Posted by Damozel| All together now: What did Bush know, and when did he know it?
President Bush has no recollection of anyone telling him about any CIA tapes showing "severe interrogation of detainees" (a/k/a "torture") or of being told that any CIA tapes were being destroyed. (White House via Memeorandum) I actually don't find it difficult to believe this and it isn't crucial as far as I am concerned to the question of responsibility. Whatever those tapes showed that it wanted to expunge from the record, the tapes would have shown the CIA implementing policies condoned---explicitly, implicitly, tacitly, or through interpretive dance---by the Bush administration.
The missing videotapes, as D. Cupples has already discussed, showed CIA operatives subjecting detainees to "severe interrogation techniques."(NYT) "Current and former" agency officials said that the head of the Directorate of Operations, Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. made the call in 2005 to destroy them. (NYT) Two of them said that the destruction of the tapes wasn't authorized by the director of the agency, Porter J. Goss, and that he was "angered" to learn of it. (NYT) Current CIA Director Michael Hayden argues that "the tapes posed a “serious security risk” and that if they had become public they would have exposed C.I.A. officials “and their families to retaliation from Al Qaeda and its sympathizers.”"(NYT)
So what does President Bush think of all this? Dana Perino answers:
I would say that the President supports General Hayden. General Hayden made a statement yesterday to his employees in which he said that the decision was made by the agency, it was made in consultation with the agency's lawyers. And he said -- and I quote -- that "the tapes posed a serious security risk and were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the program, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al Qaeda and its sympathizers."
He has complete confidence in General Hayden and he has asked White House Counsel's Office, as I said, who is already in communication with the CIA General Counsel as the CIA Director continues to gather facts. As you know, General Hayden wasn't there at this time, either. (White House via Memeorandum)
The explanation that the tapes were destroyed to protect the operatives from exposure is going to set off all sorts of alarm bells. It's rather a strange argument for Hayden to be making. Senator Kennedy has pointed this out:
Does the director believe the C.I.A.’s buildings are not secure? Would it be beyond the agency’s technical expertise to preserve the tapes while hiding the identity of its employees? Does the director believe that the C.I.A.’s employees cannot be trusted not to leak materials that might harm the agency?
Or does he know that the interrogation techniques are so abhorrent that they could not remain unknown much longer? (NYT)
Senator Carl Levin called the endangering-our-operatives explanation "a pathetic excuse."
You’d have to burn every document at the C.I.A. that has the identity of an agent on it under that theory,” Mr. Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. (NYT)
And so now the Democrats are on the warpath. Kennedy's accused the CIA of a "cover up." Democratic whip Richard Durbin is making noises (see D. Cupples' post) about obstruction of justice. (NYT) Both have demanded that Mukasey investigate.
And it's not just the Democrats; Peter Hoekstra, who was Chair of the Intelligence committee during the relevant period is apparently equally wroth. And Captain Ed of The Captain's Quarters urges any right-wingers looking to him for guidance to rethink their positions:
Hoekstra is no bleeding-heart liberal. He's a tough conservative who supports the war on terror. I've interviewed him, and he has a deep commitment to allowing the intel community to do its work -- but he also believes in the oversight necessary to ensure that the public trust placed in the intelligence community does not get abused. He doesn't send angry public letters demanding explanations of CIA officials unless he believes it necessary to do so.
Those who are inclined to shrug this off should rethink their positions. The action of the CIA not only shows disrespect to Congress, the only real check on potential abuse, it may have provided the basis for overturning an important conviction in the war on terror. In a nation based on the rule of law, we cannot allow government officials in positions of power to make up their own rules as they go along. We certainly cannot abide them disseminating false information as Hayden apparently has. (Reyes, Hoekstra Call Shenanigans On Hayden; emphasis added)
After all, if a tough conservative thinks the CIA has gone too far, you know it's time to haul poor trampled-on, beaten-down "rule of law"out of sickbay, wheel it out into public, and see if it's still got any teeth left behind the oxygen mask. But I'm not complaining. My bleeding heart is too relieved that the Captain isn't going to let anyone who sails in him "shrug this off."
There's seemingly no end to the damage that this administration has done---directly or through its appointees, operatives, and lackeys--- through its disrespect for the rule of law and for the common sense of the American public. I jokingly said a couple of days ago that the Bush Administration's governing principle (and primary principle of governance) clearly is, "You can fool some of the people all of the time." I didn't realize---did you?--- that W himself allegedly had said exactly this, only more so, at a 2001 Washington dinner. "You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
So we can't say he didn't warn us.
Memeorandum has other blogger discussion here.
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I say 'Torture'; You Say 'Harsh Interrogation Techniques'.... (Updated)
LINKED
Democrats' fury grows over destroyed tapes (Reuters)
Democrats Call for Inquiry in Destruction of Tapes by C.I.A. (New York Times)
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