Congress Must Find Out: Who Destroyed the Tapes?

The Democratic Congress might have taken impeachment "off the table" but it cannot ignore the Central Intelligence Agency's obstruction of justice. Destroying videotaped evidence of CIA personnel torturing Al Qaeda suspects in violation of U.S. law is no small matter.

Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel and other Democratic leaders might see their institutional role only in terms of positioning their party to win the next elections, but if they are so weak as to let this criminal behavior inside the nation's pre-eminent intelligence service go unchecked then they will be just as responsible for the destruction of the Constitutional checks and balances as are the Bush-Cheney administration.

There must be a special select committee formed right now charged with getting to the bottom of this latest sign that we have been governed by an unchecked executive that sees itself above the law. Anything short of a full accounting will have lasting effects for our republic. We are in triage now trying to save what is left of our system of government. The time for fretting about how this criminality will play out in the 2008 election is now over. It's time for the truth!

Former CIA Director Porter Goss should face a subpoena to testify to the Congress forthwith. The Congress must obtain any and all documents or other materials relating to the CIA's torture and secret gulag program. The Justice Department under the head waterboarder Michael Mukasey should be forced to request the convening of grand juries to investigate whether or not officials in the CIA -- who are these people? -- obstructed justice by withholding evidence in criminal proceedings (the Moussaoui case) and from the milquetoast "9-11 Commission."

The Bush CIA officials learned a valuable lesson from Richard Nixon: Just destroy all of the tapes. Now it is time for Congress to learn its own lesson from the Nixon-COINTELPRO era: Do your Constitutional duty!

Comments

[Tellmethetruth]

This was reported in Amy Goodman's Democracy Now on August 10th, 2007.

"Cheney Urges Military Strikes on Iran
Vice President Dick Cheney is reportedly urging President Bush to directly confront Iran by launching airstrikes at suspected Iranian training camps inside Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. According to the McClatchy newspapers, Cheney made the proposal several weeks ago but the idea was opposed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On Thursday President Bush warned Iran that it would face consequences if they continue to arm and train insurgents in Iraq.

President Bush: "One of the main reasons that I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq was to send the message that there will be consequences for people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs that kill Americans in Iraq. Prime Minister Maliki is visiting in Tehran today. His message, I"m confident will be, stabilize, don"t destabilize. And the sending of weapons into Iraq is a destabilizing factor."


"Sen. Biden Suggests Criminal Charges Against Bush Officials
Impeachment has been making headlines recently in the city of Kent, Ohio. Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden has suggested criminal charges could someday be filed against members of the Bush administration. In a recent interview with Newsweek, Biden said there are alternatives to the impeachment of President Bush. Biden said: "I think we should be acquiring and accumulating all the data that is appropriate for possibly bringing criminal charges against members of this administration at a later date."

Joe Biden can stated repeatedly before the CIA tapes turned up missing that he will prosecute anyone who knowingly ordered torture for the past 8 years. Please note the above article in Democracy Now was written in August of 2007 form a quote from Newsweek of the same time period. Joe Biden has stated that on day 1 of his administration, he would close Guatanomo Prison and begin these investigation. He said in November, before any of this news on the destroyed tapes hit the press.


http://www.democracynow.org/2007/8/10/headlines#7

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

If the intelligence services can obstruct justice with impunity then we live in a nation similar to Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that does whatever the hell it pleases without oversight -- we need a house cleaning!

[Dap]

Dear Mr. Palermo,

Eloquently expressed, agreed Congress has a duty proform, but Frank has a strong point, We, the People have to change the Congressional landscape, out with the old in with the new. Agape.

[AFCOL]

Hmmm, who DID destroy the tapes. Might start with the "sloppy" guy who removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003, hid them under a trailer outside the building, and came back later to retrieve them. Those must have been some large socks. The event occurred just before this individual had to testify before the 9-11 Commission. But surely that is just coincidence. The Inspector General report on that fiasco is most interesting reading for those who hold principle above politics. I doubt most have read it. But imagine the number of years in Ft Levenworth a young soldier would get for doing the same thing. Of course, we are not talking about "regular" people here. The exhaulted politicians, regardless of party affiliation, have a different standard. Unfortunately, party affiliation determines whether the constituent sheep see these kind of events through clear or rose colored glasses. And the Congressional investigators? They are no are better than those being investigated...

[scooperss]

Yet another committee? Where does all the money come from to pay these committee people and is it always the same people on the committees? Let's have a committee investigate how much money committee members make a year. THAT should be interesting.

[desertdweller]

It was Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods.

[frankdwyer]

"The Democratic Congress might have taken impeachment 'off the table' but it cannot ignore the Central Intelligence Agency's obstruction of justice."

Wanna bet.

We need a new party, Joe. A progressive party. Even if it takes a few election cycles to elect our candidates. Even if we don't have any election cycles to waste. Even if we may never be able to elect a single candidate. We still need for our own souls and the betrayed hope and promise of America a new Progressive Party.

We could even explain what "liberal" means, point out to all decent Americans that they come down on the "liberal" side of every important historical argument in this nation's history (abolition; women's suffrage; child labor laws; inspection of meat; habeas corpus; domestic spying; the Geneva Accords, etc., etc.). Then we could proudly call ourselves the Liberal Party and work for something important, something worth working for, even as the darkness continues to fall.

[research]

Enough lies, deception, torture and death!

The only way you will every get ANYTHING out of the BushCo administration is impeachment.

Don't let the proof you should have impeached be WW III.

How many insults from BushCo to you and the entire American constitutional way of life does it take for you to impeach?

Hearings don't work.. You meet with arrogant obstruction every time. You and your subpoenas are laughed at and ignored.

Haven't you had enough? Aren't you tired of playing defense? Wouldn't you like to wipe that smug smirk off Bush and Cheneys faces?

In your hands, you have the impeachment bill 333.

Impeach Cheney. Executive privilege does not extend to impeachment. The Constitution forbids pardons for impeachment.

[RickO]

It's almost reasonble to imagine that Goss was brought into the CIA specifically for the purpose of getting rid of key evidence, then getting out, taking the institutional memory of those activities with him.

[Nommo]

Democratic leaders? Tell 'em to look back, the crows have eaten all the bread crumbs they dropped to mark a trail. I'm afraid that they cannot now lead themselves out of a paper bag, and the hell with the rest of us.