"MAN" BEHIND CIA TAPES DISPOSAL

The Man Who Ordered CIA's Tape Destruction

Jose Rodriguez Ordered Tapes Of Terror Interrogations Destroyed Without Telling CIA Director

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2007

Man Behind CIA Tape Disposal

There's a chill in Washington over the CIA tape case. David Martin reports the decision to destroy videotapes of the interrogations of two terror suspects apparently can be traced to one official at the agency.


(CBS) He is the man who ordered the destruction of video tapes documenting the CIA’s interrogation of two high-level al Qaeda operatives.

The then-head of the clandestine service, Jose Rodriguez, ordered the tapes destroyed shortly after a Washington Post expose focused attention on the CIA’s secret prisons, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

“Well, I think there might have been concern that those tapes could have been called for by some outside body and the CIA would no longer maintain control over them,” said retired CIA officer John Brennan, who is now a CBS News consultant.

Brennan says Rodriguez was also worried the Justice Department was backing away from its earlier support of harsh interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

“And that therefore agency officers who participated in those interrogation sessions may be subject to some type of prosecution,” Brennan said.

Rodriguiz ordered the tapes destroyed without telling then-CIA director Porter Goss and against the advice of the CIA’s own general counsel, the White House deputy counsel and the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

“I expressed concern about destroying any video tapes and said that would be a very ill-advised move by the agency,” Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou led the raid, which captured the al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, told CBS News he and at least one other CIA officer refused to use the harsh interrogation techniques.

That job, he said, was turned over to retired commandos under contract to the CIA.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/10/eveningnews/main3604018.shtml

*****

MORE ON Jose A. Rodriguez:

David Wise wrote about Rodriguez’s “checkered past” in the LA Times in August:

Ten years ago, Rodriguez was fired as chief of the CIA’s Latin America division after he sought to intervene to help a friend who had been arrested in the Dominican Republic for possession of cocaine and illegal weapons. The friend had also worked for the CIA in the Dominican Republic….[T]he director of the CIA felt that any criticism that might result from unmasking the top spy’s identity was outweighed by the need to emphasize the agency’s goal of recruiting officers from a variety of backgrounds.

Source: http://bracken.wordpress.com/2007/12/08/is-the-cias-jose-rodriguez-the-real-life-jack-bauer/