Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes: "Involvement of White House officials more extensive..."

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
Published: December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON — At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials. The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.

Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.

It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed.

One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Some other officials assert that no one at the White House advocated destroying the tapes. Those officials acknowledged, however, that no White House lawyer gave a direct order to preserve the tapes or advised that destroying them would be illegal....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/washington/19intel.html?hp

[swag]

1. “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes.

[Lasher]

5. That sounds more like the White House I have come to know.

If evidence is potentially harmful to the Bush junta, I can't see them trying to stop the CIA from destroying it just because of an annoying legal requirement. That's not like them at all.

[coalition_unwilling]

44. Probably went off a la Henry II: "Who will rid me of those

damned tapes?"

[Botany]

2. bush & Cheney were in "it" up to their eyeballs

This is gonna be hell on them ....Nancy Pelosi will send
both of them letters.

[babylonsister]

4. Shit.

Thanks for that. x(

[jeff30997]

14. You overestimate Nancy...

She will send them Christmas cards.

[orleans]

18. oh my god! she will, too! she'll go above and beyond christmas cards though--

she'll invite them all over and cook a nice, festive dinner for everyone (buffet and tv trays all around--after all, you wouldn't want to put anything on the table!)

[jeff30997]

41. Rofl!

"after all, you wouldn't want to put anything on the table!" :rofl:

[Solar Power]

30. So, do you think anyone will do anything?

Who is going to so something about this?

Will anyone, who is supposed to oversee these buffoons, actually do something?

[babylonsister]

3. Whoa! Another reason for Gonzo to hire some high-priced lawyers. Rec'd!

Seems people are talking - a lot - about this. I'm loving it! Thanks, Mom!

[lovuian]

6. the trinity Gonzales Meirs and addington and get a good look

mukasey you could be covering up and obstruct justice

[Double T]

7. Can WE please have a SPEAKER and a MAJORITY LEADER for Christmas.........

that will put impeachment, of this criminal administration, front and center on the table?

[C_U_L8R]

8. Looks like we hit the trifecta

heck of a job Bushie

[Ready4Change]

9. What seems to be missing in all this...?

Am I the only person who recalls something said by the CIA when this whole tape thing surfaced?

I recall them saying that they videotaped these 'interogations' because they had just been authorized to use those techniques by Bush, and they wanted to record proof that they did not exceed what they were permitted to do.

That part about having been authorized by Bush has been missing from every report on this issue since that first day.

Were the hell are the investigations of Bush authorizing this? Who is dropping that ball?

[liberal hypnotist]

20. It is strange bits of evidence that is obvious to the General Public flies right over the head of..

those with some power to investigate. You bring up a reoccurring point of burying head in sand. The Repubs didn't let up on Clinton for several apparent liaisons with ladies. This group of Dems seems frozen in fear or greed.

[EFerrari]

32. Because it wasn't Bush. Those reports said the White House

and they meant Cheney. Check out Paul Thompson's new timeline if you get a chance.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2488161

Edit to add: What the timeline makes clear is that this was Cheney's program and that Bush insulated himself to a degree from knowing too much about it.

[minnesota_liberal]

10. This should be enough to impeach & imprison the whole lot of 'em...

... but, of course, they'll find a way to dodge it. The media will ignore the story, the neo-cons in Congress (except those who are in danger of losing their jobs) will side with the criminals in the White House and the Dems will eventually give up. I'm so bleeping sick of this.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. involvement of White House officials ... was more extensive

"involvement of White House officials ... was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged."

Which is another way of saying....

[coalition_unwilling]

45. Another way of saying that . . . torture is as American as

apple pie.

[AndyTiedye]

12. Vigorous Sentiment?

DESTROY! DESTROY!

[SharonAnn]

27. I think the Darliks said "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

[AndyTiedye]

51. This Would Probably Be Closer to Type

They must be…
…destroyed.

[Gonnuts]

13. Blah, blah, blah ...

somebody knows something, but nobodies telling, and there isn't anybody that can make those that don't know or do know tell, unless we water-board them, which is only illegal if you're doing it to somebody that deserves it and just who decides who deserves it nobody knows. And you can take their word for that.

and so it goes

[NJCher]

15. Article says Negroponte the only one to say no

Newsweek reported this week that John D. Negroponte, who was director of national intelligence at the time the tapes were destroyed, sent a memorandum in the summer of 2005 to Mr. Goss, the C.I.A. director, advising him against destroying the tapes.

Sheesh, guys, looks like Negroponte's the only "good" guy in this pit of swarming, slimy serpents. Negroponte--the guy who turned a blind eye to torture, murder, and rape in Honduras.
How bad is that?




Cher

[EFerrari]

33. Missing is the fact that Miers also did. Bush's people did. n/t

[MnFats]

16. this is obstruction of justice....beyond doubt and beyond belief...

...it's what ultimately took Nixon down....tapes, critical evidence...they learned well and destroyed the evidence....they all belong in prison.
....how shameful...

[DCKit]

42. No more shameful than anything else they've done in the past seven years.

The more I hear, the less I believe anything I hear is a conspiracy theory. And I mean ANYTHING. These people are clearly capable of going to any lengths, committing any criminal act to get what they want. Those who have resigned positions with this administration have either done so because they would not be complicit, having gone in as idealists then finding out our country was being destroyed from the inside, or simply wouldn't go that extra step farther into criminality.

The only debate about the tapes was "How much will this hurt us if they surface and how much will it hurt us if we destroy them?". There was no question of the illegality of destroying this evidence when a court order exists prohibiting the destruction of ALL evidence.

Given the extremely tight, friendly relations between the maladministration and the CIA since PlameGate, I expect there exist copies of the tapes. The best thing the CIA could do for the country right now is to release them and force the Congress to do their jobs and begin restoring our standing in the world community.

[paulthompson]

17. More info here

Honkin' big timeline on the whole CIA scandal:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?complete_911_timeline__war_on_terrorism__outside_iraq=complete_911_timeline_destruction_of_cia_tapes&startpos=0&timeline=complete_911_timeline

We will add in this latest news ASAP.

[acmavm]

19. Oh for Pete's sake, OF COURSE THEY ADVOCATED DESTROYING

THE TAPES. Of course the White House was in on it. Anyone who ever thought anything else is either stupid, crazy, or a republican.

And they best part for the White House? They have the full support of Grandma Nancy/

[northshore]

21. So?

Who cares!

They could pull the developing fetuses out of pregnant women and use the babies for dodgeball during prime time on Fox news and nothing, NOTHING! would get done about it!

[acmavm]

23. Unfortunately you're right. How does that make you feel about the

democratic 'victory' of 2006?

[donkeyotay]

22. Wouldn't some of those be the same lawyers who wrote the legal rationale

that our commander in chief (is there an emoticon for bowing?), in this endless time of war has the authority to torture? Addington and Gonzo, for sure. Also, recall that General Miller was sent from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib to "gitmo-ize" it. Contractors. Every Abu Ghraib story I have mentions them.

[Ganja Ninja]

24. For the 1,000 th time already - Impeach!

If you can't remove him from office then at least go through the motions and show the whole country just who is keeping this criminal gang in power. At least then the American people can't say you didn't try.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

25. What does it take to impeach this @-hole and the people that think for him? nt

[Rockholm]

26. And once again, nothing will come of this.

BUT JUST WAIT until a Democrat is in the White House. The media and the republicans will attack them every day over every thing.
Remember GWB's first day. Supposedly, the Clinton folks took all the "w" keys off of the computers. That was about the same time bush wanted to start spying on Americans. This bush administration has lied, stolen and cheated since day ONE.

[Vinca]

28. I'm outraged at my inability to be outraged.

Nothing will happen. Someone (okay, a mouthpiece for Pelosi) will say "Impeachment is nonproductive." The crime family will skate free . . . again. These people make Nixon look like a guy pulling practical jokes.

[rodeodance]

34. me too

[Solly Mack]

29. Got Prosecutions?

ho hum

[mirrera]

31. What would it take to remove them? Remember This Cartoon:

[Didereaux]

35. Newspaper: Gonzales in on tape destruction talks

Source: CNN/NYT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Alberto Gonzales and other top White House lawyers took part in discussions about destroying CIA videotapes of interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects, the New York Times reported Tuesday night on its Web site.
art.gonzales.gi.jpg

Alberto Gonzales was White House counsel until early 2005, when he became U.S. attorney general.

At least four top White House lawyers discussed the issue with the CIA between 2003 and 2005, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials the newspaper did not identify.

Gonzales, the former attorney general who served as White House counsel until early 2005, was among those who took part, the officials said.

Also involved, according to the Times' sources, were David Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/cia.tapes.ap/index.html

---

...it may prove out that the Federal District Court judges will be our one and only line of offense against the criminal conduct of this administration. And yet too many Democrats still do not understand the absolutely crucial necessity of being in power in order to select the next USSupCt appointee!

[BlueManDude]

36. was there any question that this was going to ooze its way into the White House?

[coalition_unwilling]

46. Hell, the "tapes" are probably a giant red herring meant to

distract from the very real possibility that torture sessions were being fed by live feed directly into the WH for Bush and Cheney's private amusement. As soon as I found out that Bush had laughed at Carla Faye Tucker's plea for clemency, I knew that he would be the type to derive sadistic pleasure from actually observing torture first hand. Total creep-a-zoid (to adopt some teen-age diction).

Just as Hitler watched film footage of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and torture and execution by the SS of members of the Stauffenberg plot . . .

[aquart]

37. And no one's surprised about this, either.

[rockybelt]

38. This kind of crap

permeates the White House. Fascism leaves an awful smell.

[thereismore]

39. Of course he was. Scumbag that he is. nt

[MGKrebs]

40. At first I thought that said "Gonzales on tape in destruction talks"

Wouldn't that be cool if the discussion was recorded?

[The Stranger]

43. Can someone awaken the Nancy Disaster and put impeachment back on the table?

[MasonJar]

47. I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you that there is "cheating" in the WH!

[MasonJar]

48. I am oh so sure that Cheney and Addington arranged for this to leak because

of the CIA NIE report, but it may come "back" to sear their backsides.

[EFerrari]

50. Yes. Exactly. n/t

[Supersedeas]

49. when will the Bar Association get involved already

[HuffleClaw]

52. i think this one is gonna sink 'em

it'll depend on who they manage to get under oath to testify about it. i wonder if they'll try the 'executive privilege' dodge, or the 'state secrets' one.