Letter to The Honorable Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense

Letter

Letter to The Honorable Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense

KENNEDY QUESTIONS GATES ON INTERROGATION TAPES

Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, requesting a report on all detainee interrogation videotapes, transcripts, and related documents that have been created or destroyed by the Department.

Senator Kennedy has previously made similar requests to the Attorney General and to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His letter also asks Secretary Gates to take appropriate steps to guarantee the preservation of all interrogation tapes in the Department's effective control.

Senator Kennedy's inquiry will help Congress conduct additional oversight of this administration's interrogation practices and ensure that only lawful techniques are used in the future.

The text of the letter is below.

March 14, 2008

The Honorable Robert M. Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Dear Secretary Gates,

Congress and the American people were stunned recently to learn that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of the interrogation of at least two detainees, Abu Zubaida and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Plainly, the videotapes of those interrogations were relevant to ongoing and future litigation and to congressional oversight of the treatment of detainees.

Members of Congress and the courts have begun to sort through the consequences of this scandal, and one obvious question is whether additional copies of the videotapes, transcripts of the interrogations, or other documents related to the interrogations or to the destruction of the tapes still exist. Congress also needs to learn whether tapes of other detainee interrogations have been created and destroyed.

I recently learned that the Department of Defense has been conducting a review of the videotaping of interrogations at military facilities from Iraq to Guantánamo Bay, and the Department reportedly has identified some 50 tapes. I'm disappointed, however, to learn that the Defense Intelligence Agency claims to have routinely destroyed tapes of interrogations conducted in the past seven years.

A recent study, "Captured on Tape: Interrogation and Videotaping of Detainees in Guantánamo," by Professor Mark Denbeaux and his colleagues, used publicly available documents to show that more than 24,000 interrogations have been conducted at Guantánamo since 2002 and that every one of these interrogations was videotaped by the government. Meticulous logs were kept of information related to interrogations at Guantánamo, so it should be possible to identify how many videotapes still exist and how many have been destroyed.

I hope you agree that no further tapes should be destroyed, and I request that you take appropriate steps to guarantee the preservation of all interrogation tapes in the Department's effective control, as well as any transcripts or documents related to the interrogations that may exist. These tapes and documents will likely be relevant both to the adjudication of the status of detainees and to congressional oversight of the treatment of detainees.

I ask that you inform me of the number of tapes in the possession of the Department of Defense and your plans for preserving them. I also ask that you preserve any transcripts of interrogations and any records relevant to tapes that may have been destroyed. Please inform me of the existence of such transcripts and records and of the specific steps you will take to preserve them. I also ask that you provide a report on all interrogation tapes the Department is aware of that have been destroyed or are no longer accessible.

I'm sure you recognize the special importance of the questions raised by the interrogation videotapes and the need for Congress to obtain complete information, so that it can perform its constitutional oversight and legislative responsibilities.

Thank you for your assistance and I look forward to your early response to this letter.

Sincerely,

Edward M. Kennedy

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