Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Destroyer












Dubya, Ashcroft, Abu G and Dick.


"We have top men working on it now."
"Who?"
"Top. Men."

Tell me again, what did Shakespeare say we should do with them?

Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, according to a former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the episode.
Now that's some seriously Top of the line Secret! The clandestine branch of the CIA. Who do you think you are questioning that? The part of some imaginary "justice department?" I don't even know what that is. We're at war. We don't have time for such frivolities.
The involvement of agency lawyers in the decision making would widen the scope of the inquiries into the matter that have now begun in Congress and within the Justice Department. Any written documents are certain to be a focus of government investigators as they try to reconstruct the events leading up to the tapes’ destruction.
I can't wait for the start of this investigation that will surely prove to be even more successful than all the previous investigations that have stopped such government-sponsored devilry cold in its frozen-hearted tracks.
In a message to C.I.A. employees on Thursday, General Hayden said “videotaping stopped in 2002,” after officials “determined that its documentary reporting was full and exacting, removing any need for tapes.”
Whatever you say, sir! I will, with much pomp and circumstance, behold the inscrutable and exacting power of shorthand! Gonna think twice about snickering towards the MILF-y court reporter next time you're in front of a judge on a marijuana charge, ain't ya, smartass.
“There is never any justification for destroying materials that any reasonable person would believe might be requested in a civil or criminal proceeding,” said Mr. Remes, of the law firm Covington & Burling. “The C.I.A. had every reason to believe the videotapes would be relevant down the road.”
Then it's a good thing we're not dealing with reasonable people, isn't it, Mr. Commie Pinko. If you won't let all the junior Jack Bauers save America, then the terrorists win. And anyway, what decade are you living in? Videotapes? About as relevant as 8-track or vinyl, guy. Sure, there's that alluring retro charm, but this is the digital age, sir. And we're not cave-dwelling goatherders, either. We record our torture sessions on Blu-Ray.

15 comments:

La Belette Rouge said...

I am so waiting for the movie, "All the President's Men: Part II." Probably starring George Clooney and maybe Brad Pitt(not my cup of tea, but might get people to see the movie who might not otherwise be attracted by such a film) in which two rove reporters bring down a corrupt Whitehouse.

Mary Ellen said...

While I was out yesterday, I heard an interesting segment on Randi Rhodes show and (whoever the guest was...can't take notes while driving), said that the possible reason that Pelosi and many of the other Dems in the Senate and Congress too impeachment off the table because they don't want to be implicated by the fact that they knew that there was torture happening at that time, had been briefed on the torture being used in that tape. Even though they are not liable, legally, for knowing this and letting it happen, it would hurt them politically. Instead of thinking of country first, they were thinking of their own sorry asses losing their seats in the Senate and Congress. Any crimes that Bush committed, they were aware of them as they were happening and DID NOTHING!

There is plenty out there to impeach Bush and Cheney and the rest of those thugs, but Pelosi is protecting them to save her own skin...to hell with the country, it's all about her.

Freida Bee said...

I'm surprised they did not at least pull out a completely transparent, but justifiable, claim that an accidental pipe bursting caused flooding which destroyed said, handily antiquated, tapes. Where are they? Because, in the few times, I've watched 24, this I have learned: those Jr. Jack Bauer types do not just throw away their collateral.

Mary Ellen said...

I wonder who the "Chloe" is in that group of CIA clowns? She's the computer expert on 24, surely Chloe could have messed with the computer and re-enhanced the torturers to look like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Randal Graves said...

LBR, for that to happen, we'd actually have to have reporters with some financial backing and clout. Seymour Hersh has done some fine stuff, but the powers-that-be won't listen to him.

ME, that's about as plausible as anything else. I keep on hearing how we just keep on having to elect more and more progressive candidates, that it takes time. Um, there might not BE enough time.

Freida Bee, we wouldn't have bought it, but the majority of the rubes out there would've. And their collateral like the fingers they've chopped off or the sacks they've electrically burned?

ME, part 2: electric boogaloo, that's the chick that let the creepy Rushbo plant one on her, right? "My friends! Nancy Pelosi and the Dumbocrats are the real torturers at Guantanamo! How they disparage our brave men and women in uniform!"

Candace said...

Gawd, this one is stinkier than most, ain't it? I mean, they KNEW these tapes would be relevant, they asked Legal to write an opinion okaying the destruction of the tapes (wink wink nudge nudge), then destroyed them because um, oh yeah, because their interrogators' identities might be revealed! And like you say, Randal, this will be just as vigorously investigated as all the other stinkeroos, resulting in justice for the country. NOT.

Damn I'm sick of this. You're right - it's going to take Bush eating babies on live television to wake people up.

Tom Harper said...

Since Bush 43 has learned so much from Nixon and the Watergate scandal, I'm surprised he hasn't asked himself WWND? (What Would Nixon Do).

And the clear answer would be: "Those tapes never existed!"

Who Hijacked Our Country

paris parfait said...

Truly it just boggles the mind - the skulduggery, the lies, the subterfuge, the inepititude. Nobody could make this stuff up!

pissed off patricia said...

I think the time they destroyed them is interesting. What else was going on at that time that made them feel it might be a good thing to destroy that evidence? Something fired them up and made them realize it was time to get those tapes outta there.

Splotchy said...

I appreciate the substance of your post, but I am still processing your caption of the KISS album. I always thought Dubya was the Ace Frehley of the bunch.

Anonymous said...

I'm still having problems with the recordings in the first place. If it was so important to not reveal the identity of the, um, interrogators (and I'm not saying it's not important) - then why record them? Nobody could be that stupid.

On second thought...forget it.

Randal Graves said...

Candace, I'm telling ya, at the end of the day, no one gives a shit. Look at the whole lead toys thing. Have parents suddenly stopped buying that crap? No.

POP, good point, because there are instances of them not destroying stuff. Then again, everything they've done, at the bare minimum, borders on the criminal, so this must've REALLY been quite the naughty thing.

splotchy, oh shit, you're 100% correct. Dubya is much more suited to be the coked-out guitarist, and who is better at preening while obfuscating about how crappy his band has been for the last 30 years than Abu G? He's the perfect Paul.

spydrkl, please, don't hurt yourself trying to comprehend the neocon mindset. They truly are a different species!

dguzman said...

Look, you pre-9/11 commie thinkers! Haven't you ever recorded over your favorite soap opera accidentally? That's what happened, someone taped that great episode of Seinfeld where Neuman and Kramer try recycling bottles for cash, and well... the tapes weren't really useful after that. But hey--NATIONAL SECURITY IS THE REPUBLICANS' STRONG SUIT! and don't you forget it!

Randal Graves said...

You know what else is their strong suit? Cutting the spending of the nanny government! Go GOP and your fresh and tasty ideas!

TomCat said...

PoP, what else was going on at the time is that the court investigating torture in Guantanamo Bay had just ordered that all tapes and materials pertinent to that investigation be preserved. Bush and the GOP wanted to turn them into ashes before that order could be expanded to the secret CIA prisons that Bush and the GOP knew as about to be published after the NY Times has sat on that story for a year.