This is a followup to my piece yesterday, which was entitled, “Member Of The Judicial Branch Ignores “Orders” By The Executive Branch To Stand Down On CIA Investigation“, courtesy of The New York Times‘ Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane:
Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes
WASHINGTON — At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.
The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.
Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.
It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. …”
(Snip!)
“… One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. …”
(Snip!)
“… the Congressional intelligence committees have begun investigations into the destruction of the tapes, and are looking into the role that officials at the White House and Justice Department might have played in discussions about them. The C.I.A. never provided the tapes to federal prosecutors or to the Sept. 11 commission, and some lawmakers have suggested that their destruction may have amounted to obstruction of justice. …”
(Snip!)
“… The court hearing in the Guantánamo case, set for Friday in Washington by District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. over the government’s objections, will be the first public forum in which officials submit to questioning about the tapes’ destruction. …”
(Snip!)
“… In addition to the Guantánamo court filings, the American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal judge to hold the C.I.A. in contempt of court for destroying the tapes. The A.C.L.U. says the destruction violated orders in a Freedom of Information Act case brought by several advocacy groups seeking materials related to detention and interrogation.
Imagine that. Alberto Gonzales, his buddies and his bosses involving themselves in a deliberate act of obstructing justice — say it ain’t so!
Again, this isn’t a rant against torture — if the taped acts were legal under the Geneva Conventions, that’s the way it goes — this is about a power grab by the Executive Branch; power granted only by the willingness of “bought and paid for” participants in the other two “Separate But Equal” branches to step aside and allow President Bush and his cronies to ASSERT “Kingly” powers not allowed under the Constitution. Some folks need to be impeached; others need to be tossed behind bars for TREASON; take your pick on who goes where.
I remember the time when “Only in America” was a phrase to be proud of. I’m not so sure that is true anymore unless and until our representatives of each of the three branches of the United States government step up to clean their houses from within.
Hopefully, it’s not too late for that to still happen.
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Other bloggers weigh in – handpicked faves from MemeOrandum: The Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan); The Carpetbagger Report; Crooks and Liars; The Heretik; at-Largely; Real Clear Politics (Right – Reid Wilson); Prairie Weather; Blue Girl, Red State; The Reaction
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5:32 pm on December 19th, 2007 1
I’m sorry, GTL, but, I just cannot take this post seriously when you go with the old “Bush is Hitler” stuff.