Maladho Djehe Diallo, a native and citizen of the Republic of Guinea, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the denial by an immigration judge (“IJ”) of Diallo’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture 1 (“CAT”). Diallo contends that the IJ erred in failing to consider adequately her explanations for apparent inconsistencies among her written asylum application, her interview by an asylum officer, and her testimony before the IJ. She also contends that the asylum officer’s summary of her asylum interview was unreliable, and that the IJ erred by not explicitly analyzing its reliability and by improperly faulting her for failure to produce corroborative evidence.
We disagree, and therefore deny the petition.
BACKGROUND
Diallo’s Statements
Diallo entered the United States from Guinea as a nonimmigrant visitor on August 25, 2001. Some five months later, on January 23, 2002, she submitted a written application for political asylum and withholding of removal (the “original application”). In connection with that submission, on March 22, 2002, Diallo was interviewed by an asylum officer (the “asylum interview”). See 8 C.F.R. § 208.9 (providing for interview by an asylum officer as the first step in the adjudication of an asylum claim). The offleer’s written summary of that interview appears in the record. On May 16, 2002, Diallo supplemented her original application with an additional written statement. Nearly a year later, on April 24, 2003, she testified at a hearing before an IJ.
In each of the written and oral statements that she made during the course of the asylum process, Diallo alleged that she was persecuted by the Guinean government on account of her participation in the Union for a New Republic Party, an opposition political group. Diallo said that she joined the party, to which both her father and husband also belonged, in 1996, and that she remained an active party participant when the party joined the Union for Progress and Renewal (“UPR”), an opposition political coalition. Diallo said that in September 1997 she was suspended from school for wearing a T-shirt with the UPR insignia. During the Guinean presidential election of December 1998, she said, she was arrested at a demonstration against the regime and detained for two days, during which time she was beaten and interrogated. Diallo also testified that after her arrest, she was permanently expelled from public schools. In late 2000, Diallo said, she was again arrested and detained by the military. This time, her husband was arrested too.
Diallo appears to have given inconsistent accounts of what happened next. In her asylum interview of March 22, 2002, her supplemental application of May 16, 2002, and her testimony to the IJ on April 24, 2003, Diallo said that she was arrested in November 2000 and subsequently detained for five months, during which time she was subjected to unsanitary conditions and giv *627 en inadequate food. In her original application of January 23, 2002, however, Diallo did not mention the detention. Instead, she wrote that “after rebels attacked Guinea, in September 2000, ... I was interrogated and released because I was sick, but my husband was detained for 8 months.” The January 23 application does not describe any further detention.
Diallo also made apparently inconsistent statements regarding whether she had been raped. The summary of her asylum interview reports that she said that she had been raped some time between August 1996 and December 1998. But in neither of her asylum applications, one of which she submitted before the asylum interview and the other afterwards, did she say that she had been. And in her April 24, 2003, testimony before the IJ, Diallo explicitly denied having been raped.
Diallo’s Explanations for Her Inconsistent Statements
At both her asylum interview and the hearing before the IJ, Diallo was questioned regarding the apparent inconsistencies in her asylum applications. According to the summary of the asylum interview, the asylum officer asked Diallo why she did not mention in her original application that she had been raped. Diallo reportedly answered that “she realized the information was missing after the application had been mailed to [the Immigration and Naturalization Service].” Assessment to Refer, Immigration and Naturalization Service, New York Asylum Office, dated March 22, 2002 (Gov.Ex. 11), at 2 (emphasis in original).
When Diallo did not mention her rape in her testimony, the IJ asked her to reconcile the omission with her reported statements at the asylum interview.
Q: ... [W]hy did you tell the asylum officer that you were raped?
A: That I was raped?
Q: Yes.
A: I, I did tell him that women there, the woman that I was with were raped.
Q: According to this, you said that you were raped.
A: To tell you the truth, I was not, I was not raped, and also I was in pain because I had just, I gave birth, it was not that long ago and I gave birth and I left my child with somebody else.
Q: Why would you tell someone you were raped if you weren’t?
A: I did not know, I did not know where I was at that time, and I left my child with somebody else and I was worried about my child.
Tr. of Asylum Hearing, Apr. 24, 2003, at 45-46. The IJ also asked Diallo to explain why she did not indicate in her original asylum application that she had been detained for five months following her arrest by Guinean authorities in 2000. She responded: “I did tell the preparer. Maybe that preparer made a mistake and never mentioned.” Id. at 42.
The IJ’s Decision
Following a hearing, the IJ issued an oral decision finding that “there are far too many inconsistencies and contradictions in the evidence offered [] to consider the respondent a credible or rehable witness.” Oral Decision of the IJ, dated Apr. 24, 2003, at 8-9. The IJ highlighted two primary inconsistencies: (1) Diallo’s original application for asylum did not mention the five-month detention she later described; and (2) the asylum officer reported that Diallo told him during her asylum interview that she had been raped but she later indicated that she had never been raped. The IJ commented that Diallo had offered “little explanation” for the first discrepancy, and that her explanation for the second, in the course of the colloquy set forth *628 above, was “evasive and hesitant,” “bordering on incoherent.” Id. at 9.
The IJ also noted that Diallo “was unable to give much detail” regarding the platform of her political party and that “the only corroborating evidence the respondent has offered [regarding her political participation] is a card indicating that she was a member of the UPR and a letter.” Id. at 9-10. From this, the IJ concluded that “[p]erhaps the respondent is a member of this party, but clearly, she does not have much knowledge of the party, or is not very active in the party.” Id. at 10. Thus, the IJ concluded that “based on the respondent’s lack of credibility and her failure to corroborate her claim, the Court finds that she has failed to meet her burden.” Id.
The BIA’s Decision
Diallo appealed the IJ’s decision to the BIA. In a one-paragraph per curiam opinion, the BIA concluded that “the inconsistencies upon which the Immigration Judge based her decision are actually present in the record; the inconsistencies pertain to the salient points of the respondent’s claims; and the inconsistencies provide a cogent basis for the adverse credibility determination.” In re Diallo, A95 375 142, slip op. at 1 (BIA June 29, 2004). The BIA further stated that “the respondent failed to provide convincing explanations for the discrepant record either during the removal hearings or on appeal.” 2 Id. The BIA therefore adopted and affirmed the decision of the IJ.
Diallo then brought this petition for review. She argues that the IJ erred in: (1) ignoring her explanations for the apparent inconsistencies in her story, (2) relying on the written summary of the asylum interview, and (3) requiring corroborative evidence without identifying specific pieces of evidence or showing that they were reasonably available to Diallo.
DISCUSSION
I. Standard of Review
When the BIA issues a brief opinion adopting an IJ’s decision, we review the two decisions together — including “the portions [of the IJ’s decision] not explicitly discussed by the BIA.”
Yun-Zui Guan v. Gonzales,
We have frequently considered how substantial the evidence must be in order for it to support an adverse credibility determination. In general, we “afford particular deference in applying the substantial evidence standard” to credibility findings,
Zhou Yun Zhang v. INS,
II. Diallo’s Inconsistent Statements
The IJ found Diallo not to be credible because of “inconsistencies and contradictions” in the statements she made during the asylum application process. Oral Decision at 8. It is well established that inconsistent statements made by the petitioner can constitute substantial evidence supporting an adverse credibility determination.
See Zhou Yun Zhang,
It is undisputed that the IJ gave Diallo the opportunity at the asylum hearing to explain the discrepancies among her original application, her asylum interview, and her testimony. We are therefore not asked to decide whether the IJ was required to seek an explanation for these apparent inconsistencies before relying on them to make an adverse credibility determination.
Compare Ming Shi Xue v. BIA,
The issue we are required to address is whether the IJ, having solicited Diallo’s explanations, erred by failing to consider them properly. We have previously concluded that a petition for review may be granted in the face of an adverse credibility decision by the IJ when she fails to “engage or evaluate” an asylum applicant’s explanations for apparent inconsistencies in the record.
Latifi v. Gonzales,
*630 Here, as described, the IJ focused primarily on two inconsistencies in the record, both of which Diallo attempted to explain in her testimony at her asylum hearing.
Diallo testified that her original application for asylum contained no mention of her five-month detention in Guinea because the person who prepared the application failed to write down what she said. The IJ, in her oral decision, did not explicitly respond to this assertion; she stated only that Diallo had offered “little explanation” as to why the five-month detention was not mentioned in the original application. Oral Decision at 9. If Diallo’s omission of her alleged five-month detention from her original asylum application were the only significant inconsistency at issue, the IJ’s statement that Diallo had offered “little explanation” for the inconsistency would be troubling. Although the IJ did not “expressly overlook” Diallo’s explanation for this first inconsistency,
Yun-Zui Guan,
As to her apparently inconsistent statements about rape, however, the IJ did “engage and evaluate” Diallo’s explanation. Diallo characterizes her testimony before the IJ as indicating that she had not told the asylum officer at her asylum interview that she was raped, but rather that other women with her were raped. It is not clear from her statements at the hearing, however, that she in fact denied having stated that she was raped.
Q: ... [W]hy did you tell the asylum officer that you were raped?
A: That I was raped?
Q: Yes.
A: I, I did tell him that women there, the woman that I was with were raped.
Q: According to this, you said that you were raped.
A: To tell you the truth, I was not, I was not raped, and also I was in pain because I had just, I gave birth, it was not that long ago and I gave birth and I left my child with somebody else.
Q: Why would you tell someone you were raped if you weren’t?
A: I did not know, I did not know where I was at that time, and I left my child with somebody else and I was worried about my child.
Tr. of Asylum Hearing, Apr. 24, 2003, at 46. Diallo’s testimony that she told the asylum officer that other women were raped is not necessarily inconsistent with her also having stated that she was raped. And when the IJ asked her why she had falsely told the asylum officer that she was raped, Diallo failed to make clear that she had not. The IJ was not required to construe Diallo’s testimony as denying that she had made inconsistent statements to the asylum officer.
Even if Diallo’s testimony did, on its face, reconcile her apparently inconsistent statements, the IJ was not required to accept her explanation. Our case law makes clear that when an IJ considers an asylum applicant’s explanations for apparent inconsistencies or contradictions in the record, the IJ is “not required to credit [them] even if they appear plausible on a cold record.”
Cao He Lin,
Moreover, the report of the asylum interview rendered it particularly difficult for the IJ to infer that Diallo had not told the asylum officer that she herself had been raped. The report states that Diallo was asked at the interview why she had not mentioned her rape in her written asylum application. In response to that follow-up question by the asylum officer, she did not say that she had not in fact been raped. Instead, she responded that “she realized the information was missing
after
the application had been mailed to [the] INS.” Gov. Ex. 11, at 2 (emphasis in original). At the hearing before the IJ, however, Diallo responded to a similar question by admitting that she had not been raped. The IJ was entitled to infer from this that Diallo had testified untruthfully either to the asylum officer or to the IJ. The IJ’s refusal to credit Diallo’s explanation for her statements about rape is thus supported by the record as a whole. And the consideration and rejection of Diallo’s attempt to explain one of the two major inconsistencies in the record is sufficient to support the adverse credibility determination.
See Xiao Ji Chen,
III. Reliance on the Asylum Interview
Diallo argues that even if the discrepancy between the statements she made at her asylum interview and before the IJ would ordinarily be enough to support an adverse credibility determination, it is insufficient in this case because the interview was not reliable. Diallo relies primarily on
Matter of S-S-,
21 I. & N. Dec. 121,
As an initial matter, we note that Dial-lo’s asylum interview was different from the airport interview discussed in
Ramsameachire.
Asylum interviews are conducted by asylum officers as the first step in the adjudication of an alien’s written asylum application.
See
8 C.F.R. § 208.9. Airport interviews, by contrast, take place when an alien is deemed inadmissible immediately upon entering-the United States and indicates an intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution.
See
8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1) (providing for inadmissible aliens to be removed unless they indicate an intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution, in which case they are interviewed by an asylum officer to determine whether their fear of persecution is credible);
see also Ramsameachire,
It is largely because an airport interview “takes place immediately after an alien has arrived in the United States, often after weeks of travel,” we have said, that “the BIA and reviewing courts” must scrutinize its reliability with particular care.
Ramsameachire,
We do not think that, as a general matter, these considerations apply with equal force to asylum interviews. Such interviews take place after the alien has arrived in the United States, has taken the time to submit a formal asylum application, and has had the opportunity to gather his or her thoughts, to prepare for the interview, and to obtain counsel. It thex-efore appears that the imperative to “closely examine” the reliability of asylum interviews is not as pressing as it is in the airport interview context. Id.
This is not to say, of course, that the BIA and reviewing courts are not required carefully to consider the reliability of asylum interviews. Of course they are. As with other materials in the asylum record, factfinders should accord to them the weight that they merit in light of the record as a whole, and we should review the resulting factual determinations for substantial evidence. But in light of the differences between asylum interview and airport intexviews, and in light of the former’s integral role in the asylum process prescribed by fedex-al regulations, we think that asylum intexview interviews do not call for special scrutiny, as airport interviews do.
We think that the IJ was justified in treating Diallo’s asylum intexview report as reliable in this case. The BIA’s decision in Matter of S-S- relied on by Diallo, provides useful guidance for analyzing the reliability of such reports. There, the BIA concluded that notes of two intexviews conducted by an asylum officer provided “an inadequate basis for assessing [an] adverse credibility finding.” Matter of S-S-, 21 I. & N. Dec. at 123. Finding that the notes were “obviously the informal, personal notations of the asylum officer that were never intended to be a formal summary of the interview,” and that they were “randomly organized, cryptic to all but the note-taker, and partially illegible,” the Board determined that they were of “little value in evaluating the applicant’s credibility.” Id.
The BIA continued:
When, as in these asylum proceedings, the applicant’s credibility is placed in issue because of alleged statements made at the asylum interview, our review requires a reliable record of what transpired at that intexview. This record might be preserved in a hand-written account of the specific questions asked of the applicant and his specific responses to those questions. Such question and answer statements could be signed by the applicant as an accurate summary of the interview. Alternatively, a suitable record could be produced through transcription of an electronic recording of the asylum intexview. At a minimum, the record must contain a meaningful, clear, and reliable summary of the statements made by the applicant at the intexview. The Board needs to know what transpired in the proceedings before the asylum officer before we can evaluate questions with respect to credibility arising from the interview.
Id. at 123-24.
It does appear that the record of Diallo’s asylum intexview was deficient in one important respect: It summarizes Diallo’s responses without describing “the specific questions asked” or recording the interview verbatim. Id. at 124. We think that the intexview record nevertheless meets the “minimum” standard of Matter of S-S- in that it “eontain[s] a meaningful, clear, and reliable summary of the statements made by [Diallo] at the intexview.” Id. The record of Diallo’s intexview contrasts *633 sharply with the “randomly organized, cryptic,” and “partially illegible” notes described in Matter of S-S-. Id. at 123. The typewritten summary clearly and in detail describes Diallo’s statements regarding her nationality, the circumstances of her entry into the United States, and each of the events that she alleges constitute past persecution and grounds for fear of future persecution. Other than the ambiguous and relatively narrow issue discussed above regarding her statement that she had been raped, see Part II, supra, Diallo does not allege that the summary misrepresents her statements at the interview. It seems to us that, notwithstanding the asylum officer’s failure to provide a verbatim transcript or to record the questions asked, the interview summary provides sufficiently reliable information as to “what transpired in the proceedings before the asylum officer” for the BIA and reviewing courts to “evaluate questions with respect to credibility arising from the interview.” Matter of S-S-, 21 I. & N. Dec. at 123. 3 The IJ was therefore justified in relying on it.
IV. Corroborating Evidence
Diallo argues, finally, that the IJ and the BIA impermissibly relied on the lack of corroborating evidence to discredit Diallo’s testimony. To be sure, in order to deny asylum for want of sufficient corroboration, an IJ must “(a) identify the particular pieces of missing, relevant documentation, and (b) show that the documentation at issue was reasonably available to the petitioner.”
Jin Shui Qiu v. Ashcroft,
The requirement for corroborative documents’ “identification” and “availability” articulated in Jin Shui Qiu ... pertains when the IJ or BIA cites inadequate corroboration as a basis for denying asylum to an applicant who is otherwise credible. That is not this case. If [the petitioner’s] failure to produce the identified corroboration were excused, what would remain would be (1) the IJ’s finding that [the petitioner’s] “inconsistent testimony ... seriously undermines the applicant’s truthfulness and credibility before the Court,” and (2) the BIA’s finding that “important discrepancies” in the evidence “are indicative of an overall lack of veracity on the part of the applicant.” Such adverse credibility findings, by themselves, constitute substantial evidence to support the conclusion that [the petitioner] failed to carry his burden of proof on his persecution claim.
*634
Zhou Yun Zhang,
Here, the IJ found Diallo’s testimony to contain “far too many inconsistencies and contradictions” to be credited, and stated that as a result she did not “believe much of what [Diallo] told the Court.” Oral Decision at 8-9. Having disregarded Dial-lo’s testimony as not credible, the IJ then concluded that the remaining evidence did not suffice to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that Diallo had been persecuted, had a well-founded fear of future persecution, was likely to be persecuted in the future, or was likely to be tortured.
Id.
at 10. In context, it is clear that the IJ did not deny Diallo’s claim “for want of sufficient corroboration,”
Jin Shui Qiu,
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is denied.
Notes
. United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100-20 (1988), 1465 U.N.T.S. 85. See also 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c) (implementing regulations).
. It seems that by "removal hearings” the BIA intended to refer to Diallo’s asylum hearing before the IJ, at which Diallo actually offered explanations for the discrepancies, rather than to her removal hearing, at which she conceded removability. Diallo's removal hearing contained no substantive discussion of her asylum claim and predated the IJ's finding of inconsistencies in the record.
. This conclusion is supported by
Ramsameachire.
There, addressing the more difficult question of the reliability of airport interviews, we did not suggest that a paraphrased record of an asylum applicant’s statements will always be unreliable. Rather, we identified three other factors that should also be considered in determining an interview’s reliability: whether the questions were "designed to elicit the details of an asylum claim,” whether the applicant seemed "reluctant to reveal information” to her interviewer, and whether "the alien’s answers to the questions posed suggest that the alien did not understand English or the translations provided by the interpreter.”
Ramsameachire,
