[Ppnews] CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20970


CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes

March 25, 2009 By Jason Leopold


The CIA has about 3,000 documents related to the 92 destroyed 
videotapes that showed "war on terror" detainees being subjected to 
harsh interrogations, the Justice Department has disclosed, 
suggesting an extensive back-and-forth between CIA field operatives 
and officials of the Bush administration.

The Justice Department said the documents include "cables, memoranda, 
notes and e-mails" related to the destroyed CIA videotapes. Those 
tapes included 12 that showed two "high-value" prisoners undergoing 
the drowning sensation caused by waterboarding and other brutal 
techniques that have been widely denounced as torture.

The number of documents - but not their contents - was mentioned 
Friday in a Justice Department letter from Lev Dassin, acting U.S. 
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to U.S. District 
Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein in response to a Freedom of Information 
Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dassin told Judge Hellerstein that unredacted versions of the 
materials would be available for only him to review "in-camera" on 
March 26. The CIA also refused to provide the ACLU with a list of 
individuals who watched the videotapes prior to their destruction 
because that information "is either classified or otherwise protected 
by statute."

The number of relevant documents - "roughly 3,000," according to the 
letter - adds weight to the belief that CIA interrogators were in 
frequent communication with headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and 
with senior Bush administration officials who were monitoring the 
harsh techniques used and approving them one by one or even in combination.

The volume of communications also lends support to the suspicion that 
many officials were involved in the debate about what to do with the 
incriminating videotapes, not just one or two CIA officers acting on 
their own. CIA officials have said the videotapes were destroyed to 
prevent disclosure of how the agency's interrogators subjected "war 
on terror" detainees to waterboarding and other brutal methods.

Torture Allegations

Last weekend, author Mark Danner disclosed a report prepared by the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), concluding that the 
abuse of 14 "high-value" detainees "constituted torture."

"In addition, many other elements of the ill treatment, either singly 
or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment," according to the ICRC report. Since the ICRC's 
responsibilities involve ensuring compliance with the Geneva 
Conventions and supervising the treatment of prisoners of war, the 
organization's findings carry legal weight.

The ICRC report also found that there was a consistency in many 
details from the detainees who were interviewed separately and that 
the first "high-value" detainee to be captured, Abu Zubaydah, 
appeared to have been used as something of a test case by his 
interrogators. Zubaydah was one of the prisoners whose interrogations 
were videotaped by the CIA.

Another detainee subjected to waterboarding and other abuse was Abd 
al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the attack on the USS 
Cole in 2000. Two weeks ago, the Justice Department released a 
heavily censored page of what appears to be a CIA internal report 
about the torture of "war on terror" detainees, which read: 
"Interrogators administered [redacted] waterboard to Al-Nashiri."

The same page indicated that a dozen of the 92 destroyed videotapes 
of the CIA's interrogations were of detainees undergoing brutal 
treatment. "There are 92 videotapes, 12 of which include EIT 
[enhanced interrogation techniques] applications," the page says.

The ACLU criticized the Justice Department for continuing to withhold 
documents related to the destruction of the torture tapes.

"The government is still needlessly withholding information about 
these tapes from the public, despite the fact that the CIA's use of 
torture is well known," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the 
ACLU. "Full disclosure of the CIA's illegal interrogation methods is 
long overdue and the agency must be held accountable for flouting the 
rule of law."

Besides the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit, the destruction of the CIA tapes has 
been the subject of a year-long criminal investigation by John 
Durham, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia 
who was appointed special prosecutor last year by Attorney General 
Michael Mukasey.

On Wednesday, the ACLU called on Attorney General Eric Holder to 
appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Bush administration 
officials who signed off on and approved the torture of prisoners.

"The fact that such crimes have been committed can no longer be 
doubted or debated, nor can the need for an independent prosecutor be 
ignored by a new Justice Department committed to restoring the rule 
of law," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.

"Given the increasing evidence of deliberate and widespread use of 
torture and abuse, and that such conduct was the predictable result 
of policy changes made at the highest levels of government, an 
independent prosecutor is clearly in the public interest," Romero said.

The Justice Department's restrictive handling of the 3,000 documents 
comes one day after Attorney General Holder issued sweeping new 
Freedom of Information guidelines for all Executive Branch agencies 
to "apply a presumption of openness when administering the FOIA."

"The American people have the right to information about their 
government's activities, and these new guidelines will ensure they 
are able to obtain that information under principles of openness and 
transparency," Holder said Thursday.

Holder said FOIA requests would be denied and records withheld "only 
if the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an 
interest protected by one of the statutory exemptions, or disclosure 
is prohibited by law." But even then, all federal agencies were 
directed to at least "release records in part whenever they cannot be 
released in full."




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