Note, all the stuff on photographing detainees comes from this post, which is worth reading because I suspect it may become relevant to this discussion.

January 20, 2002: Bybee to Abu Gonzales memo specifying that common article 3 of the Geneva Convention does not apply to "an armed conflict between a nation-state and a transnational terrorist organization."

Late 2001 to early 2002: Ibn Sheikh al-Libi captured. After being tortured, al-Libi made up stories about Al Qaeda ties to Iraq.

January 2002: Supplemental Public Affairs Guidance on Detainees affirms Geneva Convention wrt media photographs.

March 28, 2002: Abu Zubaydah taken into custody.

March 31, 2002: Abu Zubaydah flown to Thailand.

May 8, 2002: Jose Padilla taken into custody based on material warrant signed by Michael Mukasey and based on testimony from Abu Zubaydah.

June 25, 2002: Moussaoui arraigned.

August 1, 2002: "Bybee Memo" (written by John Yoo) describes torture as that which is equivalent to :the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."

August 2002: CIA begins to use torture on Abu Zubaydah (including waterboarding).

September 11, 2002: Ramzi bin al-Shibh captured, purportedly as a result of intelligence gained through torturing Abu Zubaydah.

November 10, 2002 (approximately): Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri captured.

November, 2002: Afghan detained in Kabul freezes to death in CIA custody.

Late 2002: CIA stops taping interrogations.

2003, unknown date: CIA stops using water-boarding.

January 2003: CIA OIG starts investigation of detainee interrogation.

January 2003: Leonie Brinkema grants Moussaoui right to interview Ramzi Bin-al-Shibh by video.

February 2003: CIA claims to have informed Intell leadership of torture tapes' destruction; though SSCI has no records.

February 5, 2003: Jane Harman and Porter Goss briefed on interrogation methods and torture tape.

February 10, 2003: Harman writes letter advising against the destruction of the tape.

February 28, 2003: Scott Muller responds to Harman without addressing the tapes.

March 2003: According to NYT report, the CIA briefs Congress on destroying the torture tapes.

March 2003: Public Affairs Guidance for Media Coverage of EPWs and Detainees allows photos (within guidelines) but prohibits photographs of custody operations or interviews.

March 2003: Second John Yoo opinion on torture, governing interrogations by DOD.

May 2003: Government tells Leonie Brinkema it has no interrogation tapes.

May 2003: CIA OIG reviews torture tapes at black site.

June 6, 2003: 9/11 Commission requests "'all TDs and other reports" of intelligence information obtained from interrogations of forty named individuals from CIA, DOD, and FBI.

August 31 to September 9, 2003: Major General Geoffrey Miller ordered to Abu Ghraib from Gitmo.

September 10, 2003: Government refuses to let Moussaoui question Al Qaeda witnesses.

September 22 and September 25, 2003: 9/11 discussions with CIA about interrogation process.

October 1, 2003: Hamdi petition filed with SCOTUS.

October 7, 2003: ACLU first FOIAs documents pertaining to detainee interrogations.

October 14 and 16, 2003: 9/11 Commission sends questions to CIA General Counsel Scott Muller on interrogations.

October 31 and November 7, 2003: Response to 9/11 Commission with little new information.

Fall 2003: General Sanchez visits Abu Ghraib regularly.

December 2003: Jack Goldsmith tells Rummy he will withdraw March 2003 opinion on torture.

December 23, 2003: 9/11 Commission requests access from Tenet to seven detainees; Tenet says no; Lee Hamilton asks for any responsive documents.

January 5, 2004: 9/11 Commission decides CIA responses inadequate.

January 9, 2004: SCOTUS agrees to hear Hamdi.

January 13, 2004: Joseph Darby gives CID a CD of images of abuse.

January 15, 2004: Memo to Gonzales, Muller, and Steve Cambone asking for more information on interrogations.

January 15, 2004: General Craddick receives email summary of Abu Ghraib story.

January 19, 2004: General Sanchez requests investigation of allegations of abuse.

January 20, 2004: Craddick and Admiral Keating receive another notice of abuse.

January 2004: General Myers learns of Abu Ghraib abuse.

January 26, 2004: After negotiations with Gonzales, Tenet, Rummy, and Christopher Wray from DOJ, 9/11 Commission accepts asking questions through intermediary.

January 31, 2004: Taguba appointed to conduct investigation.

February 9, 2004: 9/11 Commission requests “all TDs and reports related to the attack on the USS Cole, including intelligence information obtained from the interrogations of Abd al Rashim al Nashiri” from CIA.

February 2 to 29, 2004: Taguba's team in Iraq, conducting investigation.

March 2, 2004: Padilla interrogation. The tape of the interrogation would later disappear.

March 9, 2004: Taguba submits his report.

Late March, 2004: 60 Minutes II starts on Abu Ghraib story.

April 2004: General Miller ordered to Abu Ghraib to fix problems.

April 7, 2004 (approximately): 60 Minutes II acquires photos authenticating Abu Ghraib story.

Mid-April, 2004: General Myers calls Dan Rather to ask him to delay story.

Mid-April, 2004: Taguba begins to brief officers on his report ("weeks" before his May 6 meeting with Rummy).

April 28, 2004: Hamdi and Padilla argued before SCOTUS. Paul Clement assures the Court that we don't torture. 60 Minutes breaks Abu Ghraib story and proves he's wrong.

May 2004 (within days after Abu Ghraib becomes public): CIA briefing for Addington, Bellinger, and Gonzales on torture tapes.

May 2004: CIA IG John Helgorsen completes investigation of interrogation program, finding it includes cruel and inhuman treatment.

May 6, 2004: Taguba meets with Rummy, Wolfowitz, Cambone, Myers, and others

In the meeting, the officials professed ignorance about Abu Ghraib. "Could you tell us what happened?" Wolfowitz asked.

[snip]

“Here I am,” Taguba recalled Rumsfeld saying, “just a Secretary of Defense, and we have not seen a copy of your report. I have not seen the photographs, and I have to testify to Congress tomorrow and talk about this.”

May 7, 2004: Rummy testifies before Congress on Abu Ghraib.

May 10 2004: Sy Hersh's Abu Ghraib story.

May 20, 2004: 9/11 Commission asks about Abu Zubaydah reference to Saudi prince; they get no response.

June 3, 2004: Tenet announces his resignation; John McLaughlin resigns as well.

June 7, 2004: WSJ refers to March 2003 OLC opinion.

June 8, 2004: WaPo reports on details of Bybee Memo.

June 15, 2004: Goldsmith informs Ashcroft he will withdraw Bybee Memo and resigns. This effectively leaves the CIA with no legal protection for the water-boarding it had already done.

June 17, 2004: Jack Goldsmith announces his resignation.

June 22, 2004: In an off-the-record briefing, Comey, Goldsmith, and Philbin renounce Bybee Memo.

June 24, 2004: Ted Olson announces his resignation, citing frustration that he did not learn of memos justifying legal decisions.

June 28, 2004: Hamdi decision.

June 29, 2004: John McLaughlin confirms that CIA "has taken and completed all reasonable steps necessary to find the documents in its possession, custody, or control responsive" to the 9/11 Commission's formal requests and "has produced or made available for review" all such documents.

July 2004: Scott Muller resigns as General Counsel of CIA.

July 11, 2004: Tenet's resignation effective.

September 22, 2004: Porter Goss becomes DCI.

November 2004: Steven Kappes resigns; Jose Rodrigquez replaces him as Deputy Director of CIA for Operations. Rodriguez is reported to be the person who ordered the terror tapes' destruction.

December 30, 2004: Daniel Levin writes new torture memo (he's the guy who waterboarded himself so he could prove it was torture).

January 2005: Abu Gonzales renounces the Bybee Memo, sort of.

February 2005: Senior CIA official provides incomplete account of CIA treatment of detainees at HPSCI briefing.

February 2005: Gonzales' DOJ issues new permissive torture memo.

February 3, 2005: Gonzales confirmed.

February 4, 2005: Acting Assistant Attorney General of the OLC Daniel Levin writes to DOD General Counsel Haynes reminding him again of both Goldsmith’s opinion and Philbin’s testimony. He informs Haynes that the March 2003 Yoo memo has been formally withdrawn.

February 14, 2005: Gonzales sworn in.

April 20, 2005: DOJ announces Comey's resignation.

April 22, 2005: Moussaoui pleads guilty.

May 2005: Jello Jay Rockefeller writes to CIA IG requesting terror tape investigation materials; he doesn't receive them.

May 10, 2005: DOJ produces two memos allowing CIA to torture.

May 25, 2005: Flanigan nominated for DAG.

May 30, 2005: DOJ produces another memo superseding the two May 10 ones.

Summer 2003: Negroponte writes a memo to Porter Goss strongly advising him not to destroy the torture tapes.

June 2003: Senior CIA Officer tells SSCI the CIA does not engage in cruel or inhuman treatment. 

July 2, 2005: Public Affairs Guidance for High Value Individual Capture permits photographing high value detainees (within guidelines).

July 21, 2005: House passes revised version of PATRIOT Act.

July 30, 2005: Senate passes revised version of PATRIOT Act.

July 21, 2005: Cheney attempts to persuade McCain and others not to restrict detention policies.

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

August 1, 2005: 101st Airborne Division Detention SOP states that "detainees will not be photographed, humiliated or placed in positions with sexual overtones." Division General Order Number 1 (not clear if this is part of the SOP or not) prohibits soldiers taking photographs of detainees unless conducted pursuant to official duties, which include, intelligence gathering and official investigations." [my emphasis]

August 15, 2005: Comey's Farewell Address.

October 5, 2005: McCain proposes anti-torture amendment to military funding bill. The amendment prohibits degrading treatment of prisoners.

October 7, 2005: Tim Flanigan withdraws from consideration for DAG.

October 20, 2005: The week before the House and Senate meet to resolve the bill, Cheney makes a third attempt to convince McCain not to restrict the use of torture, which McCain again rejects.

October 22, 2005: USCENTCOM Policy Prohibiting Photographing or Filming Detainees ... or Posting Visual Images Depicting Human Casualties prohibits photographing or filming detainees as well as the possession, distribution, transfer or position ... of visual images depicting detainees." [my emphasis]

October 22, 2005: Paul McNulty--whose ED VA USA Office oversaw Moussaoui prosecution--nominated to be Deputy Attorney General.

November, unknown day: CIA destroys terror tapes from High Value Al Qaeda Detainees.

November 1, 2005: Dana Priest reveals the use of black sites in Europe. In response, CIA starts moving detainees from the countries in question.

November 3, 2005: Leonie Brinkema inquires whether govt has video or audio tapes of interrogations.

November 7, 2005: Detention Operations at Multinational Corps-Iraq prohibits coalition and Iraqi forces from photographing detainees.

November 8, 2005: CIA reaffirms March 2005 statement that all interrogation methods are lawful.

November 9, 2005: Doug Jehl article on spring 2004 CIA IG report on interrogation methods appears.

November 14, 2005: Govt tells Brinkema it has no audio or video tapes.

November 22, 2005: DOJ brings charges against Padilla, avoiding an imminent hearing on the case before SCOTUS.

December 13, 2005: The Army approves new Field Manual, which seems to push the limits intended by McCain's amendment.

December 14, 2005: PATRIOT Act reauthorization comes out of conference.

December 16, 2005: Risen and Lichtblau's first story on the NSA domestic spy program. Cheney provides emergency briefings on program. PATRIOT Act reauthorization defeated in Senate.

December 19, 2005: The House passes the Conference Report on McCain torture bill.

December 20, 2005: The Administration writes document clarifying its policy on photographing detainees.

December 21, 2005: The Senate passes the Conference Report on McCain torture bill.

December 22, 2005: House passes one month extension of PATRIOT Act.

December 30, 2005: President Bush signs the Appropriations Bill, issuing a signing statement "interpreting" the McCain amendment.

April 20, 2006: Mary McCarthy fired from CIA, purportedly for leaking to Dana Priest.

May 4, 2006: Moussaoui sentenced to life in prison.

May 5, 2006: Porter Goss resigns as DCI; General Michael Hayden replaces him.

July 24, 2006: Steven Kappes returns to CIA as Deputy Director.

September 6, 2006: Bush admits to secret detention program for High Value Detainees.

October 17, 2006: The Military Commissions Act signed into law.

November 2006: CIA claims SSCI was informed the Al Qaeda torture tapes were destroyed; SSCI claims it has no records to back that claim.

March 9, 2007: Padilla attorneys reveal March 2, 2004 tape missing.

September 13, 2007: In the course of a different national security matter, CIA discovers interrogation tapes not disclosed during the Moussaoui trial.

September 14, 2007: CIA announces Michael Sulick will return to lead Directorate of Operations.

September 17, 2007: Michael Mukasey, who signed off on a warrant based on the torture testimony of Abu Zubaydah, nominated to be Attorney General.

September 25, 2007: John Rizzo's nomination to be CIA General Counsel withdrawn.

September 30, 2007: Jose Rodriguez (purported to be the person that ordered the destruction of the tapes) retires.

October 11, 2007: Michael Hayden announces investigation into CIA's IG, John Helgerson.

October 25, 2007: DOJ informs Leonie Brinkema that they've discovered three interrogation tapes.

November 2, 2007: Cheney Counsel Shannen Coffin leaves, with little notice.

December 6, 2007: NYT reports that CIA destroyed tapes.

December 14, 2007: Michael Mukasey refuses to share information on torture tape inquiry with Congress, citing the need to avoid politicization of investigation (he would later change his mind).

January 2, 2008: Mukasey announces criminal investigation of torture tape destruction.

January 15, 2008: John Rizzo, acting General Counsel for the CIA, testifies before HPSCI. Jose Rodriguez refuses to testify without immunity.