http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20071210/cm_usatoday/notorturenoneedtodestroyvideotapesOpinion
No torture, no need to destroy videotapes
Mon Dec 10, 12:22 AM ET
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Had the tapes ever gotten out, they might have made the Abu Ghraib prison photos look tame. Imagine the propaganda value Osama bin Laden could reap from video of Arabs struggling in pain as Americans subjected them to waterboarding or other torture. The fact that the prisoner might have been a murderous thug would be lost in the revulsion and condemnation of the United States for barbarism. Nevertheless, that hardly excuses the CIA for destroying the evidence.
The agency appears to have erred four times: First in using the controversial techniques; second in being foolish enough to tape the exercise; third in hiding the tapes from the 9/11 Commission; and finally in destroying the tapes despite explicit warnings not to do so from Congress, the Justice Department and the White House. Spy agencies don't get to write their own laws.
The reason CIA Director Michael Hayden cited for the agency's decision — to protect operatives' identities — seems dubious at best. The CIA has all manner of records that identify officers and doesn't destroy them.
All of this more than justifies the investigations that are getting underway. The Justice Department, Congress and the CIA inspector general have all begun inquiries into whether the CIA is guilty of crimes such as obstruction of justice. But it's also important to handle those probes in a way that avoids adding to the litany of mistakes.
Media attention will inevitably be intense until the facts are established. That's reason for deliberate speed because, like Abu Ghraib, the scandal will be destructive. Appointing a special prosecutor, as Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., suggested Sunday, would achieve the opposite end, unnecessarily bloating the process.
It's also important to remember that the original sin was the torture itself, not the tapes or their destruction.
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