CIA: We Did Cooperate With 9/11 Commission

(AP)  The CIA on Saturday rebutted suggestions the spy agency was uncooperative and hid from the Sept. 11 commission the videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists, saying it waited until the panel went out of business before destroying the material now in question.

The destruction in late 2005 of the videotapes of two al Qaeda suspects has upset a federal judge and riled the Democratic-controlled Congress, which has promised an investigation. The Justice Department also is trying to find out what happened and whether any laws were broken.

A recent memo by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the Sept. 11 commission, suggests the CIA was less than forthcoming when asked for documents and other information from the panel, which investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA disputed that characterization and suggested the panel should have requested interrogation videotapes specifically if it wanted them.

"The notion that the CIA wasn't cooperative or forthcoming with the 9/11 commission is just plain wrong. It is utterly without foundation," spokesman Mark Mansfield said Saturday. "The CIA's cooperation and assistance is what enabled the 9/11 commission to reconstruct the plot in their very comprehensive report."

In a statement e-mailed separately Saturday, Mansfield suggested the commission should have been specific about wanting videotapes.

"Because it was thought the commission could ask about tapes at some point, they were not destroyed while the commission was active," he said. Mansfield, citing similar comments this month by CIA Director Michael Hayden, added that "the tapes were destroyed only when it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries."

Zelikow's seven-page memo, dated Dec. 13, reviews the commission's requests for information from the CIA.

It cites a Jan. 26, 2004, meeting of commission members and administration officials, including then-CIA Director George Tenet, at which the government offered to present written questions to the detainees and relay their answers back to the commission.

"None of the government officials in any of these 2004 meetings alluded to the existence of recordings of interrogations or any further information in the government's possession that was relevant to the commission's requests," Zelikow wrote.

Near the end of the commission's work, and in response to a request by the commission to all agencies, John McLaughlin, then the deputy CIA director, confirmed on June 29, 2004, that the CIA had "taken and completed all reasonable steps necessary to find the documents in its possession, custody or control responsive" to the commission's formal requests and "has produced or made available for review" all such documents, the memo said.

The existence of Zelikow's memo was first reported by The New York Times.

[motherhen11]

Makes you just want to curl up in a little ball and rock back and forth.

crzmeat wrote:

"Yes I have high ground in Fl. cheap real cheap if you can believe anything these scoundrels say thier breed to lie and turn on there friends..."

Indeed - you just can''t trust a Republican.

[Krazcarl]

Yes I have high ground in Fl. cheap real cheap if you can believe anything these scoundrels say thier breed to lie and turn on there friends...

[michellem99-2009]

I am pissed at that lier...Yer don''t bully and start wars. They died. Did the govt kill them... covr it up .

[woodjd42]

I wonder whose loved ones, whereupon blown up by the shrapnel duct taped to the body of a glazed eye suicide bomber, intent on his last mission for God, would not seriously consider water boarding an appropriate response.
Posted by JRW27 at 09:43 PM : Dec 22, 2007

If my son was killed on the streets here in the U.S. I would want every single person around tortured in order to find who the guilty party was. However does that make it right? Here is this country we are suppose to believe in the rule of law and rights.

[Krazcarl]

secundus2...Your just a scumbag trying to look more enlightened than everyone else you don''t you look as stupid as you are.

Oooops!!

Correction:

6 were killed and approx 1042 were injured in the WTC bombing.

JRW27 wrote:

"If I''m not mistaken, Iraq was obviously harboring and acting in association with Al Qaeda. At any rate, this current inquiry into the CIA and interrogation techniques, has to do with suspected terrorists, and not, as far as I have read, Iraqi nationals."

What proof do you have that Iraq was acting in association with al Qaeda?

What proof do you have of this "association", that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have now refuted?

I see that in another one of your posts you make the claim that "at least 3000 American citizens were mass murdered by such terrorists during the world trade center bombings!".

I''m assuming that you''re talking about 9/11 instead of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 where 1042 people were killed.

It seems to me as though you''re a little confused.

[jrw27]

Their version perhaps: the liberal media has no bias? By what evidence, am I mistaken, that Al Qaeda was/is not in Iraq. Show me the news heading. Al Qaeda has been shown to be anywhere from the Philippines to Great Britain. There was not one Al Qaeda operative in Iraq- not ever? You seem confident. I''d like to know your source of information.

[brianbwb-2009]

"The CIA disputed that characterization and suggested the panel should have requested interrogation videotapes specifically if it wanted them."

The CIA is playing games with semantics, along the line of "you didn''t read the fine print."

"I wonder, will we have to wait another 50 years before we get a peek at *** Cheney''''s list?" posted by ubrew12

Too late, they were burned in Cheney''s office.

"Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. Had no WMD''''s. Our loved ones are there why?" Posted by stevex47

No matter how many times you remind them, the Bushbots will continue to onfer that Bush committed his crimes because of 9/11.

"If I''''m not mistaken, Iraq was obviously harboring and acting in association with Al Qaeda." Posted by JRW27

You are quite mistaken.

"At any rate, this current inquiry into the CIA and interrogation techniques, has to do with suspected terrorists, and not, as far as I have read, Iraqi nationals." Posted by JRW27

Obviously you have confined your reading to their version only, which we all know is blatantly false.