The Torture-Tapes Story Isn't Fading Away

It isn't like the Bush administration needed yet another criminal investigation, but that's what they got earlier today when Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to head up a criminal investigation into the destruction of the tapes.

Last month, the CIA admitted that tapes of operatives using "harsh interrogation techniques" against torturing two terrorism suspects had been destroyed. The admission of the destroyed video evidence sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by the Department of Justice.

''The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation,'' Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.

The A.G. has tapped John Durham, an AUSA from Connecticut who has a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense, publicity-averse career prosecutor to oversee the case. He is best known for his role in sending several corrupt public officials to prison, including former Republican Governor Jim Rowland in 2005.

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John L. Helgerson, Inspector General for the CIA, who worked with the DoJ on the preliminary investigation has recused himself from the criminal investigation. Additionally, the US Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia (where Langley is physically located) has also been recused.

Mukasey did not take the additional step of naming Durham a Special Prosecutor, but instead designated him the "acting U.S. Attorney" in the case. Durham will not have the same level of autonomy in conducting his investigation that Patrick Fitzgerald had in the Plame outing and treason trial of "Scooter" Libby.

The CIA has already acquiesced to congressional investigators, who have begun reviewing documents and files, and the former head of the Clandestine Services, Jose Rodriguez, has been summoned to appear before the House Intelligence Committee on January 16. Rodriguez was the official who ultimately gave the "destroy" order, after much internal wrangling by administration lawyers.

''The CIA will of course cooperate fully with this investigation as it has with the others into this matter,'' agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said.

Here is hoping that this investigation goes right to the door of the "fourth branch"...

Cheney in an orange jumpsuit would be a sight to behold - one that might make me pass out from a schaddenfreude overdose!

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Jose Rodriguez brings the push-back

The undoing of the criminal conspiracy that has been attempting to pass itself off as a presidency may face it's undoing because it chose the wrong guy to try to make a patsy of.

Jose Rodriguez is showing no signs of going gently into that dark night. Quite the opposite, in fact - he has not only lawyered up, he has hired Robert Bennett. Bennett is the guy you hire when you are not just going to stand your ground, but you intend to capture the other guys flag...

Just. To. Make. Your. Point.

Rodriguez is well known in the intelligence community as one of the most cautious men on the face of the earth. People who know him all state, without even an inkling of reservation, that the thought of Jose Rodriguez making a unilateral decision to destroy those tapes is simply unthinkable. It is something he would never do. Period. Not without direct orders from someone of a sufficiently higher pay grade.

This is going to reach deep into the White House. We already know that four administration attorneys were involved in discussions about what to do with the videotape evidence. Not only were White House attorneys involved, but the evidence was withheld from the 9/11 Commission, and destroyed after the Commission delivered their findings.

The House Intelligence Committee has summoned Rodriguez to appear on January 16, and Chairman Sylvestre Reyes has indicated he isn't looking for scapegoats, he is looking for the truth - and that is an indication that Reyes might offer Rodriguez the immunity he is obviously angling for in exchange for his testimony.

Larry Johnson thinks it's going to go high up the chain, too. “The CIA and Jose Rodriguez look bad, but he’s probably the least culpable person in the process. He didn’t wake up one day and decide, ‘I’m going to destroy these tapes.’ He checked with a lot of people and eventually he is going to get his say. He has been starting to get his story out and was smart to get Bennett.”

“It looks increasingly as though the decision was made by the White House,” said Johnson. He believes it is “highly likely” that Bush saw one of the videos, as he was interested in Zubaydah’s case and received frequent updates on his interrogation from George Tenet, the CIA director at the time.

It has emerged that the CIA did preserve two videotapes and an audiotape of detainee interrogations conducted by a foreign government, which may have been relevant to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Al-Qaeda conspirator.

The CIA told a federal judge in 2003 that no such recordings existed but has now retracted that testimony. One of the tapes could show the interrogation of Ramzi Binalshibh, a September 11 conspirator, who was allegedly handed to Jordan for questioning.

Seven years of Machiavellian machinations, hubris and arrogance driving policy, disdain for anyone deigning to question the administration, and a pervasive attitude of "it isn't treason if the president is the traitor" passed it's sell-by date a long freakin' time ago. It has even led them to try to make Jose Rodriguez their fall guy.

But Rodriguez is nobody's dupe, and too many people know him too well. Immunize him, Mr. Reyes, and let him tell all.

I imagine that prospect has a whole lot of nutsacks shriveling all over the West Wing. And that thought pleases me immensely.

[That's all, folks...]

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