And Bush didn't know!!
Then it is TIME to IMPEACH for TOTAL INCOMPETENCE!!!!
Doesn't know about the NIE (or care to know) and now doesn't know about this!
Well, then what does he know? NOTHING?!
And if that is not the case, then IMPEACH HIM and CHENEY for INSANITY!!!!!
"C.I.A. Was Urged to Keep Interrogation Videotapes"
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.
Current and former intelligence officials say the videotapes showed severe interrogation techniques used on two Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who were among the first three terror suspects to be detained and interrogated by the C.I.A. in secret prisons after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Top C.I.A. officials had decided in 2003 to preserve the tapes in response to warnings from White House lawyers and lawmakers that destroying the tapes would be unwise, in part because it could carry legal risks, the government officials said.
But the government officials said that Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the agency’s clandestine service, the Directorate of Operations, had reversed that decision in November 2005, at a time when Congress and the courts were inquiring deeply into the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program. Mr. Rodriguez could not be reached Friday for comment.
As the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2003, Porter J. Goss, then a Republican congressman from Florida, was among Congressional leaders who warned the C.I.A. against destroying the tapes, the former intelligence officials said. Mr. Goss became C.I.A. director in 2004 and was serving in the post when the tapes were destroyed, but was not informed in advance about Mr. Rodriguez’s decision, the former officials said.
Getting Goss off the hook, huh?
This is DISGUSTINGLY CRIMINAL, folks!!!
WITHHOLDING and DESTROYING EVIDENCE!!!!
IMPEACHABLE!!!!!!!!
It was not until at least a year after the destruction of the tapes that any members of Congress were informed about the action, the officials said. On Friday, Representative Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2006, said he had never been told that the tapes were destroyed.
The first notification to Congress by the C.I.A. about the videotapes was delivered to a small group of senior lawmakers in February 2003 by Scott W. Muller, then the agency’s general counsel. Government officials said that Mr. Muller had told the lawmakers that the C.I.A. intended to destroy the interrogation tapes, arguing that they were no longer of any intelligence value and that the interrogations they DEPICTED OVER HUNDREDS OF HOURS put agency operatives who appeared in the tapes at risk.
Cut from the web piece!
HUNDREDS of HOURS of TORTURE!!!!!!
Thanks, NYT! Sigh!
At the time of the briefing in February 2003, the lawmakers who advised Mr. Muller not to destroy the tapes included both Mr. Goss and Representative Jane Harman of California, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Ms. Harman described her role on Friday. Mr. Goss’s role was described by former intelligence officials.
According to two government officials, Mr. Muller then raised the idea of destroying the tapes during discussions in 2003 with Justice Department lawyers and with Harriet E. Miers, who was then a deputy White House chief of staff. Ms. Miers became White House counsel in early 2005.
That's INSIDE the WHITE HOUSE!!!
And we are to believe that she DIDN'T TELL Bush?
This is why EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE is being invoked to keep her from testifying to Congress.
This, among many other things, I'm sure!
Oh, the STENCH COMING FROM THIS ADMINISTRATION!!!!
IMPEACH NOW!!!!!!
The officials said that Ms. Miers and the Justice Department lawyers had advised against destroying the tapes, but that it was not clear what the basis for their advice had been.
A message left at Mr. Muller’s law office on Friday was not returned, and White House officials would not comment about Ms. Miers’s role.
It was also not clear when the White House or Justice Department were told that the tapes had been destroyed, or whether anyone at either place was notified in advance that Mr. Rodriguez had ordered that the step be taken. Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said Friday that President Bush had “no recollection” of being made aware of the tapes’ destruction before Thursday, when General Hayden briefed him on the matter.
Another GOD-DAMN FUCKING LIE from THIS WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!
Several former intelligence officials also said there was great concern that the tapes, which recorded hours of grueling interrogations, could have set off controversies about the legality of the interrogations and generate a backlash in the Middle East.
According to one former intelligence official, the C.I.A. then decided to keep the tapes at the C.I.A. stations in the countries where Abu Zubaydah and Mr. Nashiri were interrogated.
The current and former intelligence officials said that when Mr. Rodriguez ultimately decided in late 2005 to destroy the tapes, he did so without advising Mr. Rizzo, Mr. Muller’s successor as the agency’s top general counsel. Mr. Rizzo and Mr. Goss were among the C.I.A. officials who were angry when told that the tapes had been destroyed, the officials said.Mr. Rodriguez retired from the agency this year."
Just FADED AWAY like a CIA GHOST, huh?
Yeah, this is a law-and-order administration , all right!
A LAW-VIOLATING and OUT-of-ORDER administration!
IMPEACH and CONVICT!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!!
So what are you going to do, Congress?
"Congress Plans C.I.A. Obstruction Inquiries"
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — Meanwhile, the former chairmen of the Sept. 11 commission, who said the C.I.A. assured them repeatedly during their inquiry that no original material existed from its interrogations of Qaeda figures, said they were furious to learn about the tapes.
The C.I.A. indicated that the Sept. 11 commission never specifically asked for any tape recordings of prisoner interrogations.
But in separate interviews on Friday, the co-chairmen, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, said they had made clear in hours of negotiations and discussions with the C.I.A., as well as in written requests, that they wanted all material connected to the interrogations of Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody in order to get a complete understanding of the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks for their 2004 report.
In-article teaser: "The 9/11 commission chiefs say they were deceived."
Hey, we all were!
And you guys were the main deceivers!
You and your "commission!"
Mr. Hamilton: “The C.I.A. certainly knew of our interest in getting all the information we could on the detainees, and they never indicated to us there were any videotapes,” “Did they obstruct our inquiry? The answer is clearly yes. Whether that amounts to a crime, others will have to judge.”
Mr. Kean: “I’m upset that they didn’t tell us the truth.”
Which means you can THROW OUT THEIR REPORT!!!!
We need a REAL INVESTIGATION, not a government-scripted COVER-UP!!!!!
In fact, AMERICA DEMANDS IT!!!!!!!!
The existence of material on unidentified Qaeda detainees also became a central issue in the terrorism prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, who sought access to witness statements in an effort to show that he did not have advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Justice Department, under questioning from the federal judge in the case in 2005, denied that any tape recording of the interrogations existed, only to concede last month that the C.I.A. had found three tapes that are apparently still in existence. It is unclear which Qaeda figures are on those tapes.
Edward B. MacMahon Jr., who represented Mr. Moussaoui during his trial in 2006, in an interview on Friday:
"[Based on the C.I.A.’s acknowledgment that tapes of two Qaeda prisoners were destroyed], it’s obvious to me that they destroyed material evidence in the case.”
IMPEACH and CONVICT!!!
INDICT and IMPRISON!!!!!
Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the C.I.A., in a statement on Thursday, said that the tape of Mr. Zubaydah’s interrogation was not relevant to the Moussaoui trial.
Mr. MacMahon: “General Hayden isn’t a federal judge, and that’s not his decision to make.”
Ms. Perino: "[President Bush] has complete confidence [in General Hayden and his handling of the issue]."
Just like Bush! Confidence in CRIMINALS!!!!!!!!
With calls from House and Senate Democrats for a full investigation, the White House seemed to be bracing for an investigation from the Justice Department by initiating an inquiry of its own through the White House counsel’s office. The aim, Ms. Perino said, is to “gather facts.”
Dana, just shovel the coke up your nose, and stop shoveling the public White House shit-spew, please!
With Democrats seizing on the destruction of the tapes, some leading Republicans appeared to distance themselves from the political fallout. Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the intelligence committee, sent a letter to the C.I.A., along with Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas, chairman of the panel, saying the agency’s suggestion that the committee was told of the tapes’ destruction “simply is not true.”
Well, yeah, even the Republicans can smell this toxic, criminal stench!
C'mon, Republicans, IMPEACH and CONVICT!!! INDICT and IMPRISON!!!!!
"Democrats want probe of tape destruction"By Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer | December 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday that President Bush did not recall being told about the tapes or their destruction. But she could not rule out White House involvement in the decision to destroy the tapes.
Not only KNEW ABOUT IT, but MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED!!!!!!!
WOWEE!!!!
IMPEACH, CONVICT, INDICT and IMPRISON!!!!!!
RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!
In a daily press briefing dedicated almost solely to the topic of the CIA tapes, Perino responded 19 times that she didn't know or couldn't comment.
Snifffff... ah. Sniiifffffff... ah!
At least one White House official, then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, knew about the CIA's planned destruction of videotapes in 2005 that documented the interrogation of two al-Qaida operatives, ABC news reported Friday. Three officials told ABC News that Miers urged the CIA not to destroy the tapes. White House officials declined to comment on the report.
The spy agency destroyed the tapes in November 2005, at a time when human rights groups and lawyers for detainees were clamoring for information about the agency's secret detention and interrogation program, and Congress and U.S. courts were debating where "enhanced interrogation" crossed the line into torture.
They destroyed them because it was EVIDENCE of WAR-CRIMINAL TORTURE!!!
And it was AUTHORIZED RIGHT at the TOP -- BUSH!!!!!
Lawyers for convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla's said in a Florida federal court that Zubaydah was tortured into saying Padilla was an al-Qaida associate. The Justice Department dismissed Padilla's allegations as "meritless," saying Padilla's legal team could not prove that Zubaydah had been tortured.
Padilla and his two co-defendants will be sentenced next month. They face life in prison on three terror-related convictions.
Then THROW OUT THOSE CONVICTIONS and FREE THOSE INNOCENT MEN!!!!!!!
Hayden told agency employees Thursday that the recordings were destroyed out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators.
And what about Valerie Plame Wilson, assholes?
He said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for interrogators using new, harsh methods. President Bush had just authorized those methods as a way to break down the defenses of recalcitrant prisoners.
WAR CRIMES authorized by a WAR CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!!!
Destruction of the tapes came in the midst of an intense national debate about how forcefully prisoners could be grilled to get them to talk. Not long after the tapes were destroyed, Congress adopted the Detainee Treatment Act, championed by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was tortured while a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The law prohibits not only torture, but cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of all U.S. detainees, including those in CIA custody.
Republicans were mostly mum about the CIA disclosure. McCain, a presidential candidate, said while campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday that he would not side with Democrats' calls for an investigation because he believed the CIA's actions were legal.
Hey, McCain is NOT a JUDGE, either!
But in Amerika's one-party dictatorship, does that matter?
McCain, of the tapes being destroyed:
"That doesn't mean I like it. Of course I object to it. Right now, our intelligence agencies need credibility and this is not helpful to that."
Revelations about the tapes also may affect ongoing terrorism trials.The Center for Constitutional Rights, which coordinates the work of all attorneys representing U.S. prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, says the CIA may have destroyed crucial evidence a court said it was entitled to in 2004.
The center said Friday it is now "deeply concerned" the CIA may have destroyed evidence relating to Majid Khan, a former CIA detainee now held at Guantanamo.
In a separate case, attorneys for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in 2003 began seeking videotapes of interrogations they believed might help their client. In November 2005 a federal judge ordered the government to disclose whether it had video or audio tapes of specific interrogations. Eleven days later, the government denied it had them.
Gerald Zerkin, one of Moussaoui's lawyers in the penalty phase of his trial, recalled some of the defense efforts to obtain testimony from video or audio tapes of the interrogations of top al-Qaida detainees:
"Obviously the important witnesses included Zubaydah, Binalshibh and KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed)... those are the guys at the head of the witness list."
The tapes also were not provided to the 9/11 Commission.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency did not subvert the 9/11 commission's work:
"Because it was thought the commission could ask about tapes at some point, they were not destroyed while the commission was active."
Yeah, but you didn't turn them over to their investigators, and told them they didn't exist when they did ask, CIA liar!
Only one thing left to say:
IMPEACH, CONVICT, INDICT and IMPRISON!!!!!!
