Comments (35)

OleHippieChick wrote on December 7, 2007 4:57 PM:

He's born fresh every morning. Rocky (I heart telecoms) the Robber Baron is on the case!

Mitch wrote on December 7, 2007 4:59 PM:

Jay:

You're a bloody disgrace. Resign.

Dave wrote on December 7, 2007 5:07 PM:

I'm tired of his excused. He should write into their budget bill that if they don't turn over documents, then CIA executives' salaries aren't paid and most non-essential services are deauthorized..

EH wrote on December 7, 2007 5:15 PM:

Hah, you know they're lame when all they have are discredited Bush excuses.

P J Evans wrote on December 7, 2007 5:29 PM:

Wimp.

He's willing to give retroactive immunity to telecoms, too.

What does Bushco have on him and Harman, that they'll go along with stuff that anyone with half a brain can see is illegal and unconstitutional?

SkippyJones wrote on December 7, 2007 5:53 PM:

Jay is a disgrace - funny how his hands are always tied! Couldn't say anything - my hands were tied, fellas! BS.

As for these tapes - the story that this is about enhanced interrogation techniques is a smoke screen - this is about what was SAID on these tapes. See Gerald Posner's excellent post:
"The CIA's Destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 ConnectionGerald" over at HuffPo. There is a dastardly story behind these tapes, and this is why they were not turned over to the 9/11 Commission. As for Hayden's excuse - nonsense. You'd have to purge the CIA of every document in their possession to protect the identity of an agent from ever being leaked! Such excuses are insulting. I am personally insulted by Michael Hayden and you should be, too. The destruction of those tapes is destruction of evidence and hence obstruction of justice under Federal Law, to which, believe it or not, the CIA and its leaders are subject.

It is, furthermore, given what story is being pieced together by Posner and others, Treason. the United States Code at 18 U.S.C. § 2381 states "whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
People may laugh - but i take 9/11 seriously - and the coverup that has ensued makes me sick.

slb wrote on December 7, 2007 5:56 PM:

Jay Rockefeller is up for re-election in 2008. Any chance of a primary challenge to this Bush enabler? Or is it too late for that?

JW wrote on December 7, 2007 6:04 PM:

The people of the United States were Big Lied into unleashing war. That fact, even today, has not fully sunk in with the American people. Congressional democrats who acquiesced in that decision still refuse to speak the rude truth. Hell, those who opposed it likewise refuse. Instead, cowards all, they echo the administration's "faulty intelligence" mumbo jumbo.

All crimes committed by the political establishment of this country, in the name of "national security", are the inevitable result of that initial treason, and its ensuing cover up.

jumblyaya wrote on December 7, 2007 6:06 PM:

Holy f'ing shit, this totally blows out the "Dukeys"!!!!1! There is a tendency for the "latest and greatest" to win awards (see Oscars, films released on Xmas) but this one is so hot even the local news (ok, DC local news) is reporting it. Who is the Rose Mary Woods on this one???/?

Official A wrote on December 7, 2007 6:28 PM:

Hey, Rocky, when are you planning to crank up that Phase 2 investigation on cooked intelligence on Iraq?

Oh.

I thought not.

fljim wrote on December 7, 2007 7:16 PM:

If my hands are tied, must I not wonder within, who tied them and why and where must I have been?

-Dylan

JubleJohnson wrote on December 7, 2007 7:18 PM:

I understand Phase 2 was released late last year '06 quietly.This Rockefeller is a real slimeball..he knew these acts were being committed & stayed quiet.Shows how fast our democracy is descending,this same Rockefller senator along with Feinstein wanted immunity for Telco companies.

OCPatriot wrote on December 7, 2007 7:34 PM:

Rockefeller is another of those men turned by Bush, like Circe, into swine. He might have had a pure heart at some time, but it's all swinish mess and gee and golly and dirty now. Like Rice and Petreus and Specter and Powell. Bush, indeed, seems to have this effect on people. He knows what key character defect will crumble and make these people into swine.

kj* wrote on December 7, 2007 9:51 PM:

To protect identities!? Tell it Wilson & Plame!

Marcel E Derodel wrote on December 7, 2007 10:47 PM:

Jay Rockerfeller, please do the honorable thing that is left to do - Resign. You know you have zero integrity and credibility. Have you no shame dear sir.

bnb wrote on December 8, 2007 2:21 AM:

This isn't about torture. This is about what happened on 9/11. There is no hard evidence of this cockamamie Al Queda story. We were told they did it from the first hour, and no one has talked to Al Qeada, not in public. [They never claimed credit.-- What kind of terrorist doesn't take credit?] That's why no investigation was done in public. That's what was probably on the destroyed video: evidence disproving the theory. And Rocky is covering for them.

Johnbo wrote on December 8, 2007 2:28 AM:

I'm getting REALLY tired of waiting for Rockefeller and the Democrats to FINALLY complete the last phase of the investigation into the intellegence failures in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. That's the part of the investigation that's supposed to access if intellegence was misused or distorted by the Bush Administration. We all know it was but we need solid, unrefutable proof.

I could accept that the ReTHUGlicans under Sen. Roberts were all about providing cover for Bush/Cheney but it's really getting way past time for the Democrats to do what the Congress is hired for: oversight.

SocraticGadfly wrote on December 8, 2007 2:32 AM:

No shit. I blogged earlier this week that both Rocky and Jane Harman, as House Intell ranking member, are disgusting on this.

Official A wrote on December 8, 2007 7:45 AM:

Proof positive that the Democrats, while not as effective as the Republicans, are just as corrupt. Time for a real third party, people. If there is any justice, the Dems will go the way of the Whigs.

Official A wrote on December 8, 2007 7:50 AM:

And why is this man smiling?

jjv wrote on December 8, 2007 8:22 AM:

LOL, pathetic!! The libs once again searching for a way to undermine the USA. This time lets decrie the destruction, all very legal mind you, of tapes whose release, and make no mistake folks, the tapes WOULD have been released by someone in the liberal infested government, would have caused the death of the CIA agents on them.

Notice that no one has claimed any law was violated here> What we are hearing from the loser libs are words like "possible" violation, and "if" these tapes were destroyed illegally and so on. On the other hand we do have folks close to the situation claiming that all this was NOT a violation of the law and in fact was done with the notification of the proper parties. Jay Rockefeller has admitted as much before Harry Reid made his call and made do the now oh so familiar flip flop. Ya know, I was told the tapes were destroyed before I wasn't.

Jjv wrote on December 8, 2007 8:26 AM:

There is no hard evidence of this cockamamie Al Queda story. We were told they did it from the first hour, and no one has talked to Al Qeada, not in public.
*******************************************

But...but, we have heard Osamabama bin laden himself take credit. Is that not good enough for you, lib? You keep usoing his tapes as proof we can't catch him but you're not interested in anything he says if it doesn't confirm your hate/blame America agenda....right?

W Action wrote on December 8, 2007 8:56 AM:

The Rockefellers: failing upwards since 1932. In addition to lack of nerve, Jay's mental facility has faded noticably. Could the Dem caucus please remove him from his "responsibilities" and replace him with Feingold?

W Action wrote on December 8, 2007 9:16 AM:

jjv: The post you're replying to is a spoof. It's best to just ignore the children who write total BS to see if some sucker validates their existence by replying. As for "liberal infested government," it's probably the result of years of Republican incompetence under Reagan and Bushwa I & II, under whose administrations most of these careerists were hired. After all, most of America has turned against the Right's agenda and is getting more and more vocal about it. Careerists who have seen the mistakes up close OUGHT to speak out about how our government has been gutted. Real patriots are happy to see illegal state secrets are revealed.

bnb wrote on December 8, 2007 10:39 AM:

It's not a spoof
and there is no proof.
I didn't say that Osama didn't claim credit. [He immediately denied it then much later was caught on an extremely grainy video tape that turned up from God knows where which seems to indicate he was at least pleased by it.] I said Al Qeda didn't claim credit. Osama is, or at least was, CIA and never mentioned Al Qeada til after 9/11.

I wish I knew what happened on 9/11. Unfortunately our government has been hiding it from us along with the Anthrax thing. This destruction of tapes is just one of an endless series of criminal cover-ups regarding it. How about the destruction of the FAA tapes? Anyone who does just a cursory investigation knows we are being lied to about 9/11.

bnb wrote on December 8, 2007 10:41 AM:

BTW, this is not a 'liberal thing'. More conservatives know about 9/11 than liberals.

jeanruss wrote on December 8, 2007 1:18 PM:

with Dems like this, who needs Republicans? I called his office after I saw that he voted AGAINST re-instating habeas corpus-he WANTS Nafta-this guy is the kind that needs to GO-the Congress isn't representing us because, as John Edwards said, it is rigged against us-phony Dems are the problem-who knew we had so many? at least now we can see who they are-west virginia is a sad place-he is doing a terrible job for those people.

Peg wrote on December 8, 2007 2:33 PM:

United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2007

HEROIN KINGPIN – FIRST DEFENDANT EVER EXTRADITED FROM AFGHANISTAN – SENTENCED IN MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT TO OVER 15 YEARS IN PRISON

MANHATTAN— Baz Mohammad, 51, an Afghan heroin kingpin, and the first defendant ever extradited to the U.S. from Afghanistan, was sentenced this afternoon to 188 months imprisonment for managing an international narcotics-trafficking organization that imported millions of dollars of heroin into the U.S., announced Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Karen P. Tandy, the Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

President George W. Bush previously designated Baz Mohammad as a foreign narcotics kingpin under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which authorizes the President of the United States to make such designations when he determines that a foreign narcotics trafficker presents a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the U.S. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, authorized the extradition of Baz Mohammad to the U.S. in October 2005. On July 11, 2006, Baz Mohammad pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court. According to the Indictment, other documents filed in the case, and statements made during Mohammad's guilty plea:

Between 1990 and 2005, Mohammad led an international heroin-trafficking organization responsible for manufacturing and distributing millions of dollars worth of heroin in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The organization then arranged for the heroin to be transported from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the U.S., including to New York City, hidden inside suitcases, clothing, and containers. Once the heroin arrived in the U.S., other members of the organization received and distributed the heroin. These co-conspirators then arranged for millions of dollars in heroin proceeds to be laundered back to Mohammad and other members of the organization, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The organization, closely aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan, provided financial support to the Taliban during the course of the conspiracy. More specifically, between 1994 and 2000, the organization collected heroin proceeds in the U.S. for the Taliban. In exchange for its financial support, the Taliban provided the organization protection for its opium crops, heroin laboratories, drug-transportation routes, and members and associates.

In 1990, Mohammad discussed heroin trafficking with other members of the organization in his Karachi, Pakistan, residence. During the meeting, Mohammad told his co-conspirators that selling heroin in the U.S. was a “jihad” because they were taking the Americans’ money and the heroin was killing them.

This case was the result of the cooperative efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the New York City Police Department (NYPD), working together under the auspices of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, as well as the Afghanistan Counter Narcotics Police and the Interior Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Mr. Garcia praised the investigative efforts of the DEA, the FBI, ICE, the NYPD, and the Afghan Counter Narcotics Police.

“Baz Mohammad is a narcotics kingpin whose drug organization, operating under the protection of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, made millions of dollars from the sale of heroin in the United States," said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia. “Today's sentencing is a gratifying conclusion to an important prosecution that would not have been possible without unprecedented cooperation between law enforcement authorities in the United States and Afghanistan.”

“The sentencing of Haji Baz Mohammad -- the first person ever extradited from Afghanistan to the United States -- demonstrates both our nations' resolve to destroy the hold opium lords have on Afghanistan,” said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy. “This drug kingpin bragged that he waged jihad against Americans by poisoning them with his heroin. His attack was unconventional, and his massive drug profits funded the Taliban and other extremist organizations dedicated to destroying freedom and justice. Today, as Mohammad loses his own freedom, he begins a long, hands-on lesson in the certainty of American justice.”

The prosecution of Baz Mohammad is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Boyd M. Johnson III, Amy Finzi, and Jocelyn Strauber are in charge of the prosecution.

Peg wrote on December 8, 2007 3:38 PM:

Jihadis Post Scenario for the Defeat of the United States

By Abdul Hameed Bakier, Erich Marquardt

On May 14, jihadi forum users Abu Kandahar and Roslan al-Shami posted a five-point scenario for the collapse of the United States and the rise of the Islamic ummah, entitled, "The Next Strikes in the Heart of America, When and How." It appeared on the al-ommh.net forum, although at least one other jihadi forum, alhanein.com, reposted the scenario. The posting outlines a scenario for attacking the United States, although the sheer size of the operation suggests that it is jihadi propaganda and not an actual plan that could be operationalized. The alleged operation is dedicated to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq.

The first stage in the scenario involves multiple terrorist attacks on three major U.S. cities, preferably with nuclear weapons, using an unspecified number of trucks. The scenario places priority on attacking New York City because it is the central artery of the U.S. economy and it would prove that the mujahideen are capable of recurrent attacks on the same target. The second city to attack is Los Angeles, an important West Coast "atheist" city. The third "city" to be attacked is Florida because, they argue, it is an East Coast congregation city and has the Kennedy Space Center (considering the description, the statement's authors probably meant Orlando). While those are the three primary cities for attack, the writers of the document suggest that if the mujahideen wish to expedite the collapse of the United States, they should also conduct attacks in Seattle since it is a strategic border city; Washington, DC, the political center of the United States; and cities in Texas, since the "biggest oil companies" are located there.

According to the writers, the purpose of attacking these specific cities is to cause a sharp decline in the U.S. economy; mass amounts of casualties; the support for the mujahideen by anti-U.S. countries such as Cuba and Venezuela; a decrease in American support for their own government; the withdrawal of the "blasphemous" U.S. military from Islamic territories; mass military desertions; and the inability to fuel U.S. military fighter jets. The document also outlines how the fallout from such large-scale attacks would cause the U.S. military to return to the United States in order to conduct massive relief operations. They refer to the example of how Hurricane Katrina overburdened the U.S. National Guard, calling the hurricane a "Soldier of God."

After such attacks, they argue that the Islamic State of Iraq will seize the opportunity to launch mass strikes on the apostates in the Iraqi military and police, paving the way for the third stage of the scenario: the commencement of the golden era of the triumphant Islamic conquests that includes the implementation of Sharia, the liberation of the Arabian Peninsula, the removal from power of "the U.S. ruling family" in Jordan and, finally, the big march toward Palestine. In the end, even Washington D.C. will fall to the mujahideen and that will conclude the final stage of Islamic control of the globe.

The scenario appears less of a planned operation than a hope for the fulfillment of a prophecy. The supposed factuality of the scenario is based on various verses in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad's teachings. Nevertheless, some of the users on the forums who discussed the scenario asserted that all of the details to execute the operation had already been prepared. One such user, by the alias of Abu Nedal, said, "For your knowledge, the operations are ready and awaiting the orders from our leader Osama bin Laden, God protect him, to decide what he deems appropriate either to strike now or to wait."

Islamist extremists have always fabricated factitious scenarios for victory over the West based on their own interpretations of Quranic prophecies in times of crisis and defeat. Nevertheless, al-Qaeda has shown prior interest in acquiring nuclear materials for use in an attack, and it is necessary to take such forum postings seriously as they display the mindset and the intent, although perhaps not the capability, of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.

silversurfer wrote on December 8, 2007 4:43 PM:

Suddenly, "progressives" don't seem to worried about the identity of CIA members and their families. Interesting, Valerie Wilson's identity exposure sure was protested by the same idealogues.

silversurfer wrote on December 8, 2007 4:51 PM:

From: David Frum

Friday, December 07, 2007

A Question About Those Destroyed CIA Tapes -

The prevailing assumption is that the tapes were destroyed to conceal harsh CIA interrogation methods. Gerald Posner suggests another possible explanation:

Re: the breaking news that the CIA destroyed the videotapes of interrogations with 2 terror suspects, you might have seen that the tapes of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah were destroyed.

You might also recall that in my 2003 NYT bestseller (reached #2), Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, my last chapter was titled, "The Interrogation." Based on two active US intelligence sources, I was the first to disclose Zubaydah's interrogation. To date, I am the only reporter to have printed the info about what happened to him.

Zubaydah, wounded when he was captured in Pakistan, was fooled in a fake flag operation to believe that the Saudis held him. Instead of being afraid of the ‘Saudis,’ he demanded to talk to three Saudi princes (one, the nephew of the King, who happened to be in the U.S. on 9/11). He gave his interrogators the private cell phone numbers of all 3. He did the same regarding the chief of Pakistan's air force.

After the U.S. told the Saudis and Pakistanis of Zubaydah's finger pointing, all four men had tragic 'accidents.' The King's nephew died of complications from liposuction at the age of 43. A day later, the 41 year old Prince named by Zubaydah died in a one-car accident on his way to the funeral of the King’s nephew. The third named prince, age 25, died a week later of "thirst," according to the Saudi Royal Court. And shortly after that, the chief of Pakistan’s air force died when his plane exploded with his wife and 15 of his top aides on board

When my book was published, CIA officials trashed it 'off the record,' but made no public comment. I have always held the same position. There is (or was) firm evidence of what transpired, of whether my reporting was accurate or not. Make the interrogation tapes public and then we'll know whether one of the top al Qaeda operatives accused leading Saudi royals and a top Pakistani military man - now all dead - of being his sponsors. And accused two of them – the King’s nephew and the Pakistani air force chief – of having advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Now, suddenly coincidence of coincidence, the CIA says the Zubaydah interrogation tapes are destroyed. How convenient.

johnnydoughey wrote on December 9, 2007 12:13 PM:

I suppose those of us WITHOUT top secret clearances and WITHOUT the power of a senator or congressman are the only folks who would have wanted to see tapes which showed us just how waterboarding was used.

Those folks who have been given the responsibility of ensuring our justice system and democracy have no interest in discovering this process or the factual data...

Zorba wrote on December 9, 2007 11:38 PM:

While the investigate the cia tape destructed, perhaps theyl'l investigate more on all the papers Sandie Berger stole and shredded from naitional archives and who's behind he was trying CYA.

dweb wrote on December 10, 2007 1:19 AM:

Jay Rockefeller should be removed for incompetence. This guy sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and essentially acquiesced in the administration's use of the committee to cover up its lack of action when warned of possible attacks on the US by terrorists and to cook the books on intelligence.

Now Jay claims we don't need a special prosecutor to look into the destruction of the CIA torture tapes...that the Senate Committee can do the job just fine. Uh Jay...could it also perhaps be because you were aware of those tapes back in the day and never said or did anything about them and the last thing you want is some investigator actually pushing that fact into the public press. We understand Jay...better to handle it in-house to make sure no dirty laundry gets aired.

I remember how concerned you were about the manipulation of intelligence and the way the administration was using secrecy laws to hide the truth. You were so concerned that to protect your ass, you wrote a letter...to yourself....and then stuck it in your desk drawer.

What a profile in courage Jay.....what more can we ask of you?

Peg wrote on December 11, 2007 12:33 PM:

CIA Directors Rejected Destruction of Tapes

Saturday, December 8, 2007 1:55 PM

By: Ronald Kessler

When the CIA’s clandestine service asked permission to destroy video tapes showing waterboarding and other coercive interrogation of two terrorists, Directors George Tenet and later Porter J. Goss turned them down.

Despite that, when Goss was running the agency in November 2005, Jose A Rodriguez, Jr., the head of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, ordered the destruction of the tapes showing the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

“The destruction damages the agency’s credibility with the public, Congress, and judges,” says John L. Martin, who dealt extensively with the CIA on legal issues as chief of the Justice Department’s espionage prosecutions. “Judges will be more skeptical about submissions made by the intelligence community after this.”

Rodriguez was said by CIA sources to be concerned that if the tapes were obtained by Congress or the courts and leaked to the press, they could be used by jihadists as anti-American propaganda and could lead to targeting of the CIA officers depicted administering waterboarding and other coercive techniques.

In a statement to employees, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said the tapes were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers when the tapes had no intelligence value. By not taking issue with the destruction, Hayden was sending a message that he will not gratuitously second guess CIA officers who risk their lives to protect the country.

The Justice Department meanwhile announced a preliminary investigation of the destruction of the tapes to determine if further investigation is warranted.

Goss was informed of the destruction of the tapes after the fact and was said to be angered by it, as was John Rizzo, the CIA’s counsel. At the same time, some CIA operatives suggest that Rodriguez felt he could get away with ordering the destruction on his own because CIA management was so dysfunctional under Goss. Goss surrounded himself with a tight circle of former Capitol Hill aides who engaged in ego battles with widely admired and successful CIA officers.

One example was Stephen R. Kappes, a former Moscow and Kuwait Station chief who played a pivotal role in secret talks that led Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya to give up his program to develop weapons of mass destruction. Kappes resigned from the CIA when Patrick Murray, who was chief of staff to Goss, ordered Kappes to fire his deputy, Michael Sulick, after Sulick criticized Murray over the nasty way he had treated another CIA officer. Hayden has since brought Kappes back to the agency, promoting him to deputy director.

Under Tenet, Rodriguez did not head the clandestine service, but other operatives within that service were rebuffed when they asked Tenet for permission to destroy the tapes, sources say. Rodriguez recently retired from the CIA.

When he learned of the destruction of the tapes, Hayden ordered the agency to notify key members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. Back in 2003, John L. Helgerson, the agency’s inspector general, viewed the tapes when conducting an investigation of the interrogations and found nothing troubling about them, according to a CIA source.

However, the destruction of the tapes calls to mind activities carried out by the CIA in the 1960s and 1970, leading some to say then that it was a rogue agency. At the same time, the larger controversy about what the tapes depict spotlights the precarious position the agency is in when it is used as a political football when the CIA and the FBI are in the forefront of protecting the country from terrorist attacks.

Despite a drumbeat of media reports about it, the CIA has used waterboarding as an interrogation tactic on only three terrorists and has not used the technique since 2003. As normally defined, torture is the infliction of severe pain. While waterboarding causes fear because it simulates drowning, it is painless. In fact, in case they are captured and experience it, U.S. special forces are subjected to waterboarding as part of their training.

Since the media began disclosing that the CIA was using waterboarding, the technique has become virtually useless. If terrorists know they will be subjected to fake drowning, they will not respond to it. The CIA does not believe outright torture produces reliable results and has never used it. Scaring prisoners with waterboarding is another matter. The technique was used when the CIA believed a second wave of attacks was imminent.

Besides Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden’s field commander or chief of operations, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole, the technique was used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 plot. In these cases, waterboarding and other and other coercive techniques — like subjecting prisoners to frigid temperatures or forcing them to stand for hours — have worked and have led to a takedown of other key al-Qaeda operatives when they were planning more attacks that could have killed tens of thousands of Americans.

Coercive techniques were first used on Zubaydah when he stopped cooperating.

“We weren’t getting very much from him at all,” Robert Grenier, the former chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, told me for my book “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack.” “And that’s when we began the process of putting together a properly focused interrogation process. It was refined a good deal subsequently, but he was the test.”

Before they were employed, the Justice Department reviewed the interrogation procedures and determined that they were legally permissible. As the interrogation of Zubaydah and other detained terrorists progressed, the CIA briefed the chairs, ranking members, and majority and minority staff directors of the House and Senate intelligence committees on the details of the procedures used. Yet now, members of Congress are getting air time by decrying the use of waterboarding.

Contrary to hysterical press reports, fewer than 100 terrorists have been detained in CIA facilities since the program began in the spring of 2002. Fewer than a third of them have been subjected to coercive interrogation techniques.

Congress has twice had the chance to ban waterboarding but has twice declined to do so. In the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Congress only barred “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment. Now legislation that would ban waterboarding is being considered.

Aside from alerting al-Qaeda to methods used to interrogate them, the disclosure of secret techniques and so-called secret prisons has impaired cooperation with the CIA by key foreign countries. According to Grenier, even though they were mostly wrong, the stories have had a devastating effect. Perhaps half a dozen countries, most critically important in the war on terror, said they would have to ratchet down cooperation with the CIA on sensitive projects. All did, in fact, scale back such cooperation

Still, agency officials are dismayed at the destruction of the tapes and do not condone it. At the same time, they point out that the controversy over waterboarding and the specter of members of Congress calling for investigations and prosecutions feeds a risk averse atmosphere that existed under the Clinton administration and is starting to creep back into the intelligence community.

In his statement to employees, Hayden said, “I understand that the agency [destroyed the tapes] only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries, including the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.” He added, “These decisions were made years ago. But it is my responsibility, as director today, to explain to you what was done, and why. What matters here is that it was done in line with the law.”

“No one had a problem with waterboarding when they were briefed on it at the time,” says a former CIA official. “Now people are starting to back away. What happens the next time CIA officers are asked to take actions that may be close to the edge but have been approved by the Justice Department, the White House, and members of Congress and may save may tens of thousands of lives?”