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Torture: CIA’s London chief to face jury

Washington: Senior CIA officials, including the London station chief, have been called before a grand jury in Virginia investigating the potentially illegal destruction of 92 video tapes recording the torture and interrogation of Al-Qaeda detenus.

A special prosecutor, John Durham, has called the CIA officials as part of an 18 month-long criminal inquiry into the destruction of evidence of the agency’s interrogators using waterboarding and other forms of torture against Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri, described by the Americans as “high value” detenus now held at Guantanamo Bay.

Those ordered to testify include the former CIA chief, Porter J Gross. Another is a woman, not publicly named, who heads the agency’s London station. She was previously the chief of staff for the head of the CIA’s clandestine branch, Jose Rodriguez, who is the focus of the investigation. President Obama has since pledged not to prosecute individual agents because they were assured by the Bush administration that their actions were legal.

The investigation was launched because the destruction of the tapes may be a criminal offence as they were evidence that could have been used in any prosecutions for torture.Mr. Rodriguez has told colleagues CIA lawyers told him he had the authority to order their destruction. It remains open to question whether anyone will be brought to trial, given the Obama administration’s desire to reassure CIA agents over past crimes. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

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