JULIAN ASSANGE (Investigative Editor)
October 3, 2008
Remember the furor earlier this year surrounding the CIA’s destruction of its interrogation videos? Wikileaks has discovered that the US Marine Corps probably also has interrogation videos and may be about to destroy them. On September 9, 2008, the Marines issued the following restricted Marine Corps Administrative order, or MRCADMIN:
You can find reference to the order buried in a Marine Corps online database at marines.mil.
The order, “MRCADMIN 498/08”, unlike the vast majority of MRCADMIN orders[1], has been given a For Official Use Only, or “FOUO” dissemination control.
FOUO markings are only meant to be applied to documents containing information exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act, although in practice the marking has been routinely abused to keep politically, but not militarily, sensitive information away from journalists.
There are two likely scenarios behind the order:
- The order tasks the Marines to speed up or continue with previous destruction arrangements for interrogation related videos and records. This would be a politically controversial decision that would motivate, but of course not justify, a FOUO marking. Such a decision might follow the rationale of the CIA, which destroyed its own interrogation videos, claiming that were they to leak, international outrage towards the United States and CIA interrogators might result. However it has been widely speculated that the CIA wanted to hide evidence that could be used in a prosecution or other legal action against its personnel.
- The order tasks the Marines to slow down, or stop the destruction of interrogation related videos and records. By no means a controversial decision — so why the FOUO marking restricting it from the public?
Both scenarios suggest the Marine Corps is currently holding interrogation videos. Although the order seems aimed at videos endemic to the Marine Corps, it is possible that some are from the other services or organizations such as the CIA or DIA. The Marine Corps has its own intelligence division known as the MCIA, or “Marine Corps Intelligence Activity”[2], which often shares information with the rest of the US intelligence community.
Wikileaks applied for the MRCADMIN document under the Freedom of Information Act on Friday. By statute the Marine Corps has 20 days to respond, however the Act is widely flouted and in practice such requests typically take months or years. Perhaps a sympathetic marine would like to send it our way?