WASHINGTON, 23 December 2007 — The CIA obstructed the work of an official US commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks by withholding tapes of interrogations of Al-Qaeda operatives, according to former panel members quoted by the New York Times yesterday.
A review of documents by former members of the blue-ribbon 9/11 commission revealed the panel made repeated, detailed requests to the spy agency in 2003 and 2004 for information about the interrogation of Al-Qaeda operatives but were never notified of the tapes, the Times reported.
However, the CIA yesterday rebutted suggestions the spy agency was uncooperative and hid from the commission the videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists, saying it waited until the panel went out of business before destroying the material now in question.
A recent memo by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the Sept. 11 commission, suggests the CIA was less than forthcoming when asked for documents and other information by the panel, which investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The CIA disputed that characterization and suggested the panel should have requested interrogation videotapes specifically if it wanted them. “The notion that the CIA wasn’t cooperative or forthcoming with the 9/11 commission is just plain wrong. It is utterly without foundation,” spokesman Mark Mansfield said yesterday. “The CIA’s cooperation and assistance is what enabled the 9/11 commission to reconstruct the plot in their very comprehensive report.” In a statement e-mailed separately yesterday, Mansfield suggested the commission should have been specific about wanting videotapes.
The review of the commission’s correspondence with the Central Intelligence Agency came after the agency earlier this month revealed it had destroyed videotapes in 2005 showing harsh interrogations of two Al-Qaeda members.
The review, written up in a memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the 9/11 commission, said that “further investigation is needed” to resolve whether the CIA’s failure to hand over the tapes violated federal law.
The memorandum does not assert that withholding the tapes was illegal but states that federal law penalizes anyone who “knowingly and willfully” withholds or “covers up” a “material fact” from a federal inquiry or makes “any materially false statement” to investigators, the Times said. The revelation will pile more pressure on President George W. Bush’s administration, already under fire over the affair by human rights groups and lawmakers who allege it has tried to coverup proof of torture.
A spokesman for the CIA told the Times the agency had been prepared to give the 9/11 commission the tapes, but that panel staff members never specifically asked for interrogation videos.
