Posted on 02/15/2008 10:16:57 AM PST by LibWhacker
General Reports More than 24,000 Interrogations Conducted Since 2002; Assertions that All Interrogations Were Videotaped Affect Impending 9/11 Trials
Newark, NJ—Seton Hall Law’s Center for Policy and Research has discovered new evidence of a longstanding government practice of recording interrogations at Guantánamo Bay. In light of the national debate about the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) destruction of video recordings, the report proves that the two CIA tapes that were destroyed were only a tiny fraction of perhaps 24,000 recorded interrogations.
A May 2005 report by Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley confirms that each interrogation at Guantánamo was videotaped. Lieutenant General Randall Schmidt issued a report the following month stating that more than 24,000 interrogations of detainees took place at Guantánamo over a three-year period. In the meantime, the Bush administration has announced it will pursue the death penalty for six detainees who will stand trial for crimes related to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law, commented, “Our students proved that Guantánamo interrogations were videotaped, which impacts the impending trials of the six detainees. We all want to see the perpetrators of 9/11 punished. But if the tapes of those interrogations still exist, it is imperative that we understand, before these trials start, whether the information was obtained through standard interrogation procedures or through torture.”
Captured on Tape, the Center’s seventh Guantánamo Report, is based entirely on the government’s own documents, most of which were procured through Freedom of Information Act suits. The prior Reports have been cited by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Appropriations Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security; and introduced into the Congressional Record.
Included in Captured on Tape:
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Federal judges ordered that “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay” be preserved.
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The CIA admits to destroying at least two videotapes.
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Seton Hall Law has discovered records indicating that the more than 24,000 interrogations conducted at Guantánamo were videotaped. However, despite evidence of their existence from its own generals, DOD has yet to admit that these records exist.
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DOD has video cameras in every Guantánamo interrogation room and each interrogation was observed by intelligence agents and other agency monitors on closed circuit units.
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Multiple intelligence-gathering agencies conducted interrogations of detainees in the Guantánamo Bay video-monitored rooms. Agencies include the CIA, Criminal Investigation Task Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Defense Intelligence Analysis, Army Criminal Investigative Division, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
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Detainees routinely refer to the videotapes of their interrogations.
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The government records contain graphic evidence that interrogators regularly used force and violence while interrogating detainees. These same interrogators often hindered videotaping during interrogations by covering and obstructing the surveillance cameras.
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The U.S. government keeps meticulous records of all interrogations, evidenced by FBI agent accounts of detailed logs available to provide detainees’ names, dates and room locations of interrogations, as well as the names of the interviewers. The government systematically logs all video recordings.
Joshua Denbeaux, senior fellow and co-author of the report, stated, “The CIA created a furor when it destroyed just two tapes of Guantánamo interrogations. Now we know there are possibly other tapes in existence of 24,000 interrogations. With Guantánamo detainees about to stand trial it is time for Congress to step in and ensure the tapes of all Guantánamo interrogations remain intact and catalogued. The detainees’ defense counsel should have access to the tapes.”
“Information obtained through coerced interrogations is not admissible at trial,” remarked Michael Ricciardelli, student research fellow and report co-author. “The information in our report suggests that all interrogations at the Guantánamo camp are recorded. These videos can be examined to verify that all information being used in forthcoming trials was obtained legitimately.”
Captured on Tape was compiled by the Center’s 27 student and graduate research fellows. The report may be read at http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_reports.htm.
And just think, we spent 40 years keeping secrets from the Soviets, but we can no longer keep them from our own countrymen in the media.
Apparently the WOT is not a real war. In a real war, this would be treason.
What’s the problem with videotaping the interrogations? Maybe the Marines could produce a ‘best of’ series of DVDs and send the proceeds to families who have lost someone in the war.
It's just as imperative to make sure space aliens weren't involved, except space aliens aren't part of the leftist agenda.
We're talking about a group including the avowed mastermind of the 9-11 attacks. I'm supposed to get all worried about the death penalty in this case?
What makes you think we kept secrets from the Soviets? I believe they were able to murder every spy we recruited within the KGB, they were given the atomic bomb, we had as many or even more liberal sellouts at the time.
Wow, if this is true (Seton Hall Law STUDENTS uncover...) then, perhaps we should scrap the DHS, CIA, FBI, NSA,and start all over, because it’s obvious they can’t keep our secrets and intelligence safe from law sudents. Having been through law school, and having had the enormous pleasure of knowing many lawyers, the fact that they could uncover this type of information speaks VERY poorly of our intelligence community, especially when attorneys struggle to find videotapes of their clients’ shoplifting confession. :D
Unfortunately, there are two types of torture. If they torture a terrorist, and he reveals a terror plot and lives are saved, that is, I suppose, "good" torture.
Then there is the type as practiced by the Soviets under Stalin in which they tortured a person who would confess to anything to put an end to the torture. No information is discovered in such torture, and the victim reads a list of his offences during a show trial and is taken out and shot . You basically inflict enough pain that the torturee begs for death. This is "bad" torture.
Their lawyers are going to use them to “prove” their confessions were coerced and have all that evidence thrown out. Plus it’s going to be Abu Ghraib times a million.
This kind of crap is exactly why those tapes were destroyed.
It is not necessary that these idiots know exactly how the interrogations were performed. It is necessary that the military tribunal know exactly how these interrogations were performed.
These people want to force these tapes to be released to the public for political ends.
Federal judges ordered that “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay” be preserved.
The CIA admits to destroying at least two videotapes.
The two tapes were of terrorists not held at Gitmo and were not subject to that order.
Nothing like a little bit of truth, carefully misrepresented, to make it sound like the law has been broken when it hasn't.
A good republican candidate can use these issues to their advantage. Obama says in every speech "terrorism is being used to scare voters." My God a republican should be able to hit that out of the park.
My real fear about McCain is that like Thompson he may insist on being polite to his opponents. Politeness is not in order when a young leftist fool like Obama puts my life in jeopardy (or an old leftist witch like Hilary).
I had the misfortune of graduating from SHU Law and knowing Mark Denbeaux...he is typical of American legal educators these days...a far left radical.
I believe that Denbeaux is actually representing (for free) a few of the terrorists at Guantanamo...which calls into question the objectivity of this "study")
The tapes should be admissible in their military tribunal. However, the same rules don't apply to how civilians are tried in civilian courts as do in the military tribunals.
The tribunal should be able to not only look at evidence that the information may have been coerced, they should be able to look at where that evidence led investigators and it they were able to substantiate it.
They are alleging that the evidence is of questionable value because the terrorists had reason to lie. That is in itself a reasonable argument. However, what they want to do is treat it like a civilian court where the suspects rights have been violated and have not only the interrogation thrown out, but all evidence they discovered as a result of that interrogation. That shouldn't be allowed in these tribunals.
All the evidence should be presented. The tribunal should be able to weigh it's value not only based on how it was obtained, but how well it was confirmed after the fact.
Little faith should be placed in the evidence gathered through interrogation alone, but the interrogation and evidence it led to should not be tossed out.
If interrogators broke our laws or regulation, they do need to be held accountable for their actions, but we can't just toss out all of our evidence because it was related to an investigation that didn't follow the normal rules for questioning civilian suspects.
Let’s hope they tape the executions.
We need some tips from Musharref on how to properly manage lawyer populations. They are light years ahead of us in this regard. Without culling domestic lawyers will bred themselves into starvation. I’ve seen it in south Texas with white tail deer. Same deal.
Thank you for the inside information and for your perspective on this... And welcome to FR!
And innocent men captured by warlords and turned over to Americans for bounty, later released after years at Guantanamo.
Then there's Americans slowly beating innocent prisoners to death, like in Abu Ghraib and Bagram, under the mistaken view that they're withholding information, and discovering the error after the prisoners die. One of the hazards of "enhanced interrogation", and torturous definitions of torture.
After November we’ll probably be closing Gitmo and moving the terrorists to Kansas, where they’ll be accorded full constitutional protections.
Going into the Civil War, there were numerous people of national stature in the South who were willing to stand up and do what needed to be done in order to “protect” the South’s way of life.
There were abundant numbers of them both in the military and in the Congress.
Note, I DO NOT agree with that way of life, btw, but at least they were there; they recognized the danger and the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to counter that danger.
Today, there appears to be absolutely nobody of comparable stature (and believe me, no one else can do it) who is willing to do the same to save this country. It’s disgusting.
Obviously no one in the group you mentioned is among these 6 for whom the death penalty is sought, and which is the subject of this article.
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