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Surprise surprise. Bob Bennett is advising his client, Jose Rodriguez, not to tell Congress about how and why and when he destroyed the torture tapes unless they give him immunity. And Judge Kennedy has decided that he’s not all that worried about the government destroying torture tapes in spite of orders not to do such things.
We’re not going to find out more details about the torture tapes anytime soon.
Among new revelations today is the news (not surprise, but confirmed nevertheless) that CIA’s IG John Helverson “reviewed” the torture tapes during the period when people were discussing destroying them. That strongly suggests he may have based his report–which found the CIA to engage in cruel and inhuman treatment–on those tapes. No wonder CIA wanted to destroy them.
Mukasey has appointed John Durham to investigate the torture tape destruction. From the sounds of a profile of Durham, Mukasey’s not fucking around.
If Mary McCarthy’s allegations about the testimony of a senior CIA official in June 2005 are true, then it seems clear that one purpose of destroying the terror tapes–among many–was to destroy evidence that the official lied to Congress.
Yes, the NYT story tells us something we were safe to assume: that David Addington and Alberto Gonzales were involved in the torture tape destruction conversations. But I’m more interested in that news in light of the mounting evidence that Jose Rodriguez got legal advice that he could destroy the tapes in seeming isolation from all the discussions about the wisdom of destroying the tapes or even the explicit court orders regarding the torture tapes.
The reaction of members of Congress to news that the torture tapes were destroyed mystifies me. Crazy Pete Hoekstra’s on the same side as the Democrats. Porter Goss has a phalange of spokespeople but is apparently in hiding. Jello Jay Rockefeller seems to have taken cues from the CIA. For once, Jane Harman looks like she did the right thing! And I’m thinking of putting out an APB for Pat Roberts, who seems to have left the country.
I joked a few weeks ago that the CIA needed a dedicated torture tape librarian, because they keep losing such tapes. Today’s NYT story suggests such losses are, at least in two cases, deliberate.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who authorized torture under the Bush administration, passed away today at age 88. *spit*
The best way to explain apparent dishonesty in Gina Haspel’s testimony the other day is that she was the ultimate target of the Durham investigation, the person who had been involve in destroying the tapes in a first round, in 2002, and in a second round to hide the first round of destruction, in 2005.
Gina Haspel’s testimony was remarkably damaging for her.
