Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Justice, Military, Politics, Things That Tick Me Off

The CIA Destroyed Evidence..So Why Shouldn’t They Be Held in Contempt?

Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger

 

Since we have been all so absorbed by the ongoing political saga involving the imaginary debt ceiling crisis, I thought it would be therapeutic to discuss something totally unrelated to that nonsense.  As you will recall, the CIA destroyed hundreds of hours of video tape documentation of the infamous CIA Torture Program during the last Administration.  “Despite a court order, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) destroyed hundreds of hours of video tape showing the alleged torture of two terror detainees, and now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is asking a New York judge to punish them for it.  In a case being heard Monday, attorneys for the ACLU will argue that the agency, and former deputy director Jose Rodriguez in particular, should be held in contempt of an order to preserve records responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2004.

“The record indicates that far from an innocent mistake, Rodriguez ordered the tapes destroyed to cover up evidence that ‘would make us look terrible’ and be ‘devastating’ to the CIA,” the ACLU’s filing (PDF) argues, quoting Rodriguez emails obtained through FOIA requests. “Indeed, Rodriguez weighed the ‘heat’ that would come from destroying the documents and concluded that it ‘is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever go into public domain.'”

As many as 92 tapes of terror war captives being tortured by CIA operatives were allegedly destroyed. Officials suggested these recordings depicted torture sessions with terrorism suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri.  Along with the tapes, detailed records of the CIA’s so-called “torture flights,” showing the planes, destinations and even the passengers, were also said destroyed.” Raw Story

Now, I may be a little slow, but I hardly think that the CIA “accidentally” destroyed a treasure trove of incriminating evidence after being ordered to protect all evidence by a Federal Judge.  Here is a link to the full ACLU contempt filing:   ACLU   As the quoted CIA emails state, the former Deputy Director was obviously worried about what would happen if the American public ever saw the damaging evidence that the judge had ordered to be preserved. It sounds logical that Mr. Rodriguez and the CIA made a “Ford Pinto” type of decision that they would rather deal with the courts than the American public.

What does this situation tell us about the state of our Democracy, when an agency of the Federal Government appears to have intentionally disobeyed a court order, just to save their own skin? What does it tell us about our Democracy when the Justice Department refuses to hold anyone responsible for torture that has been illegal for decades?

It has been almost seven (7) years since this FOIA request and almost four (4) years since the CIA admitted to destroying the protected records.  Should the former Deputy Director be held responsible and should higher-ups be included to deter law breaking in the future? If the court doesn’t order the CIA and its officials to pay damages, will any agency ever fear a court decision or order again?  I know what you may be thinking.  A lot of questions, but no answers.    Let’s hear your answers!

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger

 

107 thoughts on “The CIA Destroyed Evidence..So Why Shouldn’t They Be Held in Contempt?”

  1. Anon,

    Regarding “Loose lips sink ships.”:

    They do, but so do lips that are indiscriminately sealed. What’s going on in America is treasonous, but I trust that “the truth will out”, at some point…. In the meantime, I trust that folks like Greenwald will keep pushing… Guys like Greenwald are the patriots… Those who are hiding behind phrases like “state secrets privilege”, “national security”, “we can neither confirm nor deny” disgust me, knowing what I know…. I’ll repost the following:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-are-we-subverting-the-constitution-in-the-name-of-security/2011/08/25/gIQANnrheJ_story.html

    Mayday.

  2. OS,

    I’m low these days. I’ve got one beer I’m not sharing (from New Glarius, which we can’t get here), the rest in the fridge are my wife’s IPAs, although I could probably get her to share.

    Oh and the stuff in my cellar, but that’s all spoken for by various special occasions.

    My suggestion, Weihenstephaner’s Hefeweissbier, but I’ve been craving a good German wheat beer recently.

  3. OOPS, am in wrong post. Meant to post this comment to the diamond planet item. Oh well, it’s Friday and my brain is fried–I need a beer and wish Gyges lived close by.

  4. Can I convince the mountaintop removal folks there is more money to be made by mining diamonds there? We can only hope.

  5. another buzz word to be familiar with NoWay….Gotcha….

    All said in humor…

  6. Well NoWay…it appears that at least Greenwald has some respect for you….It is almost readily apparent that we have none for you….

  7. I usually have quite a bit of respect for what Greenwald writes. This is not one of those occassions.

    When it comes to classified material, there are occasional leaks. The proper response when items of national security are made public, without authorization, is to refuse to confirm or deny what has been leaked.

    “Just marvel at the Kafkaesque, authoritarian mentality that produces responses like that: someone can be censored, or even prosecuted and imprisoned, for discussing “classified” information that has long been documented in the public domain.”

    Mr. Greenwald does not seem to understand that the declassification of sensitive material does not occur because it is leaked. Using Mr. Greenwald’s standard, a lucky guess is all it would take to declasify. The alarm should sound, and the government agent should walk out and declare “You guessed correctly!!!” DING DING DING.

    Over the years, I have heard and seen many things that, to the best of my knowledge, remain classified. It never fails that someone at a party will tell me about something they heard about via a “special forces” guy. Only a fool would validate that information if accurate.

    Loose lips sink ships.

  9. We’ve let it get so far out of control… I’m not sure that there’s any way to pull out of what seems like a death-spiral, given my vantage point.

    Friday, Aug 26, 2011 07:27 ET
    Secrecy, leaks, and the real criminals
    By Glenn Greenwald

    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/08/26/secrecy/index.html

    Excerpt:

    Ali Soufan is a long-time FBI agent and interrogator who was at the center of the U.S. government’s counter-terrorism activities from 1997 through 2005, and became an outspoken critic of the government’s torture program. He has written a book exposing the abuses of the CIA’s interrogation program as well as pervasive ineptitude and corruption in the War on Terror. He is, however, encountering a significant problem: the CIA is barring the publication of vast amounts of information in his book including, as Scott Shane details in The New York Times today, many facts that are not remotely secret and others that have been publicly available for years, including ones featured in the 9/11 Report and even in Soufan’s own public Congressional testimony.

    Shane notes that the government’s censorship effort “amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath,” particularly given the imminent publication of a book by CIA agent Jose Rodriguez — who destroyed the videotapes of CIA interrogations in violation of multiple court orders and subpoenas only to be protected by the Obama DOJ — that touts the benefits of the CIA’s “tough” actions, propagandistically entitled: “Hard Measures: How Aggressive C.I.A. Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.” Most striking about this event is the CIA’s defense of its censorship of information from Soufan’s book even though it has long been publicly reported and documented:

    A spokeswoman for the C.I.A., Jennifer Youngblood, said . . . .”Just because something is in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s been officially released or declassified by the U.S. government.”

    Just marvel at the Kafkaesque, authoritarian mentality that produces responses like that: someone can be censored, or even prosecuted and imprisoned, for discussing “classified” information that has long been documented in the public domain. But as absurd as it is, this deceitful scheme — suppressing embarrassing information or evidence of illegality by claiming that even public information is “classified” — is standard government practice for punishing whistleblowers and other critics and shielding high-level lawbreakers. (end excerpt)

  10. Let’s hope that some cracks are starting to form… Wicked things going on this country of ours… They have to be exposed and stopped…

    ACLU Lawsuit Seeks Information from FBI on Nationwide System for Collecting “Suspicious Activity” Information

    August 25, 2011

    System May be Used to Track and Store Information about Innocent Americans with No Evidence of Wrongdoing

    http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-lawsuit-seeks-information-fbi-nationwide-system-collecting-suspicious

    —————————-

    Published on Thursday, August 25, 2011 by The Progressive

    NYPD and CIA Need to Be Investigated
    by Matthew Rothschild

    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/25-12

  11. I suppose the truth may trickle out eventually, but I’m not holding my breath… As you rightly say, Lottakatz, “lines are becoming so blurred they’re becoming nonexistent.”

    F.B.I. Focusing on Security Over Ordinary Crime

    By CHARLIE SAVAGE
    Published: August 23, 2011

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/us/24fbi.html

    WASHINGTON — Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been more likely to be hunting for potential threats to national security than for ordinary criminals in recent years, but much of the time found neither, according to newly disclosed internal information.

    Data from a recent two-year period showed that the bureau opened 82,325 assessments of people and groups in search for signs of wrongdoing. Agents closed out most of the assessments, the lowest-level of F.B.I. investigation, without finding information that justified a more intensive inquiry.

    ========================================

    Q&A: Local Law Enforcement And Domestic Surveillance
    By Adam Serwer | Posted 08/24/2011 at 01:15 PM

    http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=08&year=2011&base_name=qa_local_law_enforcement_and_d

  12. From article above posted by anon nurse: “An Associated Press investigation revealed that the NYPD, with help from the CIA, has become one of the nation’s most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies.”
    —-

    I thought that was the FBI’s job. The lines are becoming so blurred they’re becoming nonexistent.

    Thanks for the timely update anon nurse.

  13. Aug 25, 1:52 PM EDT

    NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

    By EILEEN SULLIVAN
    Associated Press

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SEPT_11_NYPD_INTELLIGENCE?SITE=AP

    WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly confirms that a CIA officer is working out of police headquarters but says the spy agency’s role at the department is an advisory one.

    Kelly was responding Thursday in New York to questions about the NYPD’s unprecedented relationship with the CIA since the 9/11 attacks.

    An Associated Press investigation revealed that the NYPD, with help from the CIA, has become one of the nation’s most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies.

    Kelly says the CIA trains NYPD officials and provides information about what’s going on overseas. The CIA says it is not involved in domestic spying and says the collaboration is exactly what Americans want.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

    Even as the New York Police Department sent undercover officers into Muslim neighborhoods to detect possible terrorist activities in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, government officials there and elsewhere have sought to build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that Muslims aren’t targeted for discrimination. (end of excerpt)

    “…and pledged to ensure that Muslims aren’t targeted for discrimination.”

    And that’s accurate. Technically. It’s not just Muslims… it could be anyone… The CIA’s psychologists have been “advising” in a myriad of ways. Many couldn’t even begin to “dream up” some of the tactics currently being employed domestically.

  17. rafflaw,

    If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s goin’ nowhere but, one of these days, the tide has to turn…

  20. Who cares? Is anyone named? Is anyone going to jail for defying the judge’s orders? Nice black dress by the way your honor. Is the CIA going to pay a fine? No, the taxpayers are.

    This is just another continuing bit of ‘puppet theater the Parliament jesters foist on the somnambulant public’ by a bunch of pirates.

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