UPDATE: Perhaps sensing a cover up of the cover up, Senator Joe Biden called for an independent prosecutor to investigate the destruction of potential evidence by the CIA. He noted that he voted against Judge Mukasey for Attorney General because Mukasey could not unequivocally say waterboarding is torture. Leaving an investigation in the hands of the Justice Department and CIA does not provide the needed transparency according to Biden. If the interrogation tapes contained exculpatory evidence then attorneys for some lower level detainees could argue that the destruction of evidence makes their clients prosecution legally impossible. The New York Times reports that five detainees at Guantanamo were initially charged based on information provided by Zubaydah. CBS reports that according to high level anonymous source, the tapes were destroyed to protect participating agents from criminal prosecution. Yes, Joe someone does need to watch the watchers, but perhaps now it is too late.
Facing an expose by the New York Times, the CIA admitted Thursday that the Deputy Director of Operations ordered the destruction in November, 2005 of video tapes showing waterboarding torture sessions including the interrogations of Al Qaeda's Abu Zubaydah. At the time the tapes were destroyed the Agency was under court orders to release such information and a congressional inquiry into the homeland terror attacks. In 2005, attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui were seeking videotapes of interrogations they believed would show their client was not part of the terror attacks. A US District Judge ordered the government to disclose whether it had tapes of interrogations and named specific ones. Eleven days later the government denied it had video or audio tapes of those specific interrogations. The 9/11 Commission had also asked the agency for interrogation material, but the video tapes were not provided. The ACLU says that the tapes were destroyed at the time a federal court had ordered the CIA to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests covering interrogations.
Through a spokesman the agency said the tapes "did not involve anyone judged relevant by the court in the Moussaoui proceedings.", and also denied that the CIA withheld evidence from the Sept. 11 commission contending that its members did not ask specifically for tapes, "The tapes were destroyed only when it was determined that they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries." The CIA said that it had informed leaders of the Congressional Intelligence Committees that it had the tapes in 2003, and intended to destroy them to prevent a "security risk". In separate interviews Friday, co-chairs of the 9/11 Committee contradicted the agency by saying they made it clear that they wanted all material connected to the interrogation of Al-Qaeda agents. The former leader of the House Intelligence Committee told the agency in 2003 that destroying the tapes was a "bad idea" and "urged them in writing not to do it" when informed of their existence. The CIA did not tell Congress members responsible for intelligence oversight that the tapes had actually been destroyed. Democrats in Congress and civil rights groups are demanding an investigation of the incident. [from AP news reports]