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The New York Times
Account of C.I.A.
Tapes Is Challenged
By MARK MAZZETTI and
SCOTT SHANE
From nytimes.com on
the Web, January 17, 2008
WASHINGTON — The former
Central Intelligence Agency official who authorized the destruction in 2005 of
videotapes documenting harsh interrogation of detainees from Al Qaeda gave the
order despite apparently being directed to preserve the tapes, the senior
Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.
Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said Jose A. Rodriguez
Jr., head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service at the time, had not “gotten
authority from anyone” to destroy the tapes.
“Matter of fact, it appears that he got direction to make sure the tapes were
not destroyed,” he said.
Mr. Hoekstra spoke after hearing testimony from John A. Rizzo, the C.I.A.’s top
lawyer, who addressed the committee on Wednesday during a closed session lasting
nearly four hours.
Mr. Hoekstra did not provide details, including who may have told Mr. Rodriguez
not to destroy the tapes. The lawmaker said it was important to have Mr.
Rodriguez testify before the committee to get his version of events.
A lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, Robert S. Bennett, challenged Mr. Hoekstra’s
comments about what agency officials told his client.
“Nobody, to our knowledge, ever instructed him not to destroy the tapes,” Mr.
Bennett said. “Had the director or deputy director or general counsel told
him not to destroy the tapes, they would not have been destroyed.”
Mr. Rizzo was the first C.I.A. official with direct knowledge of the events
surrounding the destruction of the tapes to appear before the House Intelligence
Committee, which is in the midst of an investigation that could last for several
months. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, testified before the
committee last month, and lawmakers have said they intend to call several
current and former officials from the C.I.A. and the White House to appear
before the House panel.
A federal prosecutor, John H. Durham, is currently leading a separate criminal
investigation to determine whether Mr. Rodriguez or other officials may have
broken any laws by destroying the tapes or concealing them from the courts and
the national Sept. 11 commission. The tapes showed agency operatives using
harsh interrogation methods on two Qaeda detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri.
Agency officers began taping detainees in April 2002 and stopped the videotaping
by the end of that year out of concern the tapes could leak and put C.I.A.
operatives at physical and legal risk.
Mr. Rodriguez has told former colleagues that he consulted with two C.I.A.
lawyers before giving the destruction order. Several intelligence
officials have said that the lawyers, Steven Hermes and Robert Eatinger, told
Mr. Rodriguez that he had the authority to destroy the tapes and that it would
not be illegal to do so.
The intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the lawyers did not give Mr.
Rodriguez approval to dispose of the tapes and that senior agency officials
expected him to get their permission before acting. Senior White House
officials were consulted about the tapes several times over three years, but it
remains unclear if anyone at the White House favored the destruction of the
tapes.
Mr. Rodriguez, who is under subpoena from the House committee, has declined to
testify without a grant of immunity.
Mr. Bennett acknowledged that Mr. Rodriguez did not seek permission from Mr.
Rizzo, Porter J. Goss, then the C.I.A. director, or from any other C.I.A.
official before giving the destruction order.
Representative Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrat who is chairman of the
intelligence committee, called it “simply unacceptable” that members of Congress
were not informed promptly after the videotapes were destroyed.
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