2005 CIA Interrogation Tapes Destruction - Creation and Destruction

Creation and Destruction

The first detainee in CIA custody was Abu Zubaydah. He was held at a black site in Thailand starting in the spring of 2002. Near the beginning of Zubaydah's detention, a video camera was set up to continuously tape him. Tapes were also made of another early CIA detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who arrived in October. The tapes were made from April to December 2002. 90 tapes were made of Zubaydah and 2 of al-Nashiri. Twelve tapes depict interrogations using enhanced interrogation techniques.

Soon after the taping had stopped, CIA clandestine officers were pushing for the tapes to be destroyed. However, the General Counsel of the CIA, Scott W. Muller, advised the CIA director, George Tenet, to not destroy the tapes on the CIA's authority. Instead, Muller notified the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in February 2003 that the CIA would like to have them destroyed. Representatives Porter Goss and Jane Harman thought that would be politically and legally risky.

Days after the photographs from Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004, the CIA tapes were discussed among CIA and White House lawyers. Muller, representing the CIA, met with Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and John B. Bellinger III. The three White House lawyers recommended that the tapes not be destroyed.

Tenet and Muller left the CIA in mid 2004. By late 2004, several top leadership positions at the CIA had changed. Goss was Director, John A. Rizzo was acting General Counsel, and Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. was chief of the Directorate of Operations. There was also a new White House Counsel, Harriet Miers. In early 2005, Miers told Rizzo not to destroy the tapes without checking with the White House first.

On November 4, 2005, just after the Washington Post had printed a story about the existence of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe, Rodriguez called two CIA lawyers for their opinions. Steven Hermes, a clandestine service lawyer, told Rodriguez he had the authority to destroy the tapes. Robert Eatinger, the top lawyer at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, said there was no legal requirement to keep the tapes. The AP reported that, as both lawyers knew of standing orders from the White House not to destroy the tapes, neither thought Rodriguez would immediately act based on their advice.

Rodriguez sent a cable to the CIA's Bangkok station ordering the destruction of the tapes on November 8. The cable was not copied to anyone other than Rodriguez's chief of staff. It was against standard procedure to act on the advice of agency lawyers without copying them on a decision. Rodriguez informed Goss and Rizzo on November 10. Rodriguez was never reprimanded for the destruction of the tapes.