House Panel Promises CIA Tapes Probe

Committee Leaders Say Congress Wasn’t Kept Informed About Destroyed Interrogation Tapes

(CBS/AP)  The CIA failed to inform Congress fully that it was videotaping the harsh interrogations of terror suspects and that it destroyed the tapes in 2005, the bipartisan leaders of the House of Representatives intelligence committee said Wednesday.

"Our committee was not informed, has not been kept informed, and we are very frustrated about that issue," said the committee's Democratic chairman, Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, after a three-hour private meeting with the CIA's director, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden. That meeting, he said, "is just the first step in what we feel is going to be a long-term investigation."

The probe will include calling other witnesses, including Hayden predecessors George Tenet and Porter Goss, and John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence who is now the deputy secretary of state, said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the committee's senior Republican.

Reyes told CBS News that Hayden told the committee that he never received a sit-down briefing from Goss when he became CIA director.

Hoekstra told CBS News that he and Reyes both agree the man they most want to hear from is Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA director of operations, who ordered the destruction of the tapes. He said a meeting could happen relatively soon, possibly before Christmas.

Both also said they want to hear from former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

Hayden acknowledged that "particularly at the time of the destruction, we could have done an awful lot better at keeping the committee alerted and informed."

Hayden said he learned of the terrorist interrogation videotapes more than a year ago in his tenure as principal deputy director of national intelligence, where he served from April 2005 to May 2006. He said he did not know that the tapes were being destroyed.

"I did not personally know before they were destroyed, not at all," he said after the briefing. "I was aware of the existence of the tapes but really didn't become focused on it until the summer of '06."

Reyes said some members were "stunned" by what they heard at Wednesday's meeting, but they will need many more hearings before being able to figure out exactly what happened, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.

Hoekstra said the panel also will look into the White House's interrogation policy and whether the intelligence agency's interrogators followed it.

Hayden made a similar appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, but said he could not answer all the panel's questions because the tapes were created and destroyed before he arrived at the CIA, under the tenure of his predecessors Tenet and Goss.

"Other people in the agency know about this far better than I," Hayden said, and promised the committee he would make those witnesses available.

Hayden told CIA employees last week that the videotapes, made in 2002, showed the CIA's interrogations of two terror suspects. The CIA destroyed the tapes in 2005. The tapes were made to document how CIA officers were using new, harsh questioning techniques recently approved by the White House to force recalcitrant prisoners to talk.

They show the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee taken by the CIA in 2002, is now being held with other detainees at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He told his interrogators about alleged 9/11 accomplice Ramzi Binalshibh, and the two men's confessions also led to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who the U.S. government said was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Al-Nashiri is the alleged coordinator of the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 sailors. He is also now at Guantanamo.

The CIA has not described exactly what was shown on all the tapes. However, among the harsh interrogation techniques the White House approved in 2002 was waterboarding.

Waterboarding involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners - Abu Zubaydah, Al-Nashiri and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The CIA has not used the technique since 2003, according to a government official familiar with the program. Hayden prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The U.S. military outlawed it the same year.

The CIA destroyed the videotapes in November of 2005. Exactly when Congress was notified of that and in what detail is in dispute.

President Bush said he didn't know about the tapes or their destruction until last week.

[rowdytexan2]

The Bush administration authorized the torture.

The Bush administration saw that the torture was carried out.

The Bush administration when it found out there were tapes of it, ordered they be destroyed.

The agents that performed it say they tortured people.

The agents admit that they destroyed the tapes.

The Bush administration in all its glory does not believe they have to be accountable to ANYBODY for their actions.

They are no better than the worst terrorist in the world. They ARE the terrorists.

And they will go to their grave telling the world that we are safer from terrorists because of their actions.

We nor anybody else in the world will be safer until the Bush administration and their new world order is wiped from the face of the earth.

[antoniof123]

IF YOU LET YOURSELF BE CHAINED BY FEAR AND DISPAIR THEN IT IS OF YOUR OWN DOING AND YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU GET!

Posted by bluestardad at 10:37 PM : Dec 12, 2007

I fully agree, one other thing the Republicans are now able to stand in the way of change. But let us not forget that the Senate is real power. 20 Republican are up for reelection this coming year. 11 battle ground states 2 Democrats 9 Republicans. The Democrats are completely safe. In fact the Republicans are saying if they just lose 4 Senate seats it will be a win (the lost 6 in 2006).

America is very angry about Iraq and our minds are made up WE THE PEOPLE decide not the Republicans and their masters. Notice how big business has stop giving to the Republican party and people such as Warren Buffett have come out against them even some of their own are coming out against their policies. Add SCHIP, health care and the rest I think you get my picture I am drawing.

Change comes at the rate that the American people want it to come WE THE PEOPLE are the decider''s not the Republican party or its leaders.

[samrensho]

Oh NO. Not another useless congressional probe!! The white house is shaking in its collective boots - laughing. Why don''t you idiots in congress do something useful for a change? Oh, I forgot. Making a decision is something none of you want on your voting record.

[watcher269-2009]

Ya know the Republicans call the Democrats "Liberals" and make it have negative connotations.

Well it''s time to start calling Republicans something other then "conservatives". They are no longer consercative as every republican in office since Nixon has increased the deficit and increased the size of Government.

The Republicans should be called "LIARS" now because we are guarenteed with 90% accuracy that anything they say is a LIE!

Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!
Republicans = LIARS!

Republicans = CHEATS!
Republicans = SWINDLERS!

After all look at their representatives - Rush, FOX No-News, Hannity - the list goes on.......

[brianbwb-2009]

This is all wasting time and money. We all know the crimes of the Bush klan, and we have enough evidence for impeachment, arrest, and trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Lets get on to the main act, get these murderous lying traitors out of the White House, and behind bars, then let us discuss the finer points while those whose crimes merit it await execution.

[watcher269-2009]

Hmmm, A probe huh? It will probably be conducted in the a toilet stall with Sen. Craig.

[bluestardad]

IF YOU AMERICANS ARE AFRAID OF YOUR GOVERNMENT THEN IT IS TIME TO TURN THE TABLES!

IT IS YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT!

IT IS TIME TO STAND UP

IF YOU LET YOURSELF BE CHAINED BY FEAR AND DISPAIR THEN IT IS OF YOUR OWN DOING AND YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU GET!

[red164]

A limited hangout is a form of deception, misdirection, or coverup often associated with intelligence agencies involving a release or "mea culpa" type of confession of only part of a set of previously hidden sensitive information, that establishes credibility for the one releasing the information who by the very act of confession appears to be "coming clean" and acting with integrity; but in actuality by withholding key facts is protecting a deeper crime and those who could be exposed if the whole truth came out.

A limited hangout typically is a response to lower the pressure felt from inquisitive investigators pursuing clues that threaten to expose everything, and the disclosure is often combined with red herrings or propaganda elements that lead to false trails, distractions, or ideological disinformation; thus allowing covert or criminal elements to continue in their improper activities.

Victor Marchetti wrote: "A ''limited hangout'' is spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting - sometimes even volunteering - some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further."[1]

[red164]

examples of limited hangouts
The Warren Commission
The 9/11 Commission
The Iran-Contra investigation
The BCCI Scandal investigation
The Enron investigation

[red164]

A limited hangout is a form of deception, misdirection, or coverup often associated with intelligence agencies involving a release or "mea culpa" type of confession of only part of a set of previously hidden sensitive information, that establishes credibility for the one releasing the information who by the very act of confession appears to be "coming clean" and acting with integrity

"Other people in the agency know about this far better than I," Hayden said, and promised the committee he would make those witnesses available.

[red164]

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-evidence-of-obstruction-of-justice.html

Thursday, December 06, 2007
More Evidence of Obstruction of Justice in 9/11 Investigation

[red164]

Modified limited hang out

The phrase was coined in the following exchange, from a March 22, 1973 meeting between Richard Nixon, John Dean, John Ehrlichman, John Mitchell, and H.R. Haldeman:

%u201C PRESIDENT: You think, you think we want to, want to go
this route now? And the--let it hang out, so to speak?


DEAN: Well, it''s, it isn''t really that--


HALDEMAN: It''s a limited hang out.


DEAN: It''s a limited hang out.


EHRLICHMAN: It''s a modified limited hang out.


PRESIDENT: Well, it''s only the questions of the thing hanging out publicly or privately.
%u201D

[2]

Before this exchange, the discussion captures Nixon outlining to Dean the content of a report that Dean would create, laying out a misleading view of the role of the White House staff in events surrounding the Watergate burglary. In Ehrlichman''s words: "And the report says, ''Nobody was involved,''".

[red164]

Modified limited hang out is a phrase first spoken by John Ehrlichman and captured in the Watergate tapes. It incorporates the preexisting term limited hangout. Frequently cited as evoking the Nixon administration''s strategy of admitting only what it was compelled to admit

Hayden said he learned of the terrorist interrogation videotapes more than a year ago in his tenure as principal deputy director of national intelligence, where he served from April 2005 to May 2006. He said he did not know that the tapes were being destroyed.

"I did not personally know before they were destroyed, not at all," he said after the briefing.

[red164]

Which lie should we believe? CIA admits it destroyed evidence it said didn''t exist.


by Nicholas Levis

CORRECTED & UPDATED
December 10, 2007


CIA claims it destroyed videotapes of interrogations central to the official story of September 11th. Writing in TIME magazine, former CIA agent and occasional "conspiracy theory" debunker, Robert Baer concedes that 9/11 skeptics seem all the more credible in the aftermath. Full-time debunker Gerald Posner also sees a cover-up.

. . . The 9/11 Commission asked to see Mohamed and other prisoners, and was denied. The CIA instead provided English-language transcripts of interrogations supposedly held at the Guantanamo prison, and told the Commission no videotapes of such interrogations existed. The Commission made no fuss about this denial of access, although its report portrays Mohamed in particular as the most important planner of the September 11th plot.

[waynabq]

proof that you need....dummy.

Posted by poopusbuttus at 09:04 PM : Dec 12, 2007

Poopus,

Are you talking to yourself or speakinup? You two morons are pathetic.

[waynabq]

Poopus, where are you?

[red164]

Hey poopusbuttus, gotta head out for dinner - you have a great evening ok.

Rest of you, well, ok have a good evening too. No reason not to be charitable.


Posted by speakinup at 08:11 PM : Dec 12, 2007

You two kooks are gross.

[waynabq]

Poopus,

Cheney, Bush and one CIA agent say torture is effective, the very same CIA who destroyed the tape that had him participating in the torture? Okay all three of them said the earth is flat too. Okay, I''''m convinced. Next!


To call Bush supporters fools would be an insult to fools.

[waynabq]

Poopus,

Cheney and Bush and one CIA who say torture is effective? Okay all three of them said the earth is flat too. Okay, I''m convinced. Next!

[waynabq]

I''ve had these one-on-one with other Poopus Bush supporters. Seven years ago, when I tried to convince them Bush was lying about WMDs, that invading Iraq was a huge mistake, that Bush was going to double the national debt, that the Pat Tillman story was a fabrication when it first came out, this administration was using torture in secret while publically denying it. That when Bush said "Bring it On" and "Mission Accomplished" he was a freakin'' irresponsible assw*pe.

You can''t convince Bush supporters of anything, they''re permanently stuck in stupid mode.