U.S. May Have Taped Visits to Detainees

Source: Washington Post

Foreign Countries Sent Interrogators
The Bush administration informed all foreign intelligence and law enforcement teams visiting their citizens held at Guantanamo Bay that video and sound from their interrogation sessions would be recorded, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The policy suggests that the United States could possess hundreds or thousands of hours of secret taped conversations between detainees and representatives from nearly three dozen countries.

Numerous State Department cables to foreign government delegations in 2002 and 2003 show that each country was subject to rules and regulations "to protect the interests and ensure the safety of all concerned." Condition No. 1 stated that U.S. authorities would closely monitor the interrogations, a practice that the Defense Department confirmed last week was also carried out to gather intelligence.

"The United States will video tape and sound record the interviews between representatives of your government and the detainee(s) named above," read several of the nearly identical cables, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

(snip)
The Defense Department has long maintained that it did not regularly videotape interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and only last month acknowledged recording at least seven hours of Canadian officials interrogating terrorism suspect Omar Khadr after the Canadian Supreme Court ordered Canadian officials to release those tapes. The Khadr tapes show that U.S. officials had the capability and infrastructure to record the conversations from several angles.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402321.html?hpid=topnews

Source: The Associated Press

The State Department advised representatives of foreign governments that their interviews with their citizens being held at Guantanamo Bay would be recorded, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Shortly after the 2002 opening of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. began allowing delegations from other countries to interrogate terrorism suspects being held there.

In cables sent to the foreign countries, the State Department wrote, "The United States will video tape and sound record the interviews between representatives of your government and the detainee(s) named above." The Post acquired the cables through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman, told the Post it was not "standard operating procedure" to record such interrogations. "If videotapes were made, they were likely used for translators to transcribe and/or for intelligence officers to clarify their notes after the fact," Gordon said.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imWmfrCJ5f8s6PbeG2_eXmgGJaPQD92BTKKO0

They're perversely proud of themselves and want to document it. Every time. Bank on it.

That statement was a non-denial denial.

Sounds much less... waterboard-y than interrogations.

It's 2008, ladies and gentlemen, and everything is documented.

Get the evidence. Get the evidence. Get the evidence. Don't let them destroy it first.