The Turkel Committee's report [2]on how Israel investigates alleged crimes by its security agencies revealed a deep divide within the Shin Bet security service: The agency's former head strongly supports the idea of videotaping all Shin Bet interrogations, but the current head is vehemently opposed.
Former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin appeared before the committee on April 12, 2011, about a month before he handed over the reins to Yoram Cohen. After acknowledging that the Shin Bet rarely videotapes interrogations, he surprised panel members by deviating from the agency's traditional opposition to doing so.
"We should positively consider visual documentation of Shin Bet interrogations," he said. "Even if not everyone always likes this, I think it would be proper."
The committee's report cited Diskin's statement as a major reason for its recommendation that all such interrogations be videotaped. "Documenting the Shin Bet's interrogations would bolster the thoroughness and effectiveness of investigations into complaints by interrogees," the report said. "The committee recommends that there be full visual documentation of interrogations, in accordance with rules to be set by the attorney general in coordination with the head of the Shin Bet."
Cohen, however, appears to disagree. "Our position was and remains that visual documentation of interrogations of people suspected of security offenses entails a significant security risk in everything connected to the Shin Bet's ability to carry out its mission of thwarting terror," the agency said in a statement when queried by Haaretz.
Aside from what they termed the "weighty" security arguments, agency sources also noted that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation recently extended a temporary order exempting police from videotaping interrogations of suspected terrorists for another three years. There is no reason why the Shin Bet - which has no legal obligation to videotape interrogations at all - should be forced to follow stricter rules than the police, they argued.
The Turkel Committee also said that the Shin Bet's internal ombudsman is incapable of effectively investigating interrogees' complaints. That conclusion isn't news: Back in 2007, a Justice Ministry committee also found that the internal ombudsman lacked the necessary investigative experience to probe complaints effectively, especially since the agents he had to interrogate were far more experienced interrogators than he was.
The statistics seem to support this conclusion: Of the 700 complaints filed by interrogees against Shin Bet investigators since 1992, not even one has resulted in a criminal probe. But in his testimony to the Turkel Committee, Diskin offered a different explanation for this fact: No criminal probes were opened, he said, because all the allegations in these complaints were false.
"Interrogees who confessed or incriminated others sometimes make false accusations against their interrogators, so as not to be seen as someone who broke under interrogation or as someone who collaborates with Israel," he said. "Criminal investigations aren't opened due to accusations like that."
The Turkel Committee noted that in 2010, a decision was made to transfer responsibility for probing complaints against the Shin Bet from the internal ombudsman to the Justice Ministry, so as to ensure an independent investigation and avoid conflicts of interest. That decision, however, was never implemented. The panel therefore advised doing so immediately.
The Shin Bet replied that it and the Justice Ministry actually agreed to do this some months ago, and "this decision is in the final stages of implementation."
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