In-Terror-gation, Cover-up and Distraction

12.26.07  Chris Stevenson - In a strange piece of irony, 2 days after an announcement that the sentencing for Jose Padilla was postponed due to a death in Judge Marcia Cooke’s family, the Central Intelligence Agency revealed that it destroyed videotapes of two terror suspects being “interrogated.” This may come as a surprise to some, but it’s not the first time the CIA has come clean on something years after the fact. From the outset it would seem that if all of us were just as honest towards those close to us as the CIA is towards the taxpaying citizens, the world might be a better place, right?  Wrong.

According to the Associated Press’ Pamela Hess, we aren’t really even supposed to know this. CIA Director Michael Hayden only released this as a handwritten memo to CIA employees and it was leaked to the AP soon afterward. The agency claims to have filmed the “questioning” of only 2 terror suspects in ’02, watch-dogged itself in ’03, and destroyed the tapes in ’05 out of fear of disclosing the identities of agency interrogators to the public. “The tapes posed a serious security risk. Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who have served in the program, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al-Qaeda and its sympathizers.”

My question is, were the Agency/Detainee footage destroyed just to protect the identity of the interrogators? Did the CIA really only electronically record the questioning of just it’s first 2 detainees? Were they really the first 2 suspects detained? The suspects; Abu-Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh were said to have experienced what amounts to outright torture and questioning that reportedly led to the capture of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in ’03. The harsh questioning led to a simulated drowning technique called waterboarding.

Concern over just this type of torture was on the minds of the attorneys for convicted terror conspirator Jose Padilla. Over 3 years ago his case was argued 2 days before the “New Yorker” exposed the Abu-Graib abuse scandal and here we are 2 days after the 12/4 postponement of Padilla’s sentencing hearing (originally scheduled for the 5th) with news of the CIA destroying some detainee videotaped documentary. Padilla’s attorneys say he was “so badly mistreated by his own government during 3 ½ years in military custody that he deserves far less than the life prison sentence sought by federal prosecutors,” according to a 12/4 report by AP’s Curt Anderson. Understand that Padilla underwent this ordeal without having been charged with any crime and Cooke harshly criticized his prosecutors for being “light on facts.” The hearing will begin on 1/7.

The biggest question of course is why is the CIA being so open now regarding it’s destruction of the videotapes? Hide the evidence, what else? Yes they had something to hide, but in light of such torture, how reliable is his information as to the role of himself and others in world terrorism?

In-Terror-gation, Cover-up and Distraction-pt2

Back in ’02 the CIA claimed they only destroyed the tapes of 2 terror suspects, according to Warren Richey of the Christian Science Monitor there is a missing interrogation DVD of Jose Padilla recorded on 3/04 that the Defense Intelligence Agency is unable to locate. Suppose we rename CIA the Born Idiots or the Born Liars? As it stands the burning question won’t go away anytime soon, since everyone knows that torture and interrogation is nothing new to the Central Intelligence Agency, then why destroy the video footage of ’02 back in ‘05? Try as they may, they aren’t the born conspirators they’re supposed to be.

Don’t look for quick or honest results if the CIA and the Department of Justice claims they have begun initial inquiries into the destroyed tapes, remember the CIA says they were their own watch-dog back in ’03 and given the Justice Department’s snails’ pace on investigating Civil Rights and police brutality cases today, what are the chances of them looking into the tactics of historically one of the best known abuse-perpetrators and advocates in modern history?
What we have here is an obstruction of intelligence. Since taped evidence of illegal interrogation methods would place the Agency in legal Jeopardy, destroying the tapes should place them in worse jeopardy. Although the White House claims the President wasn’t aware of the existence or destruction of the tapes, a 12/8 story by the Los Angeles Times’ Greg Miller states that then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Harriet Miers “knew of the tapes’ existence and told CIA officials that she opposed their destruction.” The odds against Bush not knowing about the missing Padilla DVD isn’t a good thing to bet on either. Not many journalist aren’t tying in this latest case of the destroyed CIA tapes with the updates of the most famous terror suspect since Zaccarias Moussaoui; Abdullah al-Muhajir AKA Jose Padilla, W’s Fifth Columnist.

I wrote months ago that it was reported that a warrant was issued for Padilla in the aftermath of testimony by another terror suspect Zayn Abu Zubayduh. In light of news of the CIA’s tape burning Abu Zubayduh’s name is now prominently at the forefront. News sources place him as one of the 2 suspects detained by the CIA whose information was the primary reason the material witness warrant was granted for Padilla in 5/02 as well as the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in ‘03, information likely disclosed while under CIA torture. Outright torture, such as waterboarding are illegal under the Army Field Manuel when it comes to interrogations by CIA and other intelligence agencies. Film footage shows Padilla manacled, with headphones & goggles.

It’s not that Padilla deserves a much lighter sentence as his attorneys assert, all testimony obtained through coercion is to be viewed as suspect at the very least. In Padilla’s case, being fingered by Abu Zubayduh while undergoing these harsh tactics should lead to his exoneration.