The New CIA Leak - Tapes Destroyed

The left is having a little fit over the news that the CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations (per their S.O.P) with the more moronic of them alleging that it was because they tortured the terrorists.  First the story:

“WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.

The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made “within the C.I.A. itself,” and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes.

The official spokesman said it was done because they held no intelligence value, and if the tapes were to get out (which is more then likely seeing as how the CIA leaks like a sieve) it could jeopardize the agents lives.  You would think the left could understand that since they were aghast at the danger the Plame leak put her under.  But big shocker….they ain’t so worried about the CIA agents now:

These tapes were destroyed to protect the people who didn’t protect any sense of decency in interrogations.

There is no internal reason, except saving your own ass from prosecution. And keeping the tapes out of court. The decision on the lowest techniques was made at the highest levels. And now we will witness lowdown denials as to who high up ordered the tapes destroyed. “What matters here is that it was done in line with the law,” he said. He is Michael Hayden. And he talks not just about the destruction of the tapes. But about the techniques used too. We do not torture is all you need to know. But this all tortures credibility in a week where it has previously been flayed and fileted.

There is no internal reason. But there may be an infernal reason. Because if there were tapes of waterboarding, all the waterboarding in the world shouldn’t keep torturers from burning in hell. We do not torture is all you need to know.

Poor fella, I think he broke a blood vessel pounding the keys during that post.

Of course after the official spokesman the NYT’s quotes anonymous sources as saying they were destroyed because of “possible legal jeopardy.”  Which is hogwash.  Waterboarding is not illegal, and the CIA viewed the tapes prior to destruction and saw nothing illegal.  Not that the left will believe them.  They take the IC’s word as
gospel when it jives with their worldview, ie the NIE, but when it
delves into areas they don’t agree with, well then the IC is full of
it.  Funny how that works huh?

Another compelling reason for the destruction of the tapes was the fact that after the leak of the “panties on the Iraqi’s head” photo’s caused such an uproar in the Muslim community the CIA was worried that pictures of interrogations, which I am sure is not pretty…and shouldn’t be, would be leaked and create further turmoil in the Muslim world:

A former intelligence official who was briefed on the issue said the
videotaping was ordered as a way of assuring “quality control” at
remote sites following reports of unauthorized interrogation
techniques. He said the tapes, along with still photographs of
interrogations, were destroyed after photographs of abuse of prisoners
at Abu Ghraib became public in May 2004 and C.I.A. officers became
concerned about a possible leak of the videos and photos.

He said the worries about the impact a leak of the tapes might have in the Muslim world were real.

It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to
several tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves
near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of photos
or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction.

And you know damn well another rogue agent ala Valerie Plame would leak the thing if they could get their hands on it.

Lastly, the left is upset that the tapes were supposedly asked for and they were lied to:

The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case of
the terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11 commission,
which had made formal requests to the C.I.A. for transcripts and any
other documentary evidence taken from interrogations of agency
prisoners.

C.I.A. lawyers told federal prosecutors in 2003 and 2005, who
relayed the information to a federal court in the Moussaoui case, that
the C.I.A. did not possess recordings of interrogations sought by the
judge in the case. It was unclear whether the judge had explicitly
sought the videotape depicting the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah.

It was unclear?  Meaning the judge didn’t ask for the specific tapes and that being the case why would a intelligence agency offer up information and intelligence it didn’t have to?  There are big security concerns when it comes to national intelligence and if anyone is that foolhardy to believe the CIA would just open up the cupboard and say “have at it!” they are quite naive.

But don’t hold you breath that the left will buy any of this, and neither should anyone care if they do.  They will see conspiracies and evil conglomerates around every corner so they should be ignored.