Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) Told CIA Not to Destroy Torture Tapes = Feb. 2003 Letter

Remember the Pelosi bashing over this issue? Well, the Pelosi bashers
had it all wrong, and now Rep. Harman's letter has been declassified.

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Lawmaker Told CIA Not to Destroy Tapes
By EILEEN SULLIVAN – AP - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyL3au-RZxEcch2P9ymXaJ9mroogD8TUK0780


WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee warned in a 2003 letter that destroying videotapes of terrorist interrogations would put the CIA under a cloud of suspicion, according to a newly declassified copy of the letter.

"Even if the videotape does not constitute an official record that must be preserved under the law, the videotape would be the best proof that the written record is accurate, if such record is called into question in the future," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., wrote in a Feb. 10, 2003 letter to then-CIA general counsel Scott Muller. "The fact of destruction would reflect badly on the agency."

Harman's office released the declassified letter on Thursday, a day after the Justice Department announced it had opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of the tapes. The letter notes that a copy also went to then-CIA Director George Tenet.

Last month, the CIA acknowledged destroying videos showing the harsh interrogation of .....

for moving Harman from her powerful position.

CIA in 2003 Planned Destruction of Tapes
Congresswoman Argued Against the Move
Walter Pincus - Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 4, 2008; Page A03 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/01/03/ST2008010303806.html


A key member of Congress disclosed yesterday that the CIA said in February 2003 that it planned to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogations after the agency's inspector general finished probing the episodes, an account that adds detail to recent CIA statements about the circumstances surrounding the tapes' destruction.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) released a declassified copy of a letter she secretly wrote to the CIA in February 2003, in which she quoted then-CIA General Counsel Scott W. Muller as telling her a tape of the agency's interrogation of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida, "will be destroyed after the Inspector General finishes his inquiry." The CIA yesterday confirmed Harman's account of Muller's statement.

Harman had recently become the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, and in her letter she urged Muller to "reconsider" that plan and predicted that the tapes' destruction "would reflect badly on the agency." Agency officials nonetheless destroyed the tapes in 2005, and on Wednesday, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey ordered a formal criminal probe into the destruction.

In recent public accounts about the tapes, CIA officials have said that no definitive decision was made about destroying the tapes until 2005 ............

2003 letter told CIA: Trashing tapes would harm image
Rep. Harman discloses her warning against disposing of interrogation videos.
By Greg Miller and Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
January 4, 2008 - WASHINGTON - http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-ciatapes4jan04,1,7196694.story?coll=la-news-a_section


More than two years before the CIA destroyed interrogation videotapes, top officials were urged to preserve them by a senior lawmaker who warned that disposing of the recordings would "reflect badly on the agency."

The warning came in a February 2003 letter from Rep. Jane Harman of Venice, then the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The letter was released publicly by Harman's office on Thursday, after its contents were declassified by the CIA, and one day after the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of the tapes.

The existence of Harman's letter had been reported; but its precise contents, previously unrevealed, provide details on then-classified discussions between the CIA and senior members of Congress about the tapes and the agency's desire to get rid of them.

Harman wrote the letter after learning in a classified briefing that the CIA planned to destroy the tapes. She urged the agency to reconsider. ............

Letter: Democrat told CIA not to destroy interrogation tapes
From Pam Benson - CNN - Jan 3, 2008 - http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/03/ciatapes.harman/



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The then-senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee urged the CIA in 2003 not to destroy videotapes it had made of the interrogations of terrorist detainees, according to the newly declassified letter.

Lawyers for several Guantanamo detainees say the government has defied orders to preserve evidence.

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Last month, the CIA acknowledged videotapes were made in 2002 of two terrorist detainees but were destroyed in 2005. Some of the tapes showed the harsh interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

In the case of Zubaydah, the tactics captured on videotape included waterboarding ....