Justice, CIA Begin Videotape Inquiry

Bush administration sources said that then-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers knew of the tapes and told the CIA she opposed their destruction. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), said she warned the CIA's general counsel after a classified briefing in 2003 not to destroy any videotapes of its "enhanced interrogation program."

Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights who represent Khan said they fear that the CIA and other U.S. agencies could also destroy evidence in their client's case. They argue in a 24-page filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that Khan was subjected to systematic torture.

"Absent a preservation order, there is substantial risk that the torture evidence will disappear," the lawyers wrote in their Nov. 29 filing. The filing was part of an appeal of a military tribunal's finding this year that Khan is an "enemy combatant." Such appeals are allowed under U.S. law.

The U.S. government alleges that Khan, 27, who grew up in the Baltimore area and was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003, was part of the al-Qaeda terror network and was scouting ways to attack the United States while living here.

Khan alleges that after his arrest he was "subjected to an aggressive CIA detention and interrogation program notable for its elaborate planning and ruthless application of torture," according to the heavily redacted court filing. "The methods inflicted on Khan [redacted] were deliberately and systematically applied [redacted] for maximum effect. Khan admitted anything his interrogators demanded of him, regardless of the truth, [redacted] in order to end his suffering."

An intelligence official said yesterday that after 2002, the CIA did not produce interrogation videotapes similar to the ones destroyed.

Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, said the United States does not use or condone torture.

"The fact of the matter is that the careful, professional and lawful questioning of hardened terrorists has produced thousands of intelligence reports, revealed exceptionally valuable insights on al-Qaeda's operations and organization, foiled terrorist plots, and saved innocent lives," Mansfield said.

The legal filing came after lawyers Gitanjali Gutierrez and Wells Dixon met Khan at Guantanamo Bay in October, the first time any of the high-value detainees was allowed to consult with an attorney.

In declassified notes released by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Khan told his attorneys that he can communicate with Abu Zubaida in a previously unidentified Guantanamo facility where detainees formerly imprisoned at secret CIA facilities are held, which he called Camp 7. Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said he could not discuss the specific location of Guantanamo detainees for security reasons.

Khan told his attorneys about their conversations.

"The collective experiences of these men, who were forcibly disappeared by the government and became ghost prisoners, reveal a sophisticated, refined program of torture operating with impunity outside the boundaries of any domestic or international law," according to the court filing.

Khan also told his attorneys that he has gone on hunger strikes to see his lawyers, to protest his living conditions, and to get copies of The Washington Post.

Staff writer Dan Eggen contributed to this report.