TORTURE Tape Gate: "The Official Story Unfolds" by Scott Horton

[L. Coyote]

The Official Story Unfolds
DEPARTMENT No Comment
Scott Horton - Jan 18, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002165

The destruction of the CIA torture tapes is still a fairly young scandal as Washington scandals go. It hasn’t even acquired a “gate” suffix. But the Administration is already busily choreographing it, with the dozens of shiny metal parts clicking away in synchronicity, like a finely designed mechanical watch. There is an admirable efficiency to the political process. If only these people were a fraction as good at the work of government as they are at political shenanigans, I keep thinking. The Bush Administration plan is simple: let’s think of this as a movie–Abu Ghraib, The Sequel. Instead of offering up a group of young grunts for the sacrifice, this time it will be a retired senior management figure at the CIA and some of his subordinates. And this sacrifice will, in the White House’s view, divert attention from the real source of both scandals, which is high in the upper reaches of the Executive Branch. Inside the White House, in fact.

But understanding how this will be accomplished requires us to start examining the details of the process that will take us there.

Mukasey’s Probe
On January 2, 2008, Attorney General Mukasey announced that the preliminary examination headed by National Security Division head Ken Wainstein had concluded that a more formal investigation was appropriate. His announcement was immediately greeted by positive acclaim in the news media, including a highly flattering AP story and a New York Times editorial that read “The Right Move on the CIA Tapes.” My own immediate reaction to the Mukasey action was very positive, but then lawyerly caution got the better of me. I decided to look carefully into the details and confer with some of my sources at Justice before making any comment. What I have learned leaves me very suspicious about the arrangements in place.

The Bigotry of Low Expectations
The positive reactions were fueled by a pattern of seriously abusive conduct which has characterized the Bush Justice Department’s generally charade-like internal investigations ...............

[panader0]

1. OK Tapegate!! Just good to have a post about something

besides the primary. "Very suspicious" indeed.

[L. Coyote]

8. I actually went looking for something worth posting. I'm sick & tired of the primary CRAP!

[gateley]

2. K&R. Thank you.

[L. Coyote]

3. "He’s not permitted to look at what’s on the tapes."

Damn! "He’s not permitted to look at what’s on the tapes." I'm still reading the article too!

And, yes, reality continues outside the "blinders" of a primary!

[L. Coyote]

5. "We are watching a grand bamboozlement, and the integrity of our government is at stake."

Indeed.

[L. Coyote]

4. NY TIMES: C.I.A. Was Urged to Keep Interrogation Videotapes

C.I.A. Was Urged to Keep Interrogation Videotapes
MARK MAZZETTI - Dec 8, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/washington/08intel.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.

The chief of the agency’s clandestine service nevertheless ordered their destruction in November 2005, taking the step without notifying even the C.I.A.’s own top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, who was angry at the decision, the officials said.

The disclosures provide new details about what Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, has said was a decision “made within C.I.A. itself” to destroy the videotapes. In interviews, members of Congress and former intelligence officials also questioned some aspects of the account General Hayden provided Thursday about when Congress was notified that the tapes had been destroyed.

..............

[spanone]

9. Obstruction of Justice...plain and simple

nominated

[noise]

6. Not sure why

the public shouldn't conclude that CIA higherups and the WH were in collusion. Look at Tenet's bizarre behavior leading up to 9/11. Before 9/11 Tenet wasn't able to follow standard procedure by notifying the FBI so they could surveil suspected al Qaeda terrorists yet after 9/11 he advocated torture. I know Bush thinks torture is a tough on terror tactic but one would hope the CIA Director has a little more knowledge about the efficacy of torture to attain reliable information. Evidently that was not the case.

The public knows everything about Brittany Spears but has never heard from the official who ran Alec Station in the lead up to 9/11. That should be a red flag that something is very, very messed up.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. Appears there's quite a bit of evidence going down the black hole, these days.

Huh.

Red flags all over the damn place!!!

[L. Coyote]

11. It's a JUNTA! and we need to realize what we are up against!

[L. Coyote]

7. visibility kick for a very good read