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Destruction Of CIA Tapes Linked To White House

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The New York Times

Published: December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the CIA between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two al-Qaida operatives, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.

The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.

Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and now is his chief of staff; John Bellinger, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel.

Several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed.

One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there was "vigorous sentiment" among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took that position, but he said that some thought in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The destruction of the tapes is being investigated by the Justice Department.

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