2005 CIA interrogation tapes destruction
Encyclopedia
The CIA interrogation tapes destruction occurred on November 9, 2005. The videotapes were made by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) during interrogation
s of Al-Qaeda
suspects Abu Zubaydah
and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
in 2002 at a CIA black site
prison in Thailand.. 90 tapes were made of Zubaydah and 2 of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using enhanced interrogation techniques
. The tapes and their destruction became public knowledge in December 2007. A criminal investigation by a Department of Justice special prosecutor decided in 2010 to not file any criminal charges related to destroying the videotapes.
. He was held at a black site
in Thailand
starting in the spring of 2002. Near the beginning of Zubaydah's detention, a video camera was set up to continuously tape him. Tapes were also made of another early CIA detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
, who arrived in October. The tapes were made from April to December 2002. 90 tapes were made of Zubaydah and 2 of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using enhanced interrogation techniques
.
Soon after the taping had stopped, CIA clandestine officers were pushing for the tapes to be destroyed. However, the General Counsel of the CIA, Scott W. Muller, advised the CIA director, George Tenet
, to not destroy the tapes on the CIA's authority. Instead, Muller notified the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in February 2003 that the CIA would like to have them destroyed. Representatives Porter Goss and Jane Harman
thought that would be politically and legally risky.
Days after the photographs from Abu Ghraib
became public in May 2004, the CIA tapes were discussed among CIA and White House lawyers. Muller, representing the CIA, met with Alberto Gonzales
, David Addington
and John B. Bellinger III
. The three White House lawyers recommended that the tapes not be destroyed.
Tenet and Muller left the CIA in mid 2004. By late 2004, several top leadership positions at the CIA had changed. Goss was Director, John A. Rizzo
was acting General Counsel, and Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. was chief of the Directorate of Operations. There was also a new White House Counsel, Harriet Miers
. In early 2005, Miers told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first.
On November 4, 2005, just after the Washington Post had printed a story about the existence of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe, Rodriguez called two CIA lawyers for their opinions. Steven Hermes, a clandestine service lawyer, told Rodriguez he had the authority to destroy the tapes. Robert Eatinger, the top lawyer at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, said there was no legal requirement to keep the tapes. The AP reported that, as both lawyers knew of standing orders from the White House not to destroy the tapes, neither thought Rodriguez would immediately act based on their advice.
Rodriguez sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8. The cable was not copied to anyone other than Rodriguez's chief of staff. It was against standard procedure to act on the advice of agency lawyers without copying them on a decision. Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo on November 10. Rodgriguez was never reprimanded for the destruction of the tapes.
asked for videotapes of interrogations of detainees that might help prove Moussaoui wasn't involved in the September 11 attacks.
In May 2005, Senator Jay Rockefeller
made a request on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the CIA to turn over a hundred documents related to the alleged torture of prisoners in American custody. In September, after Porter Goss was named as the new Director of the CIA, Rockefeller renewed his request. Both times, he also mentioned the videotapes, which "undoubtedly sent a shiver through the agency".
From May to November 2005, Judge Leonie Brinkema
was also pressuring the CIA to turn over any videotapes of detainee interrogations as evidence in the trial against Zacarias Moussaoui
. On November 14, the Department of Justice told the court that the CIA did not possess the videotapes that were requested.
The tapes were not provided to the September 11 Commission, which used classified transcripts of interrogations of Zubaydah in writing its report. Philip D. Zelikow
, the Executive Director of the Commission, stated, "We believe that we asked for such material and we are sure that we were not provided such material."
The ACLU claimed that at the time they were destroyed, the tapes should have been turned over according to a federal court order to comply with a FOIA
request for information about interrogations. A federal judge ruled in 2011 that the CIA would not be sanctioned for the destruction.
Michael Hayden, the Director of Central Intelligence
, sent a letter to CIA staff the next day, briefing them on the destruction of the tapes. Hayden asserted that key members of Congress
had been briefed on the existence of the tapes, and the plans for their destruction. Senator
Jay Rockefeller
, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
, disputed Hayden's assertion, saying that he only learned of the tapes in November 2006, a year after their destruction.
Jane Harman
, the ranking Democrat
on the House Intelligence Committee
and one of just four senior members of Congress who was briefed on the existence of the tapes, acknowledged being briefed. Harman responded to Hayden's assertions by saying she had objected, in writing, to the tapes' destruction. "I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman stated.
Hayden asserted that the continued existence of the tapes represented a threat to the CIA personnel involved, saying that if the tapes were leaked they might result in CIA personnel being identified and targeted for retaliation. Hayden stated that the tapes were destroyed "only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries."
In February 2009, the Obama administration revealed that the CIA had destroyed ninety-two videotapes that contained hundreds of hours of the interrogations.
announced a preliminary joint investigation into the destruction of videotapes of interrogations of the first two detainees in the CIA's custody. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced the appointment of Connecticut federal prosecutor John H. Durham to start a criminal investigation of the destruction of the tapes on January 2, 2008.
On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) during interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
s of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
suspects Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing and other terrorist attacks, he allegedly headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.The...
in 2002 at a CIA black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
prison in Thailand.. 90 tapes were made of Zubaydah and 2 of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques or alternative set of procedures are terms adopted by the George W. Bush administration in the United States to describe certain severe interrogation methods, often described as torture...
. The tapes and their destruction became public knowledge in December 2007. A criminal investigation by a Department of Justice special prosecutor decided in 2010 to not file any criminal charges related to destroying the videotapes.
Creation and destruction
The first detainee in CIA custody was Abu ZubaydahAbu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
. He was held at a black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
starting in the spring of 2002. Near the beginning of Zubaydah's detention, a video camera was set up to continuously tape him. Tapes were also made of another early CIA detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing and other terrorist attacks, he allegedly headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.The...
, who arrived in October. The tapes were made from April to December 2002. 90 tapes were made of Zubaydah and 2 of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques
Enhanced interrogation techniques or alternative set of procedures are terms adopted by the George W. Bush administration in the United States to describe certain severe interrogation methods, often described as torture...
.
Soon after the taping had stopped, CIA clandestine officers were pushing for the tapes to be destroyed. However, the General Counsel of the CIA, Scott W. Muller, advised the CIA director, George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
, to not destroy the tapes on the CIA's authority. Instead, Muller notified the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in February 2003 that the CIA would like to have them destroyed. Representatives Porter Goss and Jane Harman
Jane Harman
Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party....
thought that would be politically and legally risky.
Days after the photographs from Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
became public in May 2004, the CIA tapes were discussed among CIA and White House lawyers. Muller, representing the CIA, met with Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
, David Addington
David Addington
David Spears Addington , was legal counsel and chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and is now vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation....
and John B. Bellinger III
John B. Bellinger III
John B. Bellinger, III was the Legal Adviser to the United States Secretary of State. He was sworn in on April 8, 2005. He was the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department of State, the Foreign Service, and the diplomatic and consular posts abroad...
. The three White House lawyers recommended that the tapes not be destroyed.
Tenet and Muller left the CIA in mid 2004. By late 2004, several top leadership positions at the CIA had changed. Goss was Director, John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo was a lawyer at the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years. He was the acting General Counsel or Deputy Counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe. "Enhanced interrogation...
was acting General Counsel, and Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. was chief of the Directorate of Operations. There was also a new White House Counsel, Harriet Miers
Harriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel. In 2005, she was nominated by President George W. Bush to be an Associate Justice of the U.S...
. In early 2005, Miers told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first.
On November 4, 2005, just after the Washington Post had printed a story about the existence of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe, Rodriguez called two CIA lawyers for their opinions. Steven Hermes, a clandestine service lawyer, told Rodriguez he had the authority to destroy the tapes. Robert Eatinger, the top lawyer at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, said there was no legal requirement to keep the tapes. The AP reported that, as both lawyers knew of standing orders from the White House not to destroy the tapes, neither thought Rodriguez would immediately act based on their advice.
Rodriguez sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8. The cable was not copied to anyone other than Rodriguez's chief of staff. It was against standard procedure to act on the advice of agency lawyers without copying them on a decision. Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo on November 10. Rodgriguez was never reprimanded for the destruction of the tapes.
Requests for interrogation tapes
Beginning in 2003, lawyers for Zacarias MoussaouiZacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French citizen who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of the September 11 attacks...
asked for videotapes of interrogations of detainees that might help prove Moussaoui wasn't involved in the September 11 attacks.
In May 2005, Senator Jay Rockefeller
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
made a request on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the CIA to turn over a hundred documents related to the alleged torture of prisoners in American custody. In September, after Porter Goss was named as the new Director of the CIA, Rockefeller renewed his request. Both times, he also mentioned the videotapes, which "undoubtedly sent a shiver through the agency".
From May to November 2005, Judge Leonie Brinkema
Leonie Brinkema
Leonie M. Brinkema is a United States District Court judge, in the Eastern District of Virginia.-Early life and education:...
was also pressuring the CIA to turn over any videotapes of detainee interrogations as evidence in the trial against Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French citizen who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of the September 11 attacks...
. On November 14, the Department of Justice told the court that the CIA did not possess the videotapes that were requested.
The tapes were not provided to the September 11 Commission, which used classified transcripts of interrogations of Zubaydah in writing its report. Philip D. Zelikow
Philip D. Zelikow
Philip D. Zelikow is an American diplomat, academic and author. He has worked as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and Counselor of the United States Department of State...
, the Executive Director of the Commission, stated, "We believe that we asked for such material and we are sure that we were not provided such material."
The ACLU claimed that at the time they were destroyed, the tapes should have been turned over according to a federal court order to comply with a FOIA
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
request for information about interrogations. A federal judge ruled in 2011 that the CIA would not be sanctioned for the destruction.
Making the destruction of the tapes public
On December 6, 2007, the New York Times advised the Bush administration that they had acquired, and planned to publish, information about the destruction of tapes made of Zubaydah's interrogation, believed to show instances of waterboarding and other forms of possible torture.Michael Hayden, the Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
, sent a letter to CIA staff the next day, briefing them on the destruction of the tapes. Hayden asserted that key members of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
had been briefed on the existence of the tapes, and the plans for their destruction. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Jay Rockefeller
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The...
, disputed Hayden's assertion, saying that he only learned of the tapes in November 2006, a year after their destruction.
Jane Harman
Jane Harman
Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party....
, the ranking Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
on the House Intelligence Committee
United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is a committee of the United States House of Representatives, currently chaired by Mike Rogers. It is the primary committee in the U.S...
and one of just four senior members of Congress who was briefed on the existence of the tapes, acknowledged being briefed. Harman responded to Hayden's assertions by saying she had objected, in writing, to the tapes' destruction. "I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman stated.
Hayden asserted that the continued existence of the tapes represented a threat to the CIA personnel involved, saying that if the tapes were leaked they might result in CIA personnel being identified and targeted for retaliation. Hayden stated that the tapes were destroyed "only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries."
In February 2009, the Obama administration revealed that the CIA had destroyed ninety-two videotapes that contained hundreds of hours of the interrogations.
Investigation
On December 8, 2007, the CIA's Office of Inspector General and the Department of JusticeUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
announced a preliminary joint investigation into the destruction of videotapes of interrogations of the first two detainees in the CIA's custody. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced the appointment of Connecticut federal prosecutor John H. Durham to start a criminal investigation of the destruction of the tapes on January 2, 2008.
On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed.