CIA Cable “Granting Permission” to Destroy Torture Videotapes Surfaces

[kpete]

they approved it the same day permission for destruction was requested. makes me wonder if HQ knew the request was coming in ahead of time…

CIA Cable “Granting Permission” to Destroy Torture Videotapes Surfaces
By: Jeff Kaye Friday January 15, 2010 5:01 pm

A January 8 release of documents in the ACLU FOIA lawsuit seeking materials related to the CIA’s destruction of videotapes of interrogators using “enhanced interrogation techniques” has revealed the first evidence of a precise instruction for the destruction of those tapes.

According to Rachel Myers at the ACLU, while there was previous evidence of requests from the “field” that the videotapes be destroyed, this is our first verification of the exact date CIA headquarters gave its approval.

The approval came in the form of “a two-page cable discussing a proposal and granting permission to destroy the videotapes.” (emphasis added) The cable was sent from “HQ” to the “Field” on November 8, 2005, the same day an earlier request was made from the “Field”. Confirmation of the destruction of the tapes was already revealed in a cable “from the field to CIA headquarters, confirming the destruction of the videotapes.” (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 4).

Requests for destruction of interrogation videotapes, and discussions around such an action are documented as far back as September 2002 (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 55). It’s presumed that these requests came from the Thailand CIA black site where Abu Zubaydah had been an experimental victim of the new so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which were based on stress inoculation torture survival schools for the military, known as SERE. Psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, formerly of SERE and its parent agency, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA)

http://firedoglake.com/2010/01/15/cia-cable-granting-permission-to-destroy-torture-videotapes-surfaces/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[malaise]

2. Oops

Truth will out.

[WhiteTara]

3. wasn't this about the same time

as the fire in the VP office?

[EFerrari]

4. Yeah. We talked about how the shredder probably overheated.

[Canuckistanian]

6. You really shouldn't put videotapes in a shredder

It voids the warranty.

[WhiteTara]

11. I thought it was the cds and tapes

burning away...so much smoke seemed like plastic more than paper.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Oh, yes

I remember the outrage about the torture vids being destroyed.

There were some in the administration who denied the tapes existed. It's now clear some were.

Will there be any repercussions for this (he asked, knowing the answer already)?

[EFerrari]

7. At the time, Hoekstra was furious and all over it!

I don't remember the trial, though!

[Canuckistanian]

9. Hoekstra. Again.

Wherever you find crazy, you find Hoekstra.

[formercia]

8. Mea Culpa

I accidentally un rec'd this thread.

[Demeter]

10. The Only Surprise Is That Word Leaked Out So Fast

After all, look how long it used to take to find out this kind of subterfuge: 60 years, a lifetime, forever...

[surrealAmerican]

12. k & r.