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U.S. | Government & Elections | Police State and Prisons

A criminal conspiracy White House, CIA hid torture tapes from 9/11 Commission
by wsws (reposted)
Monday Dec 24th, 2007 8:51 AM
Monday, December 24, 2007 :The CIA withheld videotapes of the abuse of suspected Al Qaeda members from the 9/11 Commission despite repeated requests for information on interrogations directed to top CIA and White House officials, according to the executive director of the commission. The CIA has acknowledged that in November 2005, more than a year after the requests were made, it destroyed tapes of CIA interrogations of two alleged Al Qaeda leaders, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
The history of the commission’s interactions with the CIA on the issue is outlined in a memo from the executive director of the commission, Philip Zelikow, to the chairman, former Republican governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean, and the vice chairman, former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. The memo is dated December 13, 2007 and was released to the news media on Friday. (See “An analysis of the 9/11 Commission memo on interrogation tapes.”)

Zelikow’s account is a damning indictment of White House and CIA officials, and it comes from a prominent Republican with close ties to the intelligence establishment. (Zelikow served on the National Security Council in the administration of the senior George Bush and co-authored a book with current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice). According to the memo, in 2003 and 2004 the commission made “repeated requests for very detailed information about the context” of the CIA interrogations, including those of the two individuals whose interrogations were recorded on the destroyed videotapes.

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§An analysis of the 9/11 Commission memo on interrogation tapes
by wsws (reposted) Monday Dec 24th, 2007 8:52 AM
Monday, December 24, 2007 :The memo written by the executive director of the 9/11 commission, Philip Zelikow, is only the latest indication that the concealment and destruction of videotapes depicting the interrogation of CIA prisoners are part of a conspiracy involving high-level officials in the White House and the CIA. (See “White House, CIA hid torture tapes from 9/11 Commission.”) From the beginning, the 9/11 Commission—composed of leading figures in both the Democratic and Republican parties—was intended as a whitewash.

Its purpose was to cover up the basic issues, including the role of previous administrations, Democratic and Republican, and the CIA in funding and promoting Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamists who went on to establish Al Qaeda, and a host of anomalies that point to the possible complicity of sections of the state apparatus in the 9/11 attacks themselves. The fact that the commission was denied access to critical evidence of the interrogation of a supposed top official in Al Qaeda—Abu Zubaydah—is a further testament to its real role.

According to Zelikow’s report, the initial request from the commission to US intelligence agencies for material on interrogations was made on June 6, 2003. The commission specifically named 40 individuals, including Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the two individuals whose interrogation videos the CIA has acknowledged destroying. The request was made to the CIA, the Defense Department, and the FBI.

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THE SON OF SATAN ON THE POST 9-11 BUSH WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITYTHE SON OF SATANMonday Dec 24th, 2007 3:44 PM