Requests For Interrogation Tapes
Beginning in 2003, lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui asked for videotapes of interrogations of detainees that might help prove Moussaoui wasn't involved in the September 11 attacks.
In May 2005, Senator Jay Rockefeller made a request on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the CIA to turn over a hundred documents related to the alleged torture of prisoners in American custody. In September, after Porter Goss was named as the new Director of the CIA, Rockefeller renewed his request. Both times, he also mentioned the videotapes, which "undoubtedly sent a shiver through the agency".
From May to November 2005, Judge Leonie Brinkema was also pressuring the CIA to turn over any videotapes of detainee interrogations as evidence in the trial against Moussaoui. On November 14, the Department of Justice told the court that the CIA did not possess the videotapes that were requested.
The tapes were not provided to the September 11 Commission, which used classified transcripts of interrogations of Zubaydah in writing its report. Philip D. Zelikow, the Executive Director of the Commission, stated, "We believe that we asked for such material and we are sure that we were not provided such material."
The ACLU claimed that at the time they were destroyed, the tapes should have been turned over according to a federal court order to comply with a FOIA request for information about interrogations. A federal judge ruled in 2011 that the CIA would not be sanctioned for the destruction.
Read more about this topic: 2005 CIA Interrogation Tapes Destruction
Famous quotes containing the words requests and/or tapes:
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 4:6.
“Everything our children hear, see, and feel is recorded onto a cassette. Guess who is the big star in their movie? You are. What you say and, more important, what you do, is recorded there for them to replay over and over again. We all have videocassettes. Adults just have larger libraries of tapes available.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)