Two videotapes and one audiotape of the interrogation of Ramzi Binalshibh have surfaced, following the CIA’s illegal destruction in 2005 of 92 video recordings of other detainees held in secret prisons. The Associated Press reported the Binalshibh’s recordings were found three years ago in a box under a desk at CIA headquarters.

 

But the tapes do not show Binalshibh, who was allegedly a key liaison between the 9/11 hijackers and al-Qaeda’s leadership, being tortured, just answering questions from intelligence officers in Morocco, where the Yemeni was confined. He was also imprisoned in Pakistan, Romania and, beginning in September 2006, at the U.S. detention facility in Guantánamo Bay. Although Binalshibh has been in U.S. custody for almost eight years and he has been charged with war crimes and there appears to be strong evidence against him, he has yet to face either a civilian trial or a military commission.

 

The Department of Justice is continuing its investigation of the CIA’s destruction of the other tapes, which occurred in November 2005, immediately after news accounts revealed the existence of the CIA’s secret prisons. It is unclear why the existence of the Binalshibh CIA tapes was revealed now, three years after their discovery.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Terrorist Interrogation Tapes Found (by Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press)

CIA Tapes of 9/11 Detainee's Interrogation Don't Show Torture, Official Says (by Peter Finn, Washington Post)

CIA Tapes Found Beneath Desk Show Questioning of 9/11 Plotter (by Mike Melia, PBS NewsHour)

The Guantánamo Docket: Ramzi Bin al Shibh (New York Times)

Release of Documents Showing Timing of CIA Destruction of Torture Tapes (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)