CIA: rogue or victim in tapes flap?

[babylonsister]

CIA: rogue or victim in tapes flap?
Republicans step up attacks on agency, while Democrats point to the White House as the culprit.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the December 26, 2007 edition


Washington - The Central Intelligence Agency: rogue agency or fall guy?

That's the question now arising in Washington in regards to the agency's destruction of the videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists.

Some Republicans feel the CIA's actions in recent months have shown that it is acting on its own, perhaps to the point of subverting administration policies. The shredding of the tapes is but one piece of evidence here, they say. Another may be the recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which they believe contained inappropriate policy recommendations about engagement with Tehran.

But others in Washington, including many Democrats, don't believe that Langley's actions are that uncontrolled. White House lawyers consulted with the CIA before the interrogation tapes were destroyed, they point out. At the least, the administration had the opportunity to order the tapes' preservation, they say.

Congress seems set to proceed with its own tape investigations. But the holiday break means it will be weeks before lawmakers get to work.

"Congress is out of the loop now," says Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor. "Maybe at this point the first crack at finding out what happened does really fall to the internal investigations of the CIA and Justice Department."

Tension between the nation's largest intelligence agency and the White House are a common occurrence. But the relations between the Bush administration and Langley at times have been particularly strained.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1226/p03s06-usju.html

[EFerrari]

1. We know what Blackwater crony Hoekstra thinks:

"Hoekstra went even further in an interview with columnist Robert Novak published in many papers on Dec. 24. The lawmaker noted that many in the GOP were upset with the recent NIE on Iran, in which the intelligence community reversed course and highlighted its conclusion that Tehran has suspended work on a nuclear weapon."

The Thuggery is spinning this hard against CIA and as a way to discredit the NIE.

[babylonsister]

2. So there actually IS a method to their madness!

Nevermind that the NIE has nothing to do with the destroyed tapes. Don't you think it's a losing proposition to try to discredit the CIA after they've been doing this admin's bidding? That could bite them in the hind quarters.

[EFerrari]

3. I'd be very surprised if, after being scapegoated twice

over 9/11 and the invasion, CIA hasn't put out traps for the White House over this torture program.

[Solly Mack]

4. Torture

Those tapes show torture - and other things.

In all this debate about the "tapes flap" or as I like to call it - the destruction of evidence - the torture of people seems to get lost.

The WH ordered the torture
The CIA performed the torture
Evidence of that torture has been destroyed



I'm NOT rooting for either side.
They're ALL guilty.

They can sell each other out and I'm still not going to root for one over the other. Folks can speak of "strained" relations and I still won't care. Talk about "fall guys" and I'm just going to snort in derision.


Both organizations are guilty of torture...

and BOTH should be held accountable

[Selatius]

5. The CIA officers who oversaw the torture should hang just well as Cheney, Rumsfeld, or Bush.

It was Rumsfeld who ordered the torturing to begin with, but the ranking officers at the CIA who oversaw the torture are just as guilty. "Just following orders" hasn't worked since 1945. The Nuremberg Trials put to rest that kind of argument.

[Solly Mack]

8. Yes they should

and for damn sure Rumsfeld as well

and not just him...but quite a few others that have resigned

[EFerrari]

9. Cheney and Rumsfeld, not Rumsfeld alone. n/t

[Solly Mack]

6. oops

[EFerrari]

7. Yes, they all are guilty. But Cheney is still dangerous, maybe

more dangerous today than he was seven years ago. This was his program and this could lead to his resignation.

No one who knows the history of CIA could possibly root for them. It's more a matter of watching the WH once again try to slime its way out of its share of responsibility while it charges ahead with the next crime.

[Solly Mack]

11. Yes, the WH is moving the talk away from its torture program

and onto it all being about a supposedly hostile and "rogue" CIA

not so much blame shifting as blame deflection

[EFerrari]

13. They've got a year to get us into Iran and make another

horrible, murderous mess.

Cheney hasn't given up.

[Toots]

10. The bottom line is America tortured people..

We the American people are every bit as culpable. We allow traitors such as Rove, Novak, Armitage etc to walk free. We allow the Administration to thumb it's nose at the American people. We Allow It.....If the American people did not allow this behavior it would be stopped. Impeachment is "Off the Table"

[Solly Mack]

12. I don't disagree with you on that

America is a war crime nation


I don't think any American gets to point a finger at Germans and ask "Why?"

[EFerrari]

14. I wonder what else could be done.

We protested before the invasion, we protested the war, against rendition and torture, for impeachment.

Nancy won't even talk to us here in her district. I'm at a real loss right now.

[babylonsister]

15. I'm not accepting any blame though I realize this has been done in

our name. I think the blame starts with our elected reps who have willfully failed to do anything about it.

[Supersedeas]

16. the Corp Media suggests that we should rely on internal investigations...haha

[EFerrari]

17. Like we rely on them for news. n/t