CIA withheld Al Qaeda tapes from 9/11 panel-paper

Can you imagine why the CIA would withhold tapes from the 9/11 Commission? Probably because they are incriminating. And I'd bet they were withholding the tapes under orders or at least knowledge of the White House.
Reuters

The Sept. 11 commission's chairmen, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, said their reading of the review, a copy of which the newspaper obtained, convinced them the CIA made a conscious decision to impede the panel's inquiry, the Times said.


A memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the panel's former executive director, concluded that "further investigation is needed" to determine whether the CIA's withholding of the interrogation tapes from the commission violated U.S. law, the paper reported.


CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield on Saturday said the CIA gave the commission "a wealth of information" and did not destroy the tapes while the commission was active.


"The 9/11 commission certainly had access to, and drew from, detailed information that had been provided by terrorist detainees," Mansfield said in an e-mail. "That's how they reconstructed the plot in their comprehensive report."


"Because it was thought the commission could ask about tapes at some point, they were not destroyed while the commission was active. As Director Hayden pointed out in his December 6th statement, the tapes were destroyed only when it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries," Mansfield said.


The CIA said it destroyed the tapes lawfully to protect the agents involved in the interrogations, but the news prompted an outcry from rights activists and Democrats in Congress, as well as investigations by the Bush administration and Congress.