White House Lawyers Told Of Videotapes

CIA Chief Says They Urged Caution in Destroying Tapes

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said the lawyers were told in 2004 about tapes showing detainee interrogations (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told lawmakers privately last week that three White House lawyers were briefed in 2004 about the existence of videotapes showing the interrogation of two al-Qaeda figures, and they urged the agency to be "cautious" about destroying the tapes, according to sources familiar with his classified testimony.

The three White House officials present at the briefing were David S. Addington, then Vice President Cheney's chief counsel; Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House counsel; and John B. Bellinger III, then the top lawyer at the National Security Council, according to Hayden's closed-door testimony before the Senate intelligence committee.

When told that some high-ranking CIA officials were demanding that the tapes be destroyed, the White House lawyers "consistently counseled caution," said one U.S. official familiar with Hayden's testimony. Another source said that Harriet E. Miers followed up with a similar recommendation in 2005, making her the fourth White House lawyer "urging caution" on the action.

The ambiguity in the phrasing of Hayden's account left unresolved key questions about the White House's role. While his account suggests an ambivalent White House view toward the tapes, other intelligence officials recalled White House officials being more emphatic at the first meeting that the videos should not be destroyed.

Also unexplained is why the issue was discussed at the White House without apparent resolution for more than a year.

According to CIA officials, the videos recorded the response of two top al-Qaeda figures incarcerated in 2002 at secret prisons to a simulated-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as well as other "enhanced techniques" meant to pry loose secret information about terrorist plans.

The tapes were destroyed in November 2005, after the secret prisons' existence was disclosed by The Washington Post, in what the CIA says was a security measure intended to protect the identities of agency officers who participated in the interrogations.

The disclosures about Hayden's testimony came as the CIA, faced with a threat of congressional subpoenas, announced that it would begin turning over documents related to the tapes to oversight committees as early as today. Reversing an administration decision last week to defer any cooperation with Congress, the CIA also said it will comply with lawmakers' requests to allow its officers to testify about the tapes.

Rep. Sylvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), who chairs the House intelligence committee, said yesterday that he will schedule a hearing for Jan. 16. He said he expects testimony from John A. Rizzo, the CIA's general counsel, and Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., its former director of operations and the official said to have made the decision to destroy the tapes.

"Subpoenas have been prepared. We hope we don't have to use them," Reyes said.

His committee has requested a broad range of documents related to the tapes, as well as copies of memos and notes from the agency's internal debate of nearly three years over whether to destroy them. A CIA spokesman said the agency is already preparing to transmit the materials to Congress.

"We will work to make sure the committee knows everything it needs to know," the official said.