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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2010 |
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT STATEMENT ON DESTROYED DETAINEE VIDEORECORDINGS
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(West Windsor, NJ) – U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, Chair of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today issued the following statement in response to published reports that declassified documents show then-CIA Director Porter Goss ordered the destruction of interrogation tapes of terrorism suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
“For years, I’ve been trying to establish in law that detainee interrogations should be recorded and the records preserved. The benefits of recording interrogations are evident, as they help maximize intelligence collection, help prevent detainee abuses such as those that happened in Abu Ghraib, and protect interrogators as well. Had my proposed detainee interrogation videorecording provision in the pending FY 2010 intelligence bill been law at the time, there would have been no question that the destruction of the tapes would have been illegal. I urge President Obama and my Senate colleagues to recognize the necessity of passing this provision so these kinds of episodes never happen again.”
Information about Holt’s provision can be found at http://holt.house.gov/list/press/nj12_holt/anthraxfeb25.html.
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