"Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere! ... Nope, no weapons over there! ... Maybe under here?"
--pResident George Dubya Bush, 3/24/04
That was George W. Bush, joking at the White House Correspondents Dinner about the failure to find phantom weapons of mass destruction.
Those, of course, being the weapons of mass destruction that he lied about when he said they existed in Iraq... after he was told they didn't.
And we all know well by now that many of his lies were based entirely on lies extracted from detainees through the use of the war crime known as torture, which the President himself authorized.
Many of those famous, authorized-by-the-President-by-his-own-admission war crime sessions were rumored to have been permanently etched into the historical record, through the existence of videotapes.
...
That is... until all of the videos were destroyed.
Or... were they?
Nope... no videotapes over there! Maybe under here?
The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists.
The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining recordings made within the clandestine prison system.
[...]
No reporting of this story seems to peg down exactly what is on the videotapes, but there is speculation... based on "anonymous US officials", of course:
[...]
The tapes depict Binalshibh's interrogation sessions at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat in 2002, several current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the recordings remain a closely guarded secret.
[...]
Many will recall that there is already an ongoing investigation regarding the illegality of the actual destruction of some 92 other tapes. The scope of that investigation has now widened to include why these new tapes were never disclosed.
It is likely that these videotapes include no evidence whatsoever of the Bush-authorized war crime known as torture.
Though, given that it has been confirmed that 12 of those 92 tapes did show torture...
March 12, 2009 | Heavily redacted government documents filed in a New York federal court Friday afternoon say the CIA destroyed 12 videotapes that specifically showed two detainees being tortured.
...and given that we know Abu Zubaydah was tortured ...
However imperfect a way to measure the intelligence we got, it still tells a really horrifying story. Abu Zubdaydah was waterboarded 83 times in a month. And for all that torture, he only revealed 10 (perhaps 9) pieces of intelligence deemed useful by the 9/11 Commission.
...and given that we know Zubaydah was together on a rendition flight with Binalshibh ...
WASHINGTON – A white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before dawn on a CIA mission so secretive, many in the nation's war on terrorism were kept in the dark.
Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were aboard.
[...]
At least four admitted al-Qaida operatives, some of the CIA's biggest captures to date, were on the plane to Guantanamo: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
...one could guess that it is perhaps equally as likely that they very well may include evidence of the Bush-authorized war crime known as torture.
Either way, a thorough investigation is the way to find out.
Good thing we're not too busy to look backward.
Or, are we?
Apparently not when we don't want to be...
(Dig Deeper with emptywheel over at FDL)