Notes Show Confusion on Interrogation Methods
Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane reporting on a CIA lawyer’s visit to Guantanamo who said the torture laws were vaguely written and that it was basically subject to perception, as well as “If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong.” The NY Times described Mark’s and his comments that “That looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are made of” and “Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this.”
CIA advised military on questioning at Guantanamo
McClatchy reported on Mark’s reaction after a CIA lawyer came to Guantanamo to explain how the CIA was implementing their interrogation torture program. McClatchy quoted from an email Mark wrote saying “This looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are mad of” and Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this.”
Can the ’20th hijacker’ of Sept. 11 stand trial?
Bill Dedman reported on the torture of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani and Mark and the CITF’s battles to try to prevent his torture. Dedman described the SERE tactics that were used on the prisoner and approvals by the Secretary of Defense. Mark told NBC “You’re talking illegal acts here. The secretary of defense can’t change the law. One of the things that we told our personnel was the fact that during Nuremberg, Nazi war criminals were actually tried for acts that were perpetrated by them under orders of their superiors.” Mark also told NBC that “The techniques made some detainees unprosecutable.”
Gizmo interrogations spark battle over tactics
Bill Dedman wrote about Mark and others speaking publicly for the first time about the efforts waged to try to stop coercive and degrading detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay. Mark told NBC that coercive interrogations trained confessions and made left them unable to prosecute terrorist suspects. Mark explained to NBC News “We always said, there are no secrets, just delayed disclosures” and CITF personnel were told their grandchildren would ask them what they did during the war, so “We wanted our folks to be proud.” Mark described the investigative process CITF used to investigate terrorists.
High Risk Training — The New Norm for NCIS
The Navy News Service reported on the new FLETC Counterterrorism Operations Training Facility and the manner in which NCIS was having to train personnel to deploy into combat zones. Mark underscored the importance of the new facilities and said “High-risk operations are becoming the norm for agents around the world.”
Marine Pilot Sought to Get Back Into Jet, Witness Says
The LA Times reported on a Marine pilot destroying the videotape of a flight where he killed 20 skiers in the Italian Alps.
Mark said the tape was important because it would have provided irrefutable evidence about what happened during the flight. Mark considered his work a criminal investigation from the day it began, on Feb. 4, 1998, even thought a formal order for a criminal investigation wasn’t issued until March 14. The dates were important to prosecutors and defense lawyers because the prosecution contends Ashby should have known an inquiry was underway when he helped get rid of the tape a few days later.