Scott Horton:THEY 'Fully Appreciated (Tapes THEY Destroyed) Could Be Offered As Evidence Of Crimes'

[kpete]

CIA in Mass Destruction of Torture Evidence

By Scott Horton

In a letter to the federal judge overseeing Freedom of Information Act litigation in New York, Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin drops a bombshell. The CIA purposefully destroyed nearly 100 tapes of interrogation sessions involving prisoners in its custody. The Associated Press reports:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iASWS1P4bBULp9TwdMDnotGBi5bQD96LV9B80

.......................

A Department of Justice investigation is now underway into CIA destruction of evidence. But at this point we have every reason to suspect Justice Department complicity in the schemes, especially given reports that approval for the destruction was sought through legal channels. The Justice Department made false representations to at least one court on this subject already (as the AP report noted), and given the obsession with secrecy that has crept into the new administration, it’s very difficult to credit statements coming out of the Justice Department on the subject.

This news makes the case for an independent commission of inquiry still more compelling. It also builds the case for a special prosecutor to look into matters surrounding torture. The new prosecutor must be a person of stature and gravity on a par with the attorney general himself, must be seen as above the political fray, and must be given the resources and manpower to fully investigate the affair–including the increasingly obvious role played by the Justice Department.

There is one inescapable conclusion to draw from the destruction of evidence here: those who destroyed it fully appreciated it could be offered up as evidence of crimes in which they were implicated in a future prosecution.

more at:
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/03/hbc-90004484

[wroberts189]

1. Will General Taguba (ret.) please report back to active duty.

We need you ...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Taguba


Taguba is best known for authoring the Taguba Report, an internal U.S. Army report on detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, leaked and published in 2004.<2> Taguba again made national headlines in June 2008, when he accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes, in a preface to a report by Physicians for Human Rights on prisoner abuse and torture in U.S. military prisons.<4>


knr

[Solly Mack]

2. Of course they did it on purpose

Of course they did it to destroy evidence of their crimes

Absolutely no other reason for it.

K&R

[gratuitous]

3. Absolutely

Let's face it, if the choice of crimes is between "obstruction of justice" and "crimes against humanity," which are you going to choose? And can we please remember this when we get told for twenty skabillionth time about national pride, patriotism, honor and all that other fucking mumbo-jumbo that's supposed to make a citizen's heart swell with pride when Old Glory is carried down the block?

This is our government, of the people, by the people and for the people, torturing people to death and destroying the evidence when the investigators come calling.

[Solly Mack]

4. Well said!

[Pachamama]

5. Bet someone kept them....they are like snuff films....and some sick person in the Bush/Cheney Cabal

likely couldn't part with them.....

:puke:

[dysfunctional press]

6. the people responsible must be held accountable.

but won't be. this IS the u.s. of a., after all.

[MrSlayer]

7. You know, this shit has been going on for a long, long time.

But never has anyone been so blatant about it. And they will walk on this as they have on everything else.