WASHINGTON, 8 December 2007 — The CIA admitted yesterday it destroyed videotapes of the interrogation of Al-Qaeda operatives in 2005, defending the move as necessary to protect CIA staff. Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden made the admission as US media headlined the destruction of tapes for at least two interrogations in 2005 — at a time when Congress was probing allegations of torture.
In a statement to CIA staff, Hayden confirmed that the agency videotaped interrogations in 2002 at the outset of a “war on terror” detention program using harsher techniques. He said the tapes were destroyed three years later. But he said the detainees were not subject to illegal abuse.
“The decision to destroy the tapes was made within CIA itself,” said Hayden’s statement issued on Thursday and obtained yesterday. “Beyond their lack of intelligence value — as the interrogation sessions had already been exhaustively detailed in written channels — and the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them, the tapes posed a serious security risk,” Hayden said.
“Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the program, exposing them and their families to retaliation from Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers,” he said.
Hayden did not say how many detainees were videotaped but alluded to media reports which said interrogations of at least two Al-Qaeda operatives were videotaped.
The revelation raises difficult questions for the US administration that has faced fierce criticism over its treatment of terror suspects, with lawmakers and rights groups charging the White House has withheld information about its interrogations and detention practices.
Committees in Congress overseeing intelligence matters were informed of the videos “years ago” and of plans to dispose of them, Hayden said. But Democrats in Congress expressed outrage and demanded the US attorney general launch an investigation into the case, accusing President George W. Bush’s administration of trying to cover-up evidence of possible torture.
Sen. Ted Kennedy said the White House was “feverishly covering up its tracks,” and urged an immediate probe. “No part of our government should engage in practices that are so horrific that we cannot bear to see them on tape,” Kennedy said.
Human rights groups also called for an immediate probe and said the move amounted to destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice.
But Bush does not recall knowing about videotapes of CIA interrogations or the decision to destroy those recordings in 2005, the White House said yesterday. But Bush has “complete confidence” in Hayden, who has unapologetically defended the destruction of the tapes, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
Perino stopped short of denying any White House involvement, saying only that Bush “has no recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday” when Hayden briefed him. Bush has directed his official White House lawyer to work with an internal CIA investigation into what happened, said Perino.
After the administration authorized harsher interrogation techniques following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hayden said the tapes were made to ensure new interrogation methods were within legal limits.
The tapes were meant as “an additional, internal check on the program in its early stages,” said Hayden.
The tapes were also designed to serve as an accurate account of interrogations but the agency later decided that there were already sufficient documentary records, and videotaping stopped in 2002, he said.
The New York Times, citing unnamed government sources, said the tapes showed CIA agents interrogating Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in CIA custody, using “severe interrogation techniques.” London-based Amnesty International said there were reliable reports that Zubaydah was subjected to “waterboarding,” a method that simulates drowning and which critics say amounts to torture. The US administration refuses to say what techniques are used on detainees by intelligence agencies, including waterboarding. The US military clearly spells out what methods are allowed.
Lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would require all US officials including intelligence officials to adhere to the same rules as the military and renounce all forms of torture.
Last month, federal authorities revealed that the CIA possessed two videotapes and one audiotape of interrogations of terror suspects that defense lawyers asked for during the trial of the accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Initially, the CIA denied it had any such tapes. Warning his colleagues the agency faced a likely media storm over the revelations, Hayden said the Office of General Counsel and the Office of the Inspector General reviewed the tapes and found the interrogations did not violate legal guidelines.
