Newsweek reports that the White House had a long-term involvement in discussions over CIA tapes of torture in interrogation and whether they should be destroyed:
The CIA repeatedly asked White House lawyer Harriet Miers over a two-year period for instructions regarding what to do with ‘very clinical’ videotapes depicting the use of ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques on two top Al Qaeda captives, according to former and current intelligence officials familiar with the communications (who requested anonymity when discussing the controversial issue). The tapes are believed to have included evidence of waterboarding and other interrogation methods that Bush administration critics have described as torture.
“Senior officials of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service finally decided on their own authority in late 2005 to destroy the tapes — which were kept at a secret location overseas — after failing to elicit clear instructions from the White House or other senior officials on what to do with them, according to one of the former intelligence officials with direct knowledge of the events in question. An extensive paper — or e-mail — trail exists documenting the contacts between Clandestine Service officials and top agency managers and between the CIA and the White House regarding what to do about the tapes, according to two former intelligence officials. . . .
“The reason CIA officials involved the White House and Justice Department in discussions about the disposition of the tapes was that CIA officials viewed the CIA’s terrorist interrogation and detention program — including the use of ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques — as having been imposed on the agency by the White House. ‘It was a political issue,’ said the former official, and therefore CIA officials believed that the decision as to what to do with the tapes should be made at a political level.
And, by the way, the tapes were destroyed despite a court order, and despite the assurances of the Assistant Attorney General to the judge in that case that the Bush Administration was “well aware of their obligation not to destroy evidence that may be relevant in pending litigation.”
Gee, sounds like this merits a full investigation by a body independent of the Justice Department and the CIA. But wait, no, there weren’t any blow jobs involved, so I guess the CIA and Justice Department investigating themselves is all OK.
