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Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Thu, 01/03/2008 - 2:18pm.
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Report May Have Motivated Destruction of Torture Tapes
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 03 January 2008

When Congress returns from its winter break in mid-January and continues its probe into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, the lawmakers may be interested in speaking to Mary O. McCarthy.

McCarthy spent most of her career at the spy agency, most recently as deputy inspector general. In 2004, she was tapped by the CIA's Inspector General John Helgerson to assist him with several internal investigations.

One of those investigations included a closer look at the CIA's interrogation methods. The report on this probe was completed in spring 2004. It concluded that some of the agency's approved interrogation methods "appeared to constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, as defined by the International Convention Against Torture," according to a New York Times story published in November 2005. That was the same month the CIA destroyed the videotapes.
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I'm actually shocked we

I'm actually shocked we videotape a lot of this stuff in the first place. There's no real reason to do so, other than to leave the probability that you'll make an appearance before a congressional hearing.

»

Taping this 'stuff'

Maybe video recording of interrogations is mandated by law. I don't know. We could probably find out. If it's not, the reason for taping is to have a record of what the suspect says, so that various details relating to the case can be organized and referenced if need be, especially for trial purposes.

I suppose taping these might have been just habitual - in previous times, prisoners were guaranteed access to trial. But now that there is no habeus corpus - thanks to the bush administration's David Addington - I suppose there may not be a real need to tape the incidents; except maybe to keep up appearances.

The problem for the CIA is when the tapes become incriminating. And apparently there is reason to believe that some of them were. Throwing them out is almost as good as showing them. It gives reason to assume guilt, because if the tapes weren't incriminating, why would they need to be destroyed or hidden?
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