Larry Johnson: What Destroyed Torture Tapes?

By: KathyinBlacksburg
Published On: 12/10/2007 5:22:07 PM

(Note: Hat Tip to DU)

Some days the news is just too enticing, not the news we thought we knew, but the back story.  Larry Johnson's blog, where I've gone before the DU hat tip, is sometimes a great read.  Now comes Johnson to say:


Leave it to the intrepid Larisa Alexandrovna to ferret out a key piece of information-the torture tapes were not destroyed in 2005. Just take time to read the letter U.S. Attorneys, Novak and Raskin, sent to the Federal Court on 23 October 2007.  

Especially check out page 2, paragraph2 of the letter. The U.S. Attorneys "viewed the video tape and transcript . . . of the interview" in September 2007.

Sure would appear that Jose A. Rodriguez did not destroy anything. How can you watch a destroyed tape? Way to go Larisa.

Here's the link to which Johnson refers.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been played.  Over and over, it would seem.   We had been scurrying around calling for impeachment hearings. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) We were told about the supposedly destroyed tapes but one day after the NIE release. Then we hear the latest and get off track again. But we may have missed the real story here.

No doubt the WH hopes we'll forget that 16 agencies contributed to the NIE, not just the CIA, whom it hopes to discredit.  As it continues to ramp up toward another war, the WH is likely salivating at how it has "discredited" one author of the NIE.

In cascading manipulations yet another "leak" tells us that, despite swearing oaths of secrecy, those Dems who purportedly knew about the tapes, have let us all down.  It's a bipartisan affair, we were told.  Maybe so.  Maybe not.  But that's not the story here.  

Around the blogosphere, Dems are turning against their own party over this.  And for what... it look as though the tapes have not been destroyed in the first place.  No wonder Rove left.  The magicians are still in control.  And Rove is off preparing to steal the WH again.

Let it be noted, as I close with my usual tagline, that there are great journalists out there.  And Larisa Alexandrovna is one of them.  Many of them are trying mightily to be heard.  Some are voices in the wildernesses at their respective news orgs.  Others have helpful facilitators who get them into print somewhere, even though buried on back pages.  Trouble is really "helpful" would be getting all of this front and center.

So, there you are.  Bookmark these blogs.  Do it!

Update: Here's the link  where I found this at DU.

Comments



You have the correct priority here (Teddy - 12/10/2007 6:59:23 PM)
Which is that the NIE is the combined judgment of 16 (count 'em) different intelligence agencies, and the Administration is craftily undetaking its usual spin efforts to defang and discredit anything which is not fully supportive of its plans, which in this case means the fateful judgment of the NIE that Iran is not engaged in creating a nuclear weapon, and has not been for at least four (count 'em) years.  

Although things have deggenerated far and fast under Bush, apparently he still feels some requirement for a justification for war, no matter how bogus, and the NIE has tripped him up. The progressive blogosphere should not fall for the apple of discord tossed among them: we can deal later with whatever lapses of good judgment the national Dem leadership showed; we should not jump on the CIA or its various parts for caving in at one point or another to the persuasive Mr. Cheney, nor sniff after any other red herring.

Keep our eyes on the ball, and go for the White House, CheneyBush, the whole nutcase Lord of the Flies mindset that has produced this mess.  



The first principle of CYA (Catzmaw - 12/10/2007 7:16:43 PM)
is to always leave an out.  Can Rodriguez be so stupid that he'd destroy every single tape and transcript at someone else's behest without arranging for a little insurance for himself in case things go wrong?  I'm waiting to see whether some other hitherto "undiscovered" copy of the tape/transcript turns up somewhere during a congressional investigation.