Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sen. Pat Roberts
Two years before the
CIAdestroyed its tapes showing the torture of two detainees, the agency informed Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, of its plans—to which the conservative lawmaker agreed. This revelation became known after a lengthy
CIA memofrom 2007 was released this week, prompting a furious denial from Roberts’ office.
However, according to the memo, CIA officials had internal discussions as early as three years before the tapes’ destruction and in 2003 mentioned the idea to Roberts at closed-door briefing. The memo reads: “Senator Roberts listened carefully and gave his assent.”
Ninety-two tapes revealing the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were destroyed in November 2005. The Department of Justice has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate this action by agency officials.
In addition to the issue of the illegal destruction of the videotapes, Roberts is taking heat for the fact that almost as soon as he took over as committee chair, he quashed the attempts of the previous chair, Bob Graham (D-Florida), to pursue oversight of the CIA torture program. Roberts had no objections to the torture, but considered oversight “a terrible idea.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Destroying C.I.A. Tapes Wasn’t Opposed, Memos Say (by Scott Shane, New York Times)
Sen. Pat Roberts Denies CIA Waterboard Charge (by Kasie Hunt, Politico)
Pat Roberts’ “10 Reasons Right Off” Not to Exercise Oversight Over Torture (by Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel)
CIA Memo 2007 (Central Intelligence Agency)
Guantánamo Detainees: Kansas Scared, Michigan Says Bring ‘em On (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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