The September 11 commission asked the CIA for information on the interrogation of Al Qaeda suspects, only to be told the agency provided all, The New York Times reported.
The US intelligence agency is accused of not providing information related to grilling of 9/11 suspects to an inquiry commission
NEW YORK: The September 11 commission asked the CIA in 2003 and 2004 for information on the interrogation of Al Qaeda suspects, only to be told the agency provided all that was requested, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
The CIA said on December 6 it destroyed hundreds of hours of videotape in 2005 showing interrogations of al Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, prompting former members of the commission to review classified documents.
The taped interrogations were believed to show a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding that rights activists have condemned as torture.
The September 11 commission’’s chairmen, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, said their reading of the review, a copy of which the newspaper obtained, convinced them the CIA made a conscious decision to impede the panel’’s inquiry. A memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the panel’’s former executive director, concluded that ;further investigation is needed; to determine whether the CIA’’s withholding of the interrogation tapes from the commission violated US law, the paper reported.
The CIA said it destroyed the tapes lawfully to protect the agents involved in the interrogations, but the news prompted an outcry from rights activists and Democrats in Congress, as well as investigations by the Bush administration.
The commission investigated what went wrong before and after Al Qaeda militants used hijacked commercial airliners to attack the United States on September 11, 2001. The panel’s report called for an overhaul of the US intelligence community. Kean, former New Jersey governor, said the panel would give the memo to federal prosecutors and lawmakers looking into the destruction of the tapes.
A spokesman for the CIA told the Times the agency had been prepared to provide the September 11 commission with the tapes but was never asked to do so.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}