Media Furor Over CIA's Terrorist Tapes Overblown
FF spoke with intelligence officials who defended the handling of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh's interrogation tapes and called for a stop to further leaks.
Last week, it was reported that the CIA has discovered videotapes of a 2005 interrogation of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh. The revelation opened the CIA up to questions over Binalshibh’s treatment and the handling of the tapes. FrumForum spoke with former intelligence officials who criticized the media for the latest intelligence disclosure and defended the CIA’s handling of the interrogation tapes.
FrumForum’s sources argued that news reports incorrectly suggested that the CIA had hidden the tapes. The tapes in fact were not found recently, but first uncovered in 2007 -- a fact buried in the initial media reports. Looking at the AP story reporting the discovery, former CIA director Michael Hayden noted: “Can anyone explain why only after 200 words the reader learned that these tapes were found in 2007?” Hayden also stressed that after discovering the tapes, the CIA handled them correctly: The “fact that these tapes were discovered in 2007 was well known. The Hill and the Court were immediately notified at that time.” Hayden questioned the relevance of a news story reporting the three year old discovery of tapes, especially when Congress was already aware of the matter.
Furthermore, intelligence community officials also defended Binalshibh’s handling. FrumForum was told by a former operative that important information was obtained with the help of the Moroccan government without using “enhanced techniques because we did not use the techniques there. From my understanding it was more of an interview than an interrogation.”
The disclosure though could seriously harm America’s intelligence efforts. Many former officials stressed that the reports could compromise our relationships with foreign intelligence services. R. James Woolsey, former CIA Director, feels that the continuing intelligence leaks (not only the Binalshibh tapes, but the recent damaging Wikileaks discosure, as well) need to be stopped or “it will undercut the willingness of other countries to share intelligence with the United States. Any leak that points towards intelligence sources or methods can seriously disrupt the relationship between the US and a foreign country.”
The former CIA officials interviewed agreed with Hayden when he stated, “Why are we making it more difficult, in this case, for the Moroccans. What is the upside of that?” A former high ranking CIA official, commented that “there is no question each of [the recent American intelligence] leaks has had a very strong and consequential effect.”
Although all interviewed felt that the Obama administration is taking aggressive measures more has to be done to stop the domino effect of the leaks. In particular, they pushed for the administration to make it clear that anyone who has taken an oath to protect classified information upholds that oath. A former high ranking CIA official noted that if an intelligence operative has a serious concern about a policy or action, they have three outlets: the chain of command, the Inspector General, and Congress. He further stated that “there is no excuse to go outside the legal system. What gives a reporter the right to release a piece of classified information, gives them the right to grant anonymity, and precludes our Justice Department from dealing with that? I don’t know. Nobody should be talking to the press about official CIA business except the public affairs officer.”
Those FrumForum spoke with also emphasized that there must be more care in regards to who has access to intelligence information. Former CIA head of public affairs, Bill Harlow, summed up everyone’s feelings when he commented that in trying to stop leaks, “the concern is with people inside government who are authorized to have the secrets. We should control the people who initially have the information.”