Are you surprised?
The Democratic chairmen of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees are at odds over whether a special counsel should investigate the circumstances that led to the deletion of videotapes showing the interrogation of suspected terrorists.
While Sen. Joe Biden (Del.), chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, says it is necessary to put in place a special counsel to investigate, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), who chairs the Intelligence Committee, said there is no need for such a move and that a congressional probe would be sufficient at this stage.
Let’s see…one of them is running for president and the Iowa caucuses are coming up in under four weeks. The other one was briefed about the rough tactics of the CIA in 2002.
Yet long before “waterboarding” entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.
With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).
Only Jane Harman filed any kind of official protest. It’s only natural that Jay Rockefeller will want to control the direction of any investigation over the destruction of tapes. And the House Intel committee has an issue of its own. In August, the chairman, Silvestre Reyes, honored the person who ostensibly ordered the destruction of the tapes. Here are two views on that from inside the intelligence community.
“This looks like he was tossed under a giant bus,” one former intelligence official told me. “How likely is it that he took this decision on his own, especially when he’s not in the videotapes and wouldn’t be affected directly? Not very likely.”
This person said that the fact that the tapes were made in the first place was hugely revealing. “It shows that by 2002, everyone at the agency thought they could be Jack Bauer, that the president thought this sort of thing was fine,” he said. “This is like making a snuff film. It’s incredible that they felt they could put it on tape.”
On the other hand, another former agency official told me he thought Rodriguez could have–and should have–taken the decision on his own. This person said:
When this idea first came up, it generated a heated discussion. The most experienced officers were to the man, against any effort to tape the interrogations. The object of having an intelligence service is to do things secretly. You don’t tape things unless there is a sound operational reason to do so. Jose was right to order the tapes destroyed. They should not have been made. That said, the day they arrived and were viewed by the leadership, they should have been destroyed that day, not two years later. The tapes would have shocked the conscience of the public, and should not have been made. Nothing good would come of it.
I agree that it was incredibly stupid to torture people on tape. It was also incredibly stupid to torture people…period. If Rockefeller wants to investigate this, he should recuse himself from the investigation. He should assign someone from his committee to chair the investigation. The Intelligence Committee doesn’t have subcommittees, but I am sure that Ron Wyden, Russ Feingold, or Sheldon Whitehouse would be willing to take on the task.
Perhaps Reid should create a special committee for the purpose, including members of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Here’s a hypothetical list:
Chairman: Sheldon Whitehouse (Judiciary, Intelligence)
Ron Wyden (Intelligence)
Diane Feinstein (Judiciary, Intelligence)
Russ Feingold (Judiciary, Intelligence)
Joe Biden (Chairman Foreign Relations, Judiciary)
Let the Republicans pick four people (or perhaps even an equal five) and let’s get on with it. After all, even Huckabee says we need to kick some ass.
Surging GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee also criticized the destruction of the tapes.
“When we start destroying documents, what are we destroying them for? Are we doing it for security purposes or to cover somebody’s rear end?” the former Arkansas governor said on Fox News Sunday. “If we’re covering somebody’s rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end for doing something that’s against the best interest of the United States and the responsibility and the respectability of this country.”
Now..do something. And don’t screw it up like you did with Ollie North.
As to why the tapes of torture were made, the same one word answer as to why the Nazis made numerous films of their misdeeds: hubris. Sick, shameful pride in having the power and means to do whatever the fuck they want to do. Nothing more.
If this doesn’t warrant a special counsel, what would?
maybe it was intended as a training manual.
Not to mention the teeny tiny fact that torture is against the law.
I kinda feel like this ‘investigation’ is best kept on the extreme DL. Our nation’s image has suffered enough. Either we expose everything all at once (short, sharp shock) or we start fixing it up now and keep our hand a little closer to the vest. We’ve played a lot of dirty pool over the years, so being 100% transparent doesn’t fly without it likely becoming a partisan witchhunt (Rockefeller going to investigate hisself?). Unless you are down with bringing this whole MoFo down, which is kind of implicitly off the table because of this blog’s affiliations..
I don’t mean cover up the torture, but deal with it a bit more quietly. Use it for impeachment or whatever you want, but keep a shred of our nation’s image alive by keeping the details quiet.
What if the Bushies are pulling a Saddam, anyhow (my weapons! my weapons! – yet there are no weapons)?
Aah, the Lee Hamilton defense. Wonderful.
How about we just expose that Rodriguez didn’t destroy the tapes on his own. Or…if he did…how about we send him to jail.
How about doing what needs to be done, but not in such a politicized, public manner. As long as it gets done, and not covered up.
I think the word you’re looking for is “whitewash”.
Over at FDL and DKos, Phoenix Woman and Scarecorw are calling the Washington Post article blackmail and extrotion, and portray Pelosi as “rebutting the smear”.
No one has answered my question: when the Intelligence Community forced the Iran NIE into the public eye, everyone cheered and said “Yay, it’s welcome pushback against those GOP criminals!”
But when the intelligence community exposes Democrats as complicit in torture, everyone says “Boo! extortion adn blackmail!”
Is anyone else having trouble with this distinction?
he should recuse himself.
that’s not really my point.
My point is that progressives shouldn’t be crying foul about this leak simply because it makes democrats look bad. And that’s what’s going on: phoenix woman has a story at kos saying this is “blackmail” and “extortion”, echoed by Scarecrow at FDL.
I call bullshit. Why is it pushback when it’s the GOP that takes the hit, and blackmail when it’s the Democrats? Especially when it’s democrats like Rockefeller (D, AT&T) and Nancy “we’re leaders they’re advocates you hippies get off my lawn” Pelosi?
well, I think people might be running a little far with that article…Pelosi, for example, has said her briefing was limited and pre-acutual implementation.
But, I called for Rockefeller to recuse himself, so I don’t think I’m employing a double standard and I don’t think it’s out of line for the GOP or the CIA to point out that people were briefed.
if they can just stall it for another week or so something ELSE will come along and this will just be another Bush Administration Crime that doesn’t go anywhere or matter any more. There are already so many smoking guns it’s hard to breathe; what’s another one?
Rockefeller is worthless.
Although quite true, that’s not something you hear everyday about a Rockefeller..
who the hell said that that slut harmon made a formal anything? That bitch said that she told them that she thought that they shouldn’t destroy the tape. That ain’t no formal protest. That is one lying slut attempting to cover her shrivelled ass.
She hasn’t stood for anything other that palstic surgery!
And as far as rocherfeller is concerned, he still has his mother wiping his nose and heis ass. These two are two of them many reasons why I and now totally advocating that no one votes in 08!
DON’t VOTE!
Bill-
knock off the ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ references. It’s not appropriate and won’t be tolerated. Express your displeasure in a way that isn’t degrading to all women please.