As Ali Soufan has been making the rounds rebutting Jose Rodriguez’ self-serving lies, he has said something, repeatedly, that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention.
Soufan has notes that prove Rodriguez is lying.
He actually first mentioned them publicly (AFAIK) in his book, Black Banners.
In early 2008, in a conference room that is referred to as a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), I gave a classified briefing on Abu Zubaydah to staffers of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The staffers present were shocked. What I told them contradicted everything they had been told by Bush administration and CIA officials.
When the discussion turned to whether I could prove everything I was saying, I told them, “Remember, an FBI agent always keep his notes.” Locked in a secure safe in the FBI New York office are my hand-written notes of everything that happened with Abu Zubaydah [redacted] (434-435; my emphasis)
He mentions them again later in the book, almost begging someone to go get them.
It was apparent from the [torture] memos that the introduction of EITs was based on lies. The proof resides in my notes–locked, as noted earlier, in FBI vaults. (526)
Soufan repeated this emphasis on his notes in a piece explaining why Jose Rodriguez’ lies might help Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri in his military commission.
Nonetheless, the government has my investigative notes, as well as daily reports, and the inspector general also found instances where Rodriguez’s team went far beyond what they had approval for and the legal guidelines set forth by the George W. Bush administration, including holding a drill to Nashiri’s head. [my emphasis]
And in the Q&A with Amy Davidson, Soufan again mentions that documentary proof that Rodriguez is lying.
The claim about waterboarding leading to unmasking of K.S.M. as the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks is similarly false. We got that information in April, 2002, before the contractors hired by the C.I.A. Counterterrorism Center even arrived at the site. One by one, the successes claimed by E.I.T. proponents have been shown to be false.
I went before the Senate Judiciary Committee and under oath recounted what happened. And, as I note in “The Black Banners,” I sent daily reports from the secret interrogation location, to Washington, recording what happened, which the U.S. Government has in its possession.
[snip]
The tapes also contained our interrogations, done with traditional techniques. The tapes would have shown under which circumstances Abu Zubaydah coöperated and when he stopped coöperating. But while the tapes were destroyed, our daily reports from the location are luckily safe and still in the government’s possession. [my empahsis]
Notes, notes, notes and daily reports, daily reports, daily reports.
You think maybe this guy wants us to know that there is documentary proof, as yet unreleased, that Rodriguez’ book is based on a pack of lies? You think maybe he’d like these notes released before Rodriguez makes a mint off these lies?
The thing is, Soufan’s repeated mention of his notes have not entirely escaped all attention. Back in January, Jason Leopold actually FOIAed the notes. DOJ responded that because the notes pertain to a third party–Abu Zubaydah–Leopold would have to get that third party’s permission to win their release. But AZ is stuck behind a wall of legal obstruction, in which Gitmo censors say such a waiver does not constitute proper legal mail pertaining to AZ’s habeas petition (which is the only kind of legal representation he’s supposed to get), and therefore AZ’s lawyers can’t get him the waiver so he can sign it. Leopold is left appealing the decision on public interest grounds.
So journalists keep reporting that Soufan has these notes that prove Rodriguez’ lies (and, probably, that Rodriguez’ torturers did far more than legally approved in the Bybee memo, including, at a minimum, use a coffin to simulate live burial, the only thing John Yoo said was illegal). While the repeated reporting on these notes has not yet reached a clamor, clearly they are newsworthy (and for some legally suspect reason, subjected to a higher degree of privacy than Rodriguez’ lies are).
Ali Soufan says there is documentary evidence that proves Rodriguez’ entire PR campaign is based on lies. So why won’t the Administration release that evidence?
Why is the Administration obstructing release of evidence that Rodriguez is lying?