CIA Tapes Destroyed After Inspector General Found Interrogation Tactics "Inhumane"

[babylonsister]

CIA Tapes Destroyed After Inspector General Found Interrogation Tactics "Inhumane"
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2008-01-08 01:46. Evidence

By Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t


The CIA destroyed videotapes showing its agents subjecting high-level al-Qaeda detainees to waterboarding after the agency's inspector general issued a classified report in the spring of 2004 that concluded the interrogation methods used on the prisoners "appeared to constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, as defined by the International Convention Against Torture."

Details about when the videotapes were expected to be destroyed were revealed in a February 2003 letter released last week by Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-California). Harman was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee at the time she wrote the letter to the CIA advising the agency against destroying the videotapes. Prior to writing the letter to then CIA General Counsel Scott Muller, Harman had been briefed about the CIA's interrogation methods against so-called high-level detainees. The CIA declassified Harman's letter at the congresswoman's request.

Harman's letter provides a more thorough account of the possible reasons CIA officials destroyed the videotaped interrogations, which, according to public accounts, took place in November 2005, more than two years after Harman sent a letter to Muller voicing disapproval about purging the videotapes. It also suggests intelligence officials heeded prior warnings to preserve the videotapes and destroyed the videotapes only after evidence of the agency's covert interrogation practices were revealed publicly in news reports.

Harman's letter did not raise concerns or express disapproval about the CIA's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques." Moreover, her letter advising the agency against destroying the videotapes were made out of concern the footage CIA agents captured "would be the best proof that the written record is accurate, if such record is called into question in the future." It is believed Harman was referring to information about the 9/11 attacks and other purported plots against the United States.

At the time Harman wrote to Muller, CIA Inspector General John Helgerson was in the midst of an internal investigation into the agency's interrogation methods, which Truthout reported last week. Helgerson personally viewed the videotapes that showed two detainees being subjected to waterboarding by CIA officers, which formed the foundation for his still classified report on the CIA's methods of interrogation.

"In his report, Mr. Helgerson also raised concern about whether the use of the techniques could expose agency officers to legal liability," according to a November 9, 2005, story in The New York Times was published around the same month the tapes were destroyed. "They said the report expressed skepticism about the Bush administration view that any ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment under the treaty does not apply to CIA interrogations because they take place overseas on people who are not citizens of the United States."

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29885

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[Fearless]

2. I believe to up the ante, they've now put their foot down their throats.

Too bad accountability has been written out of this country's constitution. One law for the ruler, one law for the ruled? Haven't we been here before?

[intheflow]

3. This story literally makes me sick to my stomach.

I have a non-political friend staying with me this week. I just read her this article and had to explain the procedure of water boarding. I felt unclean just describing it out loud. :(

[babylonsister]

4. It is putrid; I hope it doesn't 'go away' like so many others.

:(

[C_U_L8R]

5. there were still witnesses

and most certainly a victim.

This is very easy stuff to get to the bottom off... IF congress has the guts to act.

[democrank]

6. It`s all so sickening.

I can`t blame all of it on post-9/11 fear. We obviously have our share of depraved individuals, starting with Junior Bush.

[Naturyl]

7. So they get to just destroy the evidence?

Scot-free?

$@%%^@^@^@%@.... can't really say how I feel about this without embarrassing myself.