Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press – 2010-08-18 01:26:16

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/17/1779583/guantanamo-captives-interrogation.html

CIA Interrogation Tapes Found Under Desk
WASHINGTON (August 17, 2010) –The CIA has videotapes of Sept. 11, 2001, plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the US in holding and questioning suspected terrorists.

The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining recordings made within the clandestine prison system.

The tapes depict Mr. Binalshibh’s interrogation sessions at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat in 2002, several current and former US officials told the Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the videos remain a closely guarded secret.

When the CIA destroyed its cache of 92 videos of two other al Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri, being waterboarded in 2005, officials believed they had wiped away all of the agency’s interrogation footage. But in 2007, a staffer discovered a box tucked under a desk in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and pulled out the Binalshibh tapes.

A Justice Department prosecutor who is already investigating whether destroying the Zubaydah and al-Nashiri tapes was illegal is now also probing why the Binalshibh tapes were never disclosed. Twice, the government told a federal judge they did not exist.

The tapes could complicate US efforts to prosecute Mr. Binalshibh, 38 years old, who has been described as a “key facilitator” in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. If the tapes surfaced at trial, they could reveal Morocco’s role in the counterterrorism program known as Greystone, which authorized the CIA to hold terrorists in secret prisons and shuttle them to other countries.

More significantly to his defense, the tapes also could provide evidence of Mr. Binalshibh’s mental state within the first months of his capture. In court documents, defense lawyers have been asking for medical records to see whether Mr. Binalshibh’s years in CIA custody made him mentally unstable. He is being treated for schizophrenia with a potent cocktail of anti-psychotic medications.

With military commissions on hold while the Obama administration figures out what to do with suspected terrorists, Mr. Binalshibh has never had a hearing on whether he is mentally fit to stand trial.

“If those tapes exist, they would be extremely relevant,” said Thomas A. Durkin, Mr. Binalshibh’s civilian lawyer.

The CIA first publicly hinted at the existence of the Binalshibh tapes in 2007 in a letter to US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Virginia. The government twice denied having such tapes, and recanted once they were discovered. But the government blacked out Mr. Binalshibh’s name from a public copy of the letter.

At the time, the CIA played down the significance, saying the videos were not taken as part of the CIA’s detention program and did not show CIA interrogations.

That’s true, but only because of the unusual nature of the Moroccan prison, which was largely financed by the CIA but run by Moroccans, the former officials said. The CIA could move detainees in and out, and oversee the interrogations, but officially, Morocco had control.

CIA spokesman George Little would not discuss the Moroccan facility except to say agency officials “continue to cooperate with inquiries into past counterterrorism practices.”

Moroccan government officials did not respond to questions about Mr. Binalshibh and his time in Morocco. The country has never acknowledged the existence of the detention center.

Morocco has a troubled history of prison abuse and human-rights violations. A government-created commission identified decades of torture, forced disappearances, poor prison conditions and sexual violence. And this year’s State Department report on Morocco notes continued accusations of torture by security forces.

But current and former US officials say no harsh interrogation methods, like the simulated drowning tactic called waterboarding, were used in Morocco.

“The tapes record a guy sitting in a room just answering questions,” according to a US official familiar with the program.

That would make them quite different from the 92 interrogation videos of Zubaydah and al-Nashiri being subjected to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics.

Mr. Binalshibh was captured Sept. 11, 2002, and interrogated for days at a CIA facility in Afghanistan. Almost immediately, two former CIA officials said, Mr. Binalshibh exhibited mental instability that would worsen over time.

When FBI agents finally had a chance to interview Mr. Binalshibh, they found him lethargic but unharmed.

“He had a certain toughness about him, like he didn’t care,” said Raymond Holcomb, a retired FBI agent who spent five days alongside the CIA with Mr. Binalshibh in Afghanistan and wrote about it in a forthcoming book “Endless Enemies: Inside FBI Counterterrorism.”

Though Mr. Binalshibh was uncooperative during his early interrogations, his interviews formed the foundation for parts of the Sept. 11 commission report. One official said he also provided intelligence about a plot to crash aircraft into London’s Heathrow Airport.

Mr. Binalshibh spent five months in Morocco in late 2002 and early 2003, the first of three trips through the facility during his years in CIA custody.

Since his incarceration was established at Guantanamo Bay in 2006, Mr. Binalshibh has appeared increasingly erratic. Court records show him acting out, breaking cameras in his cell and smearing them with feces.

He has experienced delusions, believing the CIA was intentionally shaking his bed and cell, according to court records and interviews. He has imagined tingling sensations like things were crawling all over him and developed a nervous tic, obsessively scratching himself.

Nine years after his capture, there is no indication when Mr. Binalshibh and other admitted Sept. 11 terrorists will face military or civilian trials.

Mr. Binalshibh and other accused Sept. 11 conspirators have openly admitted their roles, praising the attacks. Mr. Binalshibh and the others have asked to plead guilty, a move that would head off any trial and almost certainly guarantee the videotapes never get played in any court.

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