The White House needs to come clean about the role its attorneys played in the CIA’s decision to destroy interrogation tapes of terrorist suspects. The White House has downplayed this involvement, but at least four top White House attorneys at the time, including Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers, took part in discussions with the CIA about whether to destroy the tapes, the New York Times reported.
One former senior intelligence official told the Times that there had been “vigorous sentiment†to destroy the tapes among some top White House officials, who were concerned that the tapes could be damaging after the abuses at Abu Ghraib. However, other officials said that the attorneys didn’t advocate destroying the tapes, though they also didn’t order that the tapes be preserved.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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32 Comments
Not a chance, these guys in the White House are upstanding, on-the-level, good-Christian folks. How dare you insinuate anything else.
I don’t think any one cares but the Lib – you know the natural born tattle tales and ‘mommy’ nanny state whiny babies.
Tough call. The tapes weren’t covered by the civil court order, since the detainees weren’t at Guantanamo. And if you produce the tapes, you know they will end up through the NY Times on AlJazeera as more propaganda.
That was supposed to be a facetious remark. What I mean was that GWB and his predecessor turned our once (open government) into a Russian nesting doll. And I’m sick to my stomach over Clinton’s and Bush’s.
Well DUH! Of course the executive branch wanted the executive branch to destroy the tapes. And not the executive branch wants to be the only entity to investigate the executive branch.
Only the executive branch can be trusted to investigate the executive branch, wouldn’t want those tapes put on the internet! All other branches of govt. can not be trusted according to the bush bots.
Getting harder for bush to play his ignorance card!
We need to be chanting IMPEACHMENT! But alas, the Republicans won’t do it and niether will the Democrats. So here we sit, just blogging about it.
The Teflon W strikes again
Sorry, “neither”.
It’s going to be interesting when bush has to turn over the records of visitors to the WH. We’ll get to see whose been staying over in the Lincoln bedroom, and staying over for prayer breaksfasts.
That list will no doubt, include numerous visits by one Jeff Gannon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannonhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36733-2005Feb18.htmlhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mysite.verizon.net/myk15/busheyesmanhohor.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mysite.verizon.net/myk15/bushhugsmanho.html&h=342&w=780&sz=98&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=mhwY0mCpLF3POM:&tbnh=62&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJeff%252BGannon%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26sa%3DN
Let this sink in a moment:”The Justice Department has argued that the videos weren’t covered by the order because the two men were being held in secret CIA prisons overseas, not at Guantánamo.”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071219/NEWS07/712190326/1009
So if they were holding the men in illegal prisons, that didn’t exist, anything done to them doesn’t apply, therefore the tapes are not covered by the judges order.
Wow, a better book or movie could not be written.
But Naomi Wolf chronicles what is happening before our eyes quite well. Although she is a “late-comer” to this line of thinking, she is a talented writer and has succinctly spelled it out. Please, have a look.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html
I understand the DOJ argument after reading the language of the order at issue on cnn.com. If the language of the order is as reported, the argument is rational. It (the position) clearly places a strict construction on the language quoted.
VT – and they complain about Clinton’s carefully pased definition of ’sex’ as vaginal intercourse only.
Got the bot catcher again. Think I’ll give up for the day.
lawyer … robot … pretty much the same …
;^)
the tapes were used as entertainment in the White House. It’s been obvious for years that they were jerking off to torture tapes. That’s why they are so damned afraid.
door king,
Indeed. They’ve been on Karl’s Myspace page, like, FOR-EV-ER.
Can anybody take these noxious, torturing buffoons at their word?
So if you need to avoid US law, and Gitmo isn’t good enough, send them to an undisclosed location.
Now we know where Dick Cheney’s been.
From what I heard, the tapes were destroyed due to a bitter dispute between the White House and the CIA over rights and residuals.
Wow Pleefer — Whast a scary article!! I had only given brief thoughts to those items that Wolf questions.. I think I need to give it more thought!! Thanks!!
Vaughn–probably still hostage to the bot meself. OK: (1) I probably agree, legally, but (2) secret prisons??? How does the judiciary–or a civilized nation–produce courts orders to deal with THAT?
P.S. Phantom–”So if they were holding the men in illegal prisons, that didn’t exist, anything done to them doesn’t apply, therefore the tapes are not covered by the judges order.”
Exactly!
Just a question. What if there are materials in the tapes that refer to Gitmo detainees, would their destruction then be possibly considered obstruction of justice of some sort, against Judge Kennedy’s order?
“There is no publicly known connection between the 16 plaintiffs — 14 Yemenis, an Algerian and a Pakistani — and the C.I.A. videotapes. But lawyers in several Guantánamo cases contend that the government may have used information from the C.I.A. interrogations to identify their clients as “unlawful combatants” and hold them at Guantánamo for as long as six years.”
Chas,No thanks needed, I’m just trying to help my brothers and sisters. I’m not the dude standing on the corner with a “The End is Nigh” sign, I’m trying to spread the stuff that I’ve found out to the folks that care about their future. As long as people just look at things from Lib/Dem-Con/Rep rose colored glasses things will never change and only get worse. We have been divided into these two factions that argue over the trivialities and let stuff that matters and is vital go unnoticed while they get destroyed.
the 1st ammedment is being violated by typepad!
Torture and other war crimes were openly discussed in the highest levels of the Government including the White House and Congress so why are only the underlings the only ones in jail for the war crimes committed in Abu Ghraib and throughout the government?
Ron Paul is America and the United States government is NOT.
You’ve only to look at the field of candidates to see that.
There’s your grass root support.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html
Posted by: Pleefer | December 19, 2007 at 03:46 PM
I was able to read this finally, and this article outlines and puts in print the worries that have been gnawing at my gut, and I’m sure, many others. Personally, I was never able to so concisely word this, it was always just a feeling.
I was pleasnatly surprised that someone that had worked extensively with the Clinton admin would open her eyes and come out with a book as strong as she did. I’m so glad to see that America is waking up and I’m especially glad that I did too.