Interesting. The New York Times is now reporting [1] that CIA officials were advised not to destroy videotapes of terrorist interrogations:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 — White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.The chief of the agency’s clandestine service [Jose A. Rodriguez Jr.] nevertheless ordered their destruction in November 2005, taking the step without notifying even the C.I.A.’s own top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, who was angry at the decision, the officials said.
There appear to have been valid operational reasons to destroy these tapes, not the least of which was to prevent al Qaeda and other terrorist leaders from viewing details of CIA interrogation techniques, and protecting the identities of the interrogators. No one could seriously doubt that the videos would have eventually made their way to YouTube.
Unfortunately, operational security must take a back seat to congressional witch-hunts these days.
So says Bluto, over at Jawa. [2]
At the end of the day, there are more important things ………………..”to be concerned about then feeding the “gotcha”-hungry Democrats in Congress. things like, national security, for example. I grow weary, frankly, of misguided attempts at “morality” superseding our survival. That is particularly true when demonstrably these are people who don’t give a damn about, reality, but are only interested in their own political power. I for one don’t plan on allowing them to sacrifice our national security on the altar of Democrat party power. Frankly, that is what it’s come down to.