Report: US may have taped Guantanamo Bay interviews
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The State Department advised representatives of foreign governments that their interviews with their citizens being held at Guantanamo Bay would be recorded, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Shortly after the 2002 opening of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the US began allowing delegations from other countries to interrogate terrorism suspects being held there.
In cables sent to the foreign countries, the State Department wrote, "The United States will video tape and sound record the interviews between representatives of your government and the detainee(s) named above." The Post acquired the cables through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman, told the Post it was not "standard operating procedure" to record such interrogations. "If videotapes were made, they were likely used for translators to transcribe and/or for intelligence officers to clarify their notes after the fact," Gordon said.