The American Prospect: Caught on Tape

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Caught on Tape

Revelations that the CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations are further evidence of the degree to which this administration has fostered a culture of self-justifying raw power. It's time for us to call for leadership that promotes professionalism.

Deborah Pearlstein | December 10, 2007 | web only



When the New York Times reported last Thursday that the CIA had destroyed videotapes capturing the apparent torture of terrorist suspects during interrogations by CIA operatives, I found myself reading the first sentence of the article repeatedly, trying to put a finger on what troubled me most.

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

Was it the images the tapes brought to mind, of the kinds of humiliating treatment some of those interrogations have reportedly involved? Was it the reminder of the extant "secret detention program" -- an extralegal detention regime that the administration insists to this day it can continue to pursue? Was it the "at least" caveat, signaling that we may be (again) only at the beginning of a scandal that distracts from current policy demands for months as the news emerges drip-drip-drip? Was it the raw destruction of information that might finally have added meaningful support to the otherwise detail-free assertions about what kind of intelligence such treatment actually produced?

No, I came to think, the saddest part had to be the date. The CIA destroyed the tapes in 2005, four years after September 11, three years after the interrogations themselves, two years after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ordered the CIA to turn over tapes of suspects whose testimony might be relevant to the defense of now-convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, and a year after the public reaction to the photos from Abu Ghraib made it clear that Americans had no intention of defending this kind of practice in their name. The CIA destroyed the tapes after the illegality of such actions had become so clear that the Bush administration itself retracted its memo purporting to provide legal cover for coercive interrogation.

They destroyed the tapes just as U.S. citizen "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla was indicted for the first time since his arrest three years earlier, making it apparent that Padilla would finally have the opportunity to test the evidence against him (which reportedly included testimony from one of the men whose interrogation appeared on the destroyed tapes) in federal court. And the destruction came as the Justice Department was actively reviewing eight cases referred to it by the CIA inspector general, detailing possible misconduct by CIA employees implicated in abuses including the deaths of detainees in U.S. custody. They destroyed the tapes long after the heat of the 9-11 emergency had dissipated, and long after instituting (successful) classification protections that had for years prevented public disclosure of the tapes. They destroyed them precisely at the moment it would have become clear to any reasonable government official that they had never mattered more to the administration of justice by the United States. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=caught_on_tape