Of course the White House knew about the CIA's torture tapes. The White House, ultimately, ordered the destruction of those tapes. How silly to think otherwise.
At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.
The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.
Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.
It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed.
One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Some other officials assert that no one at the White House advocated destroying the tapes. Those officials acknowledged, however, that no White House lawyer gave a direct order to preserve the tapes or advised that destroying them would be illegal.
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Gee, I wonder who the "some top White House officials" who wanted to "destroy the tapes" were? The Times source, you know, couldn't specify which White House persons "took this position" but is there any question it included Addington and Cheney?
White House crimes so out in the open…..yet no one cares, or at least it seems. And there's really no doubt, is there, that NO ONE will be held accountable or even be reprimanded for these very obviously criminal acts? It's amazing to behold.
For eight years the GOP inspired mainstream media made mountains out of every molehill with Bill Clinton. No sin of omission or commission was left off the watchdog radar screen. Now, nothing is on their screens. Nothing rises to a level of criminality with these folks. Like I said, it's amazing to behold.
Is there any doubt, if a Democrat takes the presidency next November….that these same silent-about-Bush-crimes people will miraculously find their voices again? The same GOP representatives and the same screeching heads from the right who haven't witnessed one Bush/Cheney White House wrongdoing during their entire 7 year reign of terror over America will be calling for the impeachment of Hillary Clinton just as quickly as they can find a "high crime". Like….. she doesn't eat all her broccoli.
