NPR: Differences of Opinion: CIA Interrogation Tapes

CIA Tapes Destroyed. Was Justice Obstructed?

NPR.org, December 10, 2007 · Last week, the CIA acknowledged destroying videotapes it had made of its agents using harsh interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects. The revelation has revived old questions about how terrorism suspects are treated, while raising new ones about whether justice was obstructed. Read a sampling of opinion:

The CIA Ate My Homework

Andrew Cohen

Bench Conference (washingtonpost.com blog)

I completely believe the government lawyers on this one. And I think the judges will, too. It's very likely that the CIA didn't tell the FBI about the tapes because the CIA knew that the FBI would, in turn, have had to disclose that important fact to the trial judge [in the Moussaoui case]. And the CIA didn't want U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema potentially opening the tapes to the scrutiny of the
world.

In Arrogant Defense of Torture

New York Times Editorial Board

New York Times

Lawmakers should demand that the White House and its allies explain why intelligence operatives should scoff at a ban on torture that soldiers swear to and is unquestionably the law of the land.

No Torture, No Need to Destroy Videotapes

USA Today Editorial Board

USA Today

The agency appears to have erred four times: First in using the controversial techniques; second in being foolish enough to tape the exercise; third in hiding the tapes from the 9/11 Commission; and finally in destroying the tapes despite explicit warnings not to do so from Congress, the Justice Department and the White House. Spy agencies don't get to write their own laws.

"Missing" Evidence Is Familiar Bush Pattern

Glenn Greenwald

Salon.com

Clearly, it is the Bush officials who have engaged in this chronic lawbreaking and subsequent obstruction of justice who bear primary responsibility. But it is the complete abdication by Democratic intelligence "leaders" in Congress of their oversight duties which have played an indispensable enabling role in all of it.

CIA Channels Rose Mary Woods

Ed Morrissey

Captain's Quarters (blog)

If the tapes showed the faces of the interrogators, [the CIA] would be correct to consider such tapes dangerous if leaked. ... But why destroy them? ... The tapes sat unmolested in a vault for at least two years without the CIA worrying about the potential damage from a leak. The Inspector General had long since concluded that the interrogations did not break the law. However, as soon as Congress began debating the specific interrogation technique that the tapes depicted, someone decided that they represented a danger to the agents. It looks a lot more like destroying evidence than tightening security.

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