except warm water .It takes a logical mind and a proper education as well as a inquiring mind to invent something .An inventor is clearly somebody able to see possibilities which none has seen before,looking into problems from a different angle .None of these things apply to you .Parrots don't invent,sorry .Get treatment for your follies des grandeurs .
Speaking of irrelevant, how are YOU?
'Unfortunately for some of you I am not from Iran.'
What other explanation could there be for your knee jerk defense of the mullahs? Oh wait, I have one: you are a complete moron.
Sorry, but all Americans don't claim the statement 'Go f--k yourselves'!
Some people are a little more intelligent than having to resort to that to explain themselves, but we all know it is one of your favorite words.
Just can't seem to take you all that seriously, old fella!
Curiously, one of the biggest dissenters on forced interrogations happens to be a republican, even if he is only one in name only:
Senator John McCain. His position is unassailable. I guess that makes you, Tonny, once again-more-than-a-little-full of crap.
The thing I just love about this president is that he couldn't care less about any of this:
Intel report - suck my dick
missing tapes - suck my dick
Iraq war resolutions - suck my dick
All, while being gracious to a fault.
The libnazis decided to make an enemy and, congratulations, they got just waht they asked for.
Having foreigners single out the United States for human rights abuse is like bakers blaming diabetes on the dairymen.
Let's take a tour:
Britain - anyone want to compare notes in Iraq, or Malaysia, Northern Ireland...any takers?
Europe - ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, complete with rapes mass murder, etc., all in the last 10 to 20 years.
Asia - Pick any nation in Asia and compare it's practices with the USA. Any Nation, none will be able to pass that test.
Africa - so many examples it would be impossible to list them. One atrocity after another.
Compared to any of these places, America is a saint.
Where were all these US traitors soiling their pants when American, Korean, Italian, and British civilians and troops were butchered?
Where were all their human rights and protections under the Geneva Conventions?
Why dont they fill their underpants when westerners were videotaped and had their heads removed by muslim partisans.....defeaning silence again we see?!?!?
The muslim terrorists we have in prison should ALL be tortured, skinned alive, shot in the neck, and buried in pigparts.
You ultraleftists and muslims here say America is bad, we used torture for our entire history on fellow Americans in the civil war, War of 1812, Revolution, Spanish-American War, WW 1, WW 2, Korea, and Vietnam and NOBODY CARED!
Why do you small groups care NOW for international gangsters, muslim terrorists, jihadists, who wear civilian clothing and belong to no official army all the while as they butcher CIVILIANS whose only crime is not being muslim? They have no rights whatsoever!
We need General Patton, MarArthur, and FDR to arrest people as you and throw the key in the sewer.
It would be even better to simply deport you forever and send you out to the islamic nation of your choice.
You morons know nothing of history or the reality of war. You dont deserve to live in a free nation while attempting to undermine our national security. Things will change soon enough.
Hungarian Crusader
the reason the President doesn't care about any of that is because he just doesn't UNDERSTAND any of it!!!
I suppose forced interrogation is the newspeak neocon terminology for torture ?Like rendition is the new terminology for kidnapping .Invent new words for every abuse you commit and suddenly you enter a new unchartered territory;the neocon society in which nothing is what it seems.Nice try SP4 but no deal .The Bush administration is guilty of crimes,destruction of evidence ,all in the name of liberty,which gets raped in the process of being defended.Isn't it so ?
Lest I forget,mercenaries are now labeled security contractors,what's in a name ....
Bush is 'gracious to a fault' - someone's brain is so washed, you can see through it!!
Korea, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Japan, Ukraine, Britain, and France all guilty or torture throughout their history and even now......yes.
I guess just America can not toruture or do anything related to a war in order to defend its borders, people, troops, or interests.
If you morons KNEW history you would see Presidents Roosevelt, Washington FDR, Lincoln, Truman and Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, MacArthur all tortured and executed POW's at will and they were all troops in uniform which is something muslim terrorists ARE NOT!!!
It is just fine for muslims to butcher westerners, non-muslims, Christians, Hindus, Africans, Buddhists, animists, and atheists, 'but dont America try and do the same when seeking information on terrorist groups.'
'When you catch us you better treat us with utmost respect, lawyers, clean clothes, koran, soccer balls, and 3 delicious meals a day.'
That is not happening too much longer you bastards.
Thanks AGAIN for not answering ANY of my questions as I guess they are too historic, honest, and direct.
Leftists and muslims can not have rights and protections while denying it to westerners.
You are all cowards and that is why you can only beat women and children.
Hungarian Crusader
What is in a name you say?
We used to call them jihadists, muslim bombers, and muslim terrorists.
Now we call them MODERATE muslims?
Is that muslim jihadist terminology for a peaceful religion?
I think you are dreaming as a typical muzzie and NEOLEFTIST!!
Good try, but you fail again.
There is no such thing as a moderate muslim and never was and never will.
...except Bush never destroyed any tapes...in fact, how do we even know they existed in the first place? Were they even about any torture to begin with? Honestly, you'll believe anything.
...and isn't this the same intel community that just got done thumbing their noses at Bush? Isn't it the same one that said there were WMD's in Iraq? Isn't this the same intel community that says Iran stopped it's nuclear weapons programs even while they admit they are still enriching uranium ato weapons grade? Add that and see if it comes up four...
Now, here comes ol GW with another round of his mop and bucket...
Ol Bush sits in his office, does a couple of lines, throws back a wild turkey and must just laugh his frickin head off.
My god man you are so stupid it is amazing. What to you think you are accomplishing by saying things like:
'...except Bush never destroyed any tapes...in fact, how do we even know they existed in the first place? Were they even about any torture to begin with? Honestly, you'll believe anything.'
Freaking stupid......
'...and isn't this the same intel community that just got done thumbing their noses at Bush? Isn't it the same one that said there were WMD's in Iraq? Isn't this the same intel community that says Iran stopped it's nuclear weapons programs even while they admit they are still enriching uranium ato weapons grade? Add that and see if it comes up four...'
Really freaking stupid......
'Now, here comes ol GW with another round of his mop and bucket...'
Freaking redneck.....
'Ol Bush sits in his office, does a couple of lines, throws back a wild turkey and must just laugh his frickin head off.'
Pretty pathetic---really stupid.
You need to go out and get some real issues, get some legitimate backup, post those and have a point...then you would not appear to be a toothless, old man, redneck, no account bum.
Take a look at the New York Times front page today. (it''s a 'newspaper' ask your dad what they are) Turns out the lawyers (not Bus) who destroyed them are in the clear, legally, that is, anyway.
Another stellar example of nothing against the law here.
I guess that makes you just-a-little-more-than-full-of-crap.
'facts, they are stubborn things' - George H.W.Bush
Isn't it the same intel community that said there were WMD's in Iraq?
Were there any real torture tapes, or were they just another Washington myth?
What really was on the tapes to begin with? Who actually knows?
Isn't this the same intel community who says Iran has stopped it's bomb plans while admitting that they still are enriching uranium? What kind of logic is applied for that result?
Why do these questions make the commentor above stupid? Also, I noticed the other poster failed to answer them.
What does that make him? Stupid?
We see the liberal press scrape up another pseudo-scandal, which turns out to be nothing. Congress encouraged interrogations, the white house was not queasy about them either. Feigning outrage is, in itself, outrageous.
Again ,for those suffering from paranoia after all the attempts made by the neocons to portray a hostile image of the world to americans,there is need for clarification in this ongoing debate .To clarify the issue let me say it is not a matter of the USA against the rest of the world .That is a neocon image,twisted vision of the world .The outrage from the world joins the aversion that most americans now have against their own administration .Always 80 percent of the american people oppose Bush .So the arguments wielded by neocons are flawed,it is their last desperate effort to gain support .Make it look as if the rest of the world is opposed to America .They have forfeited all right to speak for the american people .Period .Next elections will dump them where they belong,in the garbage bin of history,together with fascism,stalinism and last but not least all fundamentalist religions desperate to impose their selfrightous opinions on others . Fundamentalist islam is part of that .It is only thanks to the stupid policy applied by the Bush administration in regard of Iraq and Israel that fundamentalist islam has gained so much momentum .It was absent in Iraq ,only to be grwoing thanks to the invasion of that country .That much is clear .The best way to deal with them is just to leave Iraq,it is the most direct and effective method .Renditions,torture and lies only makes them stronger ,as you give them arguments for recruitment.
We need President Kennedy He was:
A staunch anti-communist
Believed in covert, illegal, operations to overthrow unfriendly governments,
Wire tapping i.e. Brother Bobby taping Martin Luther King
Lowering taxes to stimulate the economy
Gee, he sounds like a real neo-con to me!
...for 30 years. We softballed Al Queda,Biero Crinton let him go...we turned our cheeks to every attack, made nice with every nation (like Saudi Arabia) made every peace overature.
The result:
911
Now, this president who thought he'd be able to live eight more years like Crinton did, suckling the fat hog and biding his time, got stuck in the middle of a train wreck a blind man could see coming.
So, in typical fashion, he gets out his mop and bucket, and starts taking out the trash. Yep, ol GW an his ol Mop, got quaddafi to drop his weapons program, got saddam out, got Kim to deal.
The dems were only too helpful, greenlighting EVERY iniative at EVERY turn, in the blind hope it would fail. (we won the peace in Iraq) and they would gain power( how's that working so far?) OL hirry Reid, signing everything off as if Bush had a dog collar on him. God, what a neocon!
Yes, Tonny, those darn neocons, who, by the way seem to believe in a LOT of the same things Kennedy did, huh?.
Why is that Tonny? Because Neocons were once Kennedy liberals, who switched when their party abandoned them.(Vietnam) I guess you missed that, being in Belgium, huh? hahahahahahaha!
...The dem congress has a 20% approval rating.
69% polled think it was a mistake to elect the current congress.
40% are now in favor of the war, even though they want it to end now.
The president has a higher approval rating than Congress.
Source: Gallup
page: 1
LOL!Dec 9th, 2007 - 16:46:27
' at least four members of Congress were briefed about controversial techniques such as water-boarding as early as 2002. With the 2001 terrorist attacks fresh in mind, several of them even approved of the approach. The group included current Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi...'
Bwaaaa Ha Ha Ha.....
What this article doesn't tell you:
' WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.
The chief of the agency’s clandestine service [Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.] nevertheless ordered their destruction in November 2005, taking the step without notifying even the C.I.A.’s own top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, who was angry at the decision, the officials said.'
www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/washington/08intel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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