Does anyone actually believe this story? (on destroyed CIA tapes)

[ProSense]

WHO KNEW?.... A "former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the episode" tells the New York Times that lawyers within the clandestine branch of the CIA approved the destruction of those videotaped interrogations in 2005:

The former intelligence official acknowledged that there had been nearly two years of debate among government agencies about what to do with the tapes, and that lawyers within the White House and the Justice Department had in 2003 advised against a plan to destroy them.

....In describing the decision to destroy the tapes, current and former officials said John A. Rizzo, the agency's top lawyer at the time, was not asked for final approval before the tapes were destroyed, although Mr. Rizzo had been involved in discussions for two years about the tapes.

...."Although unlikely, it is conceivable that once a C.I.A. officer got the answer he wanted from a D.O. lawyer, he acted on that advice," said John Radsan, who worked as a C.I.A. lawyer between 2002 and 2004 and is now a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota....Mr. Radsan added, "I'd be surprised that even the chief D.O. lawyer made a decision of that magnitude without bringing the General Counsel's front office into the loop."

Let me get this straight. The White House had been in the loop for two years. The CIA had received letters from both the Justice Department and congressional leaders arguing that the tapes shouldn't be destroyed. The CIA's top lawyer had been involved for the entire time. And yet we're supposed to believe that, in 2005, a mid-ranking agency lawyer suddenly decided the tapes could be destroyed and the head of the clandestine branch then gave the order to do so without anyone else being involved? Really? Does anyone actually believe this story?

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld created the loop!

[Lasher]

1. Looks like they're going for plausible deniability.

Getting reasonably intelligent people to actually believe this story is a very high bar.

[blondeatlast]

2. I don't, you don't, thousands on the LW blogs don't, but you can bet

that the American public will thanks to the "liberal" media.

Olbermann was all over this last night but if it wasn't on the morning shows it won't matter a bit.

[KoKo]

3. I have to say I've gone over the edge. I don't believe anything coming from Pravda Press

or anywhere else. I just read and try to filter...but even then the Propagada Spin is so overwhelming these days that it's almost not worth trying to filter or make sense of any of the revelations.

Everyone is spinning and that includes top Dems who were involved in so much of the "sign offs" and in some cases "enabling" of this Criminal Gang in the White House and those on Wall St. and the Banking Community.

[EFerrari]

4. No, I don't. And the whole thing smells like Dick Cheney. n/t

[Echo In Light]

5. No

[Angela Shelley]

6. No

[EFerrari]

7. Boehner in a presser right now saying the President and Congress

didn't know. I guess they're sticking to that story for now.

[blondeatlast]

8. They are despearately claiming this was a "lone wolf" decision.

If that's the case, then if nothing else, it can be seen as an "incompetence" issue with the WH. How, when JD officials, including Harriet Miers (as they are claiming) supposedly told them not to destroy them (I call BS on that claim, nevertheless, I'm trying to follow the logic of their BS) could an virtual "nobody" pull it off anyway?

[kentuck]

9. They seem to have been waiting for just the right time...

The NIE story that proved Bush lied to the American people and was getting us prepared to invade Iran, seemed to be the appropriate moment?

[wiggs]

10. Nope...but the mid level guy is going to take the fall. nt

[blondeatlast]

11. think about YOUR work, America. Would you, a mid-level something or other,

ever be in possession of evidence that could severely damage your employer? Without strict "supervision" or indeed, someone watching your every move?

The type of evidence that could send your entire board to a grand jury (and the stuff we are talking about could send this "board" to the Hague)?

I realize it happens OCCASIONALLY (Enron, for instance)--but keep this in mind--this is the freaking CIA.

[EFerrari]

12. There's another thing. Hayden says the tapes were destroyed

to protect CIA agents. But, the CIA agent says the torture was contracted out. In that case, they're not protecting CIA interrogators but contractors, aren't they?

[blondeatlast]

13. YES. Wow; good point. The torture was contracted out.

Trying to put my head around that concept alone.

I've no doubt whatsoever the WH know of the tapes and there's reports that Bush saw them (no doubt Cheney as well).

Golly gee, I wonder who might have been contracted to do such a thing--even most corporations wouldn't even consider such a thing. But I can think of at least one who might jump at the chance...

Edit: If it was Blackwater--the tapes the pResident and His Master saw might not have been in an "official" capacity, even...

Gotta take the tinfoil off, it's reacting with the dye. But still...