Back in ’02, the CIA claimed they only destroyed the tapes of 2 terror suspects. According to Warren Richey of the Christian Science Monitor there is a missing interrogation DVD of Jose Padilla recorded on 3/04 that the Defense Intelligence Agency is unable to locate. Suppose we rename CIA the Born Idiots or the Born Liars? As it stands, the burning question won’t go away anytime soon. Since everyone knows that torture and interrogation is nothing new to the Central Intelligence Agency, why destroy the video footage of ’02 back in ‘05? Try as they may, they aren’t the born conspirators they’re supposed to be.

Don’t look for quick or honest results if the CIA and the Department of Justice claim they have begun initial inquiries into the destroyed tapes. Remember, the CIA says they were their own watch-dog back in ’03 and given the Justice Department’s snails’ pace on investigating Civil Rights and police brutality cases today, what are the chances of their looking into the tactics of, historically, one of the best known abuse-perpetrators and advocates in modern history?

What we have here is an obstruction of intelligence. Since taped evidence of illegal interrogation methods would place the Agency in legal Jeopardy, destroying the tapes should place them in worse jeopardy. Although the White House claims the President wasn’t aware of the existence or destruction of the tapes, a 12/8 story by the Los Angeles Times’, Greg Miller, states that then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Harriet Miers, “knew of the tapes’ existence and told CIA officials that [she] opposed their destruction.” The odds against Bush not knowing about the missing Padilla DVD isn’t a good thing to bet on either. Not many journalist are tying this latest case of the destroyed CIA tapes with the updates of the most famous terror suspect since Zaccarias Moussaoui, Abdullah al-Muhajir AKA Jose Padilla, W’s Fifth Columnist.

I wrote months ago that it was reported that a warrant was issued for Padilla in the aftermath of testimony by another terror suspect, Zayn Abu Zubayduh. In light of news of the CIA’s tape burning, Abu Zubayduh’s name is now prominently at the forefront. News sources place him as one of the 2 suspects detained by the CIA whose information was the primary reason the material witness warrant was granted for Padilla in 5/02 as well as the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in ‘03, information likely disclosed while under CIA torture. Outright torture such as waterboarding is illegal under the Army Field Manuel, when it comes to interrogations by CIA and other intelligence agencies. Film footage shows Padilla manacled, with sound-blocking headphones & sight-blocking goggles while being escorted to a Dentist during his pre-trial detention. This example of overkill security is to really really make you believe he is a dangerous terrorist.

It’s not that Padilla deserves a much lighter sentence as his attorneys assert, but rather that all testimony obtained through coercion should be viewed as suspect, at the very least. In Padilla’s case, being fingered by Abu Zubayduh, while undergoing these harsh tactics, should lead to his exoneration.

Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion.Click here to contact Mr. Stevenson.

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