CIA Videotapes Destroyed Against Orders

Agency Interrogations Chief Acted Despite Orders From Superiors To Hold Tapes

(AP)  The CIA official who gave the command to destroy interrogation videotapes apparently acted against the direction of his superiors, the top Republican House Intelligence Committee member said Wednesday.

"It appears he hadn't gotten authority from anyone," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., speaking to reporters after the first day of closed testimony in the committee's investigation. "It appears he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed."

Hoekstra said that raises the troubling prospect that there's a thread of unaccountability in the spy culture.

"I believe there are parts of the intelligence community that don't believe they are accountable to Congress and may not be accountable to their own superiors in the intelligence community, and that's why it's a problem," he said.

Hoekstra spoke after the CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, testified behind closed doors for nearly four hours as the first witness in what committee officials have said will be a long investigation.

"I told the truth," Rizzo said in a brief appearance before reporters.

The man at the center of the controversy, Jose Rodriguez, had been scheduled to appear Wednesday, but his lawyer's demand for immunity delayed his testimony. Rodriguez was the head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, the CIA branch that oversees spying operations and interrogations. He gave the order to destroy the tapes in November 2005.

The tapes, made in 2002, showed the harsh interrogation by CIA officers of two alleged al Qaeda terrorists, both of whom are known to have undergone waterboarding, which gives the subject the sensation of drowning.

The White House approved waterboarding and other "enhanced" techniques in 2002 for prisoners deemed resistant to conventional interrogation. The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners and has not used the technique since 2003. CIA Director Michael Hayden prohibited it in 2006.

A congressional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said the document trail the committee is following strongly suggests Rodriguez knew destruction would be against the advice and wishes of his superiors.

"If you look at the documents, you get very close to a direct order (not to destroy the tapes) without it being, 'Jose, you're not going to do this,"' the official said.

Another committee official said the guidance to maintain the tapes might have been even more direct.

"The line we got today was you are not going to destroy these, but it does not say you would be breaking the law if you destroy these," the second official said.

The first official said the committee will try to determine whether any CIA officials suggested "with a wink and a nod" that the tapes should be destroyed, and whether Rodriguez was being forced to take the blame.

Rizzo told the committee that CIA lawyers wrote a memo that said destroying the tapes would be legal. Rizzo advised against it. Then-CIA Director Porter Goss also recommended against the tapes' destruction, said the official, information confirmed by several former intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation into the matter.

Rizzo, who has been acting general counsel since 2004, participated in at least two key meetings about the tapes.

After Goss took over as CIA director in 2004, Rizzo asked him whether he opposed destroying the videotapes. He said he did, according to one of the former intelligence officials. Goss' objection was primarily informed by his political career; he thought destroying the tapes would look suspicious, the official said.

Rizzo was also at a meeting in early November 2005 when Rodriguez told Goss that the tapes had been destroyed.

At the meeting it was decided that Rizzo would inform White House counsel Harriet Miers, Rodriguez would tell the leaders of the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill, and Goss would inform the director of national intelligence, according to former intelligence officials.

But intelligence committee leaders said they were not informed until more than a year later. Few committee members even knew the tapes had existed until CIA Director Michael Hayden announced their destruction to CIA employees in an e-mail on Dec. 6.

"I don't have any indication Mr. Rodriguez has talked to Congress about the tapes," committee chairman Sylvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said following Wednesday's hearing.

Reyes said the CIA has given the committee access to more than 300 pages of documents, but that there are many more to review.

"There is something we should have gotten by now that we haven't gotten, and some things have been redacted excessively. Committee staff will be doing a lot of work before the next hearing," a committee official said.

Hoekstra said Rodriguez must testify to the committee to determine on whose authority the tapes were destroyed, and he said the panel will consult with the Justice Department on whether granting Rodriguez immunity would undermine its own investigation.

"If there appears to be any criminal activity taking place, the last thing we would want to do is get in the way of a successful prosecution," Hoekstra said.

[katg21]

Tell us, how long have you supported terrorists?
Posted by david1737

Kiss off.

[katg21]

david1737,

Sorry to burst your PATHETIC bubble but for every Republican you mention there are at least two dems who have done the same or worse. So take you self-righteous attitude and shove it where the sun don''t shine. HYPOCRIT.

[david1737]

I love how the repubs point to other scandals to some how justify the MOUNTAIN of corruption which THEY are responsible for.

crimes of:

treason, torture, and pedophilia

Shame, Shame, Shame

[david1737]

katg21

Tell us, how long have you supported terrorists?

[david1737]

katg21

Tell us, how long have you supported terrorist?

[david1737]

katg21

republican congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al Qaeda and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.


Enough said!

[Krazcarl]

RowdyTexan....PRIGS?????????????

[katg21]

Oops, I meant to say DAVIE! So David 1737, you got a point to make about the morality of all politicians now or are you still just hung up on the republicans. HYPOCRIT.

[katg21]

Sandy Berger - Democrat - National Security Advisor during the Clinton Administration. Berger became the focus of a criminal investigation after removing highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from the National Archives during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings.
James McGreevey - Democrat - New Jersey Governor . Admitted to having a gay affair. Resigned after allegations of sexual harassment, rumors of being blackmailed on top of fundraising investigations and indictments.

Now, what point were you trying to make, Stevie boy?

[katg21]

Just for you Steveie,

Bill Clinton- Impeached by the House of Representatives over allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice, but acquitted by the Senate. Scandals include Whitewater - Travelgate Gennifer Flowersgate - Filegate - Vince Fostergate - Whitewater Billing Recordsgate - Paula Jonesgate- Lincoln Bedroomgate - Donations from Convicted Drug and Weapons Dealersgate - Lippogate - Chinagate - The Lewinsky Affair - Perjury and Jobs for Lewinskygate - Kathleen Willeygate - Web Hubbell Prison Phone Callgate - Selling Military Technology to the Chinesegate - Jaunita Broaddrick Gate - Lootergate - Pardongate
Edward Kennedy - Democrat - Pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, after his car plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
Barney Frank - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to present. Admitted to having paid Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute, for *** and subsequently hiring Gobie as his personal assistant. Gobie used the congressman''s Washington apartment for prostitution.

Wait, there''s more...

[david1737]

If you''re still being blinded by the repubs.

I truly believe that you hate America.

[david1737]

erased e-mails

outing CIA operatives

Secret prisons/Gitmo/Torture

Gonzales

Pedophilia

Abramoff

Wire taping

sleeping with prostitutes

soliciting *** in airport bathrooms


Haliburton/KBR

Hurricane Katrina

walter reed

[david1737]

erased e-mails

outing CIA operatives

Secret prisons/Gitmo/Torture

Gonzales

Pedophilia

Abramoff

Wire taping

sleeping with prostitutes

soliciting *** in airport bathrooms


Haliburton/KBR

Hurricane Katrina

walter reed

[david1737]

The repubs are responsible for a BLIZZARD of corruption!

The more sleazy charges brought against them the better off they are.

Remember this:

If you kill one person it''s murder.

If you kill millions it''s a statistic.

The same rule applies to criminal/corruption charges.

For the repubs. the more they mess up the less chance that any ONE crime will get full attention of the voting public.

At this point it''s become hard to focus one just one crime, it makes your head spin!

[david1737]

Didn''t you people get the memo:

The fix is in!

[david1737]

What irks me maybe the most, is more people voted for Gore than Bush. The voters did their best to get the person in office they wanted. Changes should be made so this never happens again.

Posted by stevex47


True!


Remember that in the wake of the 2000 election debacle, the solution was to go with an electronic voting system (that was reasonably easy to hack) and has no paper trail! Also, diebold''s CEO and one of Bush''s top campaign supporters promised to deliver Ohio.

It''s the best Democracy money can buy.

[stevex47]

rowdy,
"Our country was sold out to the Neocon regime"

What irks me maybe the most, is more people voted for Gore than Bush. The voters did their best to get the person in office they wanted. Changes should be made so this never happens again.

[rowdytexan2]

Our country was sold out to the Neocon regime over a scandal because of a few sexual favors by a vote of a bunch of prigs!!!!

When you vote with ignorance, you reap ignorance! Wallow now in your high and mighty ideals about how somebody OUGHT to live their life! In your zest for what you considered an embarrassment to the frigging White House!!!!!...you voted in the biggest bunch of crooks in two centuries!

[Krazcarl]

As gramps said were "stuck between a rock and a hard place" they will be 0 justice in this country till that clown goes back to live off the political favors he''s dished out over the years his cronies will be gone and we have stagering mess to clean up and won''t have the time or records{DESTROYED} to bother with him. IMPEACH HIM NOW to many dead trillion dollar defficiet waging unwinable wars the average man is lucky to make ends meet let alone any extras. Outed CIA agents destroyed records and tapes and e-mails started wars on lies the list goes on what are those sorry rascals doing in congress besides toe tapping and running scared. THANKS EVANGELICAL CHRISTENS FOR BRINNGING this on us the only ones that have made out the last7 years ore a bunch of rich dorks and we pay with our childrens lives taxes and were an embarassment to the world community my wallet is thinner and prospects weaker AGAIN IMPEACH THIS CLOWN YOU HAVE ALL THE EVIDENCE YOU NEED.

[liberalme]

Sorry for the topic change. CBS isn''''t covering this big story today:

Ex-republican Congressman Mark Deli Siljander charged with aiding terrorists.

Alrighty then.
Posted by stevex47 at 11:18 AM : Jan 17, 2008

This was covered yesterday!