Terror tapes: CIA chief leaves key questions unanswered

CIA director Michael Hayden, testifying in secret before the US Senate Intelligence Committee, failed to answer key questions about the destruction of secret videotapes showing harsh interrogation of terror suspects, the panel’s chairman said.

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller called the committee’s 90-minute session with Hayden “a useful and not yet complete hearing” and vowed the committee would get to the bottom of the matter.

Lingering questions included: who authorised destruction of the tapes, and why was Congress not told about it?

Hayden told reporters afterwards that he had “a chance to lay out the narrative, the history of why the tapes were destroyed” and the process that led to that decision. But since the tapes were made under one of his predecessors, George Tenet, and destroyed under another, Porter Goss, he was not able to answer all questions completely, he said.

“Other people in the agency know about this far better than I,” Hayden said. He promised the committee he would make those witnesses available.

A similar session is set for today when Hayden appears before the panel’s House of Representatives counterpart.

As Hayden appeared before the Senate committee, news media were reporting that a former CIA agent who was part of the interrogation team documented on the tapes went public with his account.

According to the former agent, John Kiriakou, interrogators used a technique called waterboarding on terror suspect Abu Zubaydah, and he began giving up information in less than 35 seconds.

The technique, which critics say is torture, probably disrupted “dozens” of planned al-Qaida attacks, said Kiriakou, a leader of the team that captured Abu Zubaydah, said to have been a major al Qaida figure.

Waterboarding is a harsh interrogation technique that involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

Kiriakou said the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, was approved by top officials, but he did not explain how he knew who approved it. He did not witness or participate in the waterboarding, he said.

“This isn’t something done willy-nilly. This isn’t something where an agency officer just wakes up in the morning and decides he’s going to carry out an enhanced technique on a prisoner,” he said yesterday in a round of television news appearances.

“This was a policy made at the White House, with concurrence from the National Security Council and Justice Department.”

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino said the CIA interrogation programme approved by the president was safe, tough, effective and legal.

“It’s no secret that the president approved a lawful programme in order to interrogate hardened terrorists,” Perino said. “We do not torture. We also know that this programme has saved lives by disrupting terrorist attacks.”

Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee taken by the CIA in 2002, is now being held with other detainees at the prison on the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.