In a rare case of clarity rarely seen inside the Beltway, House Intelligence Committee investigators want to know about some other interrogation videotapes that were made, but not destroyed.
Hey, you didn't think they destroyed everything, did you?
Here's what I said about the matter on December 7...
"It's all OK now, nothing to see here. We destroyed the tapes. They just had people being questioned in a proper manner anyway, so there's nothing to worry about, go back to your homes, shut up, put this RFID chip under the skin behind your ear and have a fabulous life."
We're talking about the same CIA that was as solid as Jell-o when it came to telling the truth about Iraq's capabilities to instigate nuclear or biological strikes, right? You remember: the chemical-laden Winnebagos? The same CIA that 'interrogated, harassed, surveilled and terminated from employment with the CIA' one man because he didn't worship the right God?
We're talking about the likes of George Tenet, Mister "Slam Dunk" himself, Mister "Presidential Medal of Freedom for costing us $3.5 trillion when this is all over".
And we're expected to believe they actually DESTROYED these tapes?
What do you think?
Out of the forty-nine people that answered by question, ten said they believe all the interrogation tapes were destroyed. Maybe they were just referring to the specific tapes mentioned on December 7. Maybe I should have made myself clearer: I was alluding to the idea that the CIA wouldn't go to all that trouble to set up one camera on a tripod just twice. That's a big waste of money, buying one camera for two specific interrogations.
But now we know a little more: attorney Chuck Rosenberg said the CIA actually had three recordings — two videotapes and an audio tape — of the interrogation of one or more of the witnesses whose testimony the Moussaoui team had sought.
We were told two tapes had been destroyed. Chuck says there are three recordings of one interrogation: which means... which means...
The reason for the destruction revelation: to safeguard the identity of any CIA interrogator involved. So when John Kiriakou came forward himself to say not only that he was a member of the team that captured and questioned al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in 2002, but that he learned that waterboarding had been used and says that "not only is it unnecessary, but that as Americans, we're better than that and we shouldn't be engaging in a practice like waterboarding"... it makes you wonder how much the White House invents 'the reasoning behind why we did these things ages ago' just before the press conference happens in the present.
And unless that third tape was in Cheney's office fire, there's at least one tape still out there.
Yesterday, I addressed the issue of torture and killing. How our finding a three-room facility with 26 bodies and blood on the floor pales into insignificance compared to the number of innocents killed by 'our side', and probably with the same 'justifications' (some in my comments section said that the opposition is animals, so obviously with no sense of decency ...I'm sure both sides in a conflict think that of their opposition). I also touched on the notion that the Germans were considered, for centuries, to be mostly-harmless buffoons with a love of alcohol, brass bands, and wacky ideas ...until they decided that they were #1, über alles, über alles in der Welt and wanted to expand their empire at the cost of millions of lives. Now their shame and dishonor stays with them. They've changed their flag, their national anthem, their currency, even most of their population has a radically different outlook on other nations to the ideas held by their great-grandparents ...but it doesn't matter. You say "the Germans are coming", and people imagine Stormtroopers instead of musicians in lederhosen.
And that bad rap is now America's. You just need to read what people said about a BBC TV program called What The World Thinks Of America to see. The way the [f]right wing has painted America is how the world sees us. Some see the difference between "the American people" and "our Administration", but the general idea is that we're:
A country that ignores the UN, invades countries based on lies, uses it economical strength to blackmail and get anything it desires, Has a president who didn't even get elected and not capable of speaking his own language, who is in control of the worlds most powerful military, and a country that goes on its own path from the world (Kyoto)
So I'm not posting the question again concerning the videos and the CIA. But I want you to do something for me: when people start criticizing America in the vein above, remind them that the stuff they like about America (kick-ass music of all types, great fun films, women that can earn billions, having fun) is what drives Conservatives mad. Remind them that all those things they hate about America (the idea of threatening rednecks, a hate for education and the educated, war-lust) ...those are all Republican ideals. Conservatives wanted all that stuff.
Then remind them how close-knit the Conservatives in THEIR countries are to everything they hate about America. Reagan and Thatcher, John Howard and George W Bush, global-warming deniers and raging limp hypocrites when it comes to politics in the bedroom.
Because the shame should belong to the Conservatives, the GOP, and their apologists. And I intend to remind the world of it every chance I get.