According to former CIA agent John Kiriakou: “What I told [ABC News journalist] Brian Ross in late [December 10] 2007 was wrong on a couple of counts. I suggested that [al Qaeda operations chief] Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-five seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, […]
12/10/2007
In a December 10, 2007, interview with Charles Gibson of ABC Television’s World News, former CIA officer at Guantanamo John Kiriakou said, regarding interrogation techniques: ” ‘It was not up to the individual interrogator to decide, ‘I’m going to slap him’ or ‘I’m going to shake him.’ Each one of these, though they’re minor, had […]
12/7/2007
According to information in a New York Times article on December 7, 2007: “intelligence officials have said that of about 100 prisoners held to date in the CIA program, ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques were used on about 30, and that waterboarding was used on just three.” – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the […]
12/7/2007
The CIA destroyed footage of suspected terrorists being subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. “Staff members of the Sept. 11 commission, which completed its work in 2004, expressed surprise when they were told that interrogation videotapes had existed until 2005. ‘The commission did formally request material of this kind from all relevant agencies, and the commission […]
12/6/2007
“The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials. The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism […]
12/6/2007
On December 6, 2007, CIA Director Mike Hayden sent a letter to CIA employees, discussing the recent admission that the CIA destroyed footage of suspected terrorists being subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. ” ‘As part of the rigorous review that has defined the detention program, the Office of General Counsel examined the tapes and determined […]
12/6/2007
“The CIA videotaped the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the first major al-Qaida leader captured, but later destroyed the tapes, current and former intelligence officials tell NBC News. In a statement to agency employees released Thursday [December 6, 2007], CIA Director Mike Hayden revealed that the agency destroyed all copies of the video in 2005. …’The […]
12/3/2007
“On December 3, 2007, the director of national intelligence [Mike McConnell] declassified key findings from a new [November 2007] National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. The first key judgment in the report asserted: ‘We judge with high confidence that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.’ Only if you went to a […]
11/28/2007
A National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear capabilities was presented to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on November 28, 2007. It “reported that Iran halted its weaponization program in 2003 ‘primarily in response to international pressure’ and that the intelligence agencies were ‘moderately confident’ that ‘Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program […]
11/28/2007
Amidst Middle East peace talks on November 28, 2007, President “Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney sat down with intelligence officials who briefed them on a new report on Iran’s nuclear program that was about to radically alter their campaign against Tehran. After years of assuming that Iran was trying to build a nuclear bomb, […]