<p>A letter from the DOJ to Judge Hellerstein regarding the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes and the ACLU's motion to hold the CIA in contempt for that destruction.</p>
MAR-02-2009 09:08 P.02/03 U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney Southern District ofNew York 86 Chambefx Sired New Yap*, New York 10007 March 2, 2009 BY FACSIMILE Hon. Alvin K. Hellerstein United States District Court Southern District of New York 500 Pearl Street, Room 1050 New York, New York 100074312 Re: ACLU, et vAip_artment ofatkise, et al., No. 04 Civ. 4151 (AKTI) Dear Judge Hellerstein: The Court's stay of its consideration of Plaintiffs' contempt motion expired on February 28, 2009. John Durham, the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who is conducting a criminal investigation into the destruction of certain videotaped interrogations of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency, did not request a continuation of the stay. Accordingly, it is our expectation that the Court will enter an order requiring the production of the information contemplated m the August 20, 2008 Order Regulating Proceedings; namely: 1. A list identifying and describing each of the destroyed records; 2. A list of any summaries, transcripts, or memoranda regarding the records, and of any reconstruction of the records' contents; and 3. Identification of any witnesses who may have viewed the videotapes or retained custody of the videotapes betore their destruction. CIA000166 MAR-02-2009 09:08 P.03/03 Hon. Alvin K. Hellerstein March 2, 2009 With the termination of the stay, the CIA is now gathering information and records responsive to the Court's order. The CIA respectfully requests that it be permitted until Friday, March 6, 2009, to provide the Court with a proposed schedule under which it will respond to each of the three categories of information and records. In the meantime, the CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed, which is information implicated by Point 1 of the August 20, 2008 Order. Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed. This information is included in the CIA Office of Inspector General's Special Review Report, a redacted version of which was previously produced to the Plaintiffs. The CIA will unredact this information from the report and produce it to the Plaintiffs. Finally, we note that certain of the information contemplated by the August 20, 2008 Order may be classified or statutorily protected from disclosure, such as the names of CIA employees who have reviewed the tapes. The CIA intends to produce all of the information requested to the Court and to produce as much information as possible on the public record to the Plaintiffs. We thank the Court for considering this submission. Respectfully, L. DASSIN By: SEAN: H. LANE PETER M. SKINNER Assistant United States Attorneys Telephone: (212) 637-2601 Facsimile: (212) 637-2930 cc:.Amrit Singh, Esq. (by facsimile) Jennifer B. Condon (by facsimile)