Get serious! Thes "tapes" have hundreds of hours of torture and CIA "interrogations"; do you think there are not pages of transcriptions of what was said? Do you think the spook handlers are going to watch hundreds of hours of "tape", most of which is presumably useless? All the "tapes" will reveal is the hours of essentially torture and probably the obviousiness of the "prisoners" willingness to say anything to make their tormenters stop!
NATION
Tracking a Paper Trail
A memo from a top intelligence official warned the CIA not to destroy its interrogation tapes
Tim Sloan
/
AFP-Getty Images
John Negroponte testifies before Congress in September
From the magazine issue dated Dec 24, 2007
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In the summer of 2005, then CIA director Porter Goss met with then national intelligence director John Negroponte to discuss a highly sensitive matter: what to do about the existence of videotapes documenting the use of controversial interrogation methods, apparently including waterboarding, on two key Al Qaeda suspects. The tapes were eventually destroyed, and congressional investigators are now trying to piece together an extensive paper trail documenting how and why it happened.
One crucial document they'll surely want to examine: a memo written after the meeting between Goss and Negroponte, which records that Negroponte strongly advised against destroying the tapes, according to two people close to the investigation, who asked for anonymity when discussing a sensitive matter. The memo is so far the only known documentation that a senior intel official warned that the tapes should not be destroyed. Spokespeople for the CIA and the intel czar's office declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations.
Current and former U.S. officials familiar with the history of the tapes, who also asked for anonymity, told newsweek that Jose Rodriguez Jr., then chief of the CIA's espionage branch, the National Clandestine Service, decided on his own authority in late 2005 to destroy the tapes in order to protect the identity of undercover CIA officers. The officials said that Rodriguez and his close aides had been asking top agency managers for more than two years about what to do with the tapes, but felt they never got a straight answer.
The tapes were kept—and destroyed—at a secret location overseas. It is unknown whether Rodriguez knew about Negroponte's position. Goss believed he had an "understanding" with Clandestine Services that the tapes were to be preserved and was dismayed to learn that they had been destroyed, according to a source familiar with his views.
The fate of the congressional inquiries remains unclear. On Friday, the Justice Department asked the House intel panel to back off its request for documents and testimony on the grounds that it might interfere with its own probe. In addition, prominent criminal defense lawyer Robert Bennett confirmed that he is representing Rodriguez. Bennett told NEWSWEEK that his client had been "a dedicated and loyal public servant for 31 years" and "has done nothing wrong." But he warned that Rodriguez may refuse to cooperate with investigators if he concludes that the probes are a "witch hunt." "I don't want him to become a scapegoat."
© 2007
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