Destruction of Tapes Could Alter Prosecutions

[babylonsister]

Destruction of Tapes Could Alter Prosecutions

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: December 9, 2007


WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — The destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes showing interrogations of top operatives of Al Qaeda, including Abu Zubaydah, could complicate the prosecution of Mr. Zubaydah and others, and it underscores the deep uncertainties that have plagued government officials about the interrogation program.

Officials acknowledged on Friday that the destruction of evidence like videotaped interrogations could raise questions about whether the Central Intelligence Agency was seeking to hide evidence of coercion. A review of records in military tribunals indicates that five lower-level detainees at Guantánamo were initially charged with offenses based on information that was provided by or related to Mr. Zubaydah. Lawyers for these detainees could argue that they needed the tapes to determine what, if anything, Mr. Zubaydah had said about them.

Mr. Zubaydah and another terrorism suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is said to be the chief planner of the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, are the only suspected Qaeda figures identified so far as the subjects of interrogations recorded on the destroyed tapes.

The destruction of the tapes has ignited a Congressional furor and provoked demands for a Justice Department inquiry, but it has also focused attention on the case of Mr. Zubaydah, who was captured in March 2002. As one of the first close associates of Osama bin Laden to be caught after the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Zubaydah became a test case on which the C.I.A. built and then adjusted its program of aggressive interrogations and overseas secret jails in the years that followed.

Current and former intelligence officials have said that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to coercive techniques by C.I.A. interrogators even before the Justice Department issued a formal, classified legal opinion in August 2002, declaring that the coercive techniques did not constitute torture.

It is not known whether the videotape depicting Mr. Zubaydah’s interrogation preceded the 2002 opinion, nor is it known what acts were depicted on the tapes. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said in a statement on Thursday that the tapes were intended as an “internal check on the program in its early stages,” despite what he called “the great care taken and detailed preparations made.”

But the destruction of the tapes in 2005 appeared to reflect what former and current intelligence officials have described as longstanding worries about the legality of its interrogation practices and the possible legal jeopardy for any employees who engaged in the program and the managers who supervised them.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/washington/09zubaydah.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[spanone]

1. now remind me how much safer i am, mr. bu$h*?