Lawyer: Goss Never Objected to Destroying CIA Videos

[babylonsister]

Lawyer: Goss never objected on CIA tapes

Lawyer: Goss Never Objected to Destroying CIA Videos

MATT APUZZO
AP News

Jan 17, 2008 15:13 EST

Former CIA Director Porter Goss never criticized plans to destroy interrogation videotapes, a lawyer said Thursday as the investigation began shaping up as a matter of competing storylines.

Jose Rodriguez, the CIA official who gave the order to destroy the tapes, is at the center of Justice Department and congressional investigations into who approved the plan and whether it was illegal. His attorney, Robert Bennett, said Goss and Rodriquez met several times to discuss the tapes and Goss was never critical of Rodriquez' decision.

After a first round of hearings on Capitol Hill, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Rodriguez defied orders that the tapes be preserved.

Bennett disputed that in a telephone interview, saying Goss offered Rodriguez "not a word of criticism when they met, either before or right after the destruction."

The tapes, made in 2002, showed the harsh interrogation by CIA officers of two alleged al-Qaida terrorists, both of whom are known to have undergone waterboarding, which gives the subject the sensation of drowning.

Rodriguez was the head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, which oversees spying operations and interrogations. Bennett said Goss was "well aware of the situation" when Rodriguez gave the order to destroy the tapes in November 2005.

more...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/01/lawyer_goss_never_objected_on.php

[seemslikeadream]

1. but I read this yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3143446&mesg_id=3143446

Tapes Destroyed Over CIA's Objections (according to Hoekstra after meeting with Rizzo)
Posted by maddezmom on Wed Jan-16-08 09:01 PM

Source: AP

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 16, 2008
Filed at 9:29 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA official who gave the command to destroy interrogation videotapes apparently acted against the direction of his superiors, the top Republican House Intelligence Committee member said Wednesday.

''It appears he hadn't gotten authority from anyone,'' said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., speaking to reporters after the first day of closed testimony in the committee's investigation. ''It appears he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed.''

Hoekstra said that raises the troubling prospect that there's a thread of unaccountability in the spy culture.

''I believe there are parts of the intelligence community that don't believe they are accountable to Congress and may not be accountable to their own superiors in the intelligence community, and that's why it's a problem,'' he said.

Hoekstra spoke after the CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, testified behind closed doors for nearly four hours as the first witness in what committee officials have said will be a long investigation.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CIA-Videotapes.html


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Account of C.I.A. Tapes Is Challenged


By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
Published: January 17, 2008
WASHINGTON — The former Central Intelligence Agency official who authorized the destruction in 2005 of videotapes documenting harsh interrogation of detainees from Al Qaeda gave the order despite apparently being directed to preserve the tapes, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.

Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service at the time, had not “gotten authority from anyone” to destroy the tapes.

“Matter of fact, it appears that he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed,” he said.

Mr. Hoekstra spoke after hearing testimony from John A. Rizzo, the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, who addressed the committee on Wednesday during a closed session lasting nearly four hours.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/washington/17intel.html?ref=world


Did they rec the okay from the WH?

Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate Of C.I.A.Tapes
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E3DB113FF93AA25751C1A9619C8B63&scp=3&sq=harriet+miers+CIA

[babylonsister]

2. Now that you mention it, so did I. Seems like there's a discrepancy.

Or someone's lying. :grr: But we know that already.