CIA Obstruction of Justice Designed to Shield George W. Bush?

CIA destruction of at least two torture tapes underscores the degree to which this White House, this CIA has subverted the rule of law, the Constitution and the interests of the American people. This wanton destruction of evidence is now a case of obstruction of justice, an attempt to escape the consequences of this administration's deliberate and felonious violations of US Criminal Codes as well as the Nuremberg Principles and the Geneva Conventions to which this nation is bound. That it makes the news at all is surprising, given the contempt with which this government has held the people, the media and the rest of the world.

The admissions made by CIA Director Michael Hayden now establish an impressive array of alleged crimes — allegations that would easily justify a grand jury investigation in any other case. It is equally clear that some of these alleged criminal acts involved President Bush directly (most obviously, the ordering of the torture of suspects) and a variety of high-ranking administration officials.

At issue are tapes of the interrogation of Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole), which reportedly involved the use of waterboarding. Invented during the Spanish Inquisition, waterboarding has been defined as a federal crime and a war crime by both U.S. courts and international law. The tapes were made in 2002. That date is important because the use of torture was already in the news and many, including myself, were charging that anyone ordering or engaging in such torture could be prosecuted. More importantly, both the 9/11 Commission (acting under Congressional authority) and federal courts had demanded interrogation tapes but were told that they did not exist.

--CIA Interrogation Tapes: “Bad” is Hardly the Word — Call it Criminal

The destruction of material evidence of felonies and/or treason is to be expected by this White House. Nor should we be surprised by CIA Director Michael Hayden's ham fisted handling of the entire affair. Hayden, it should be recalled, assumed his office upon the lie he told about the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. In an exchange with a reporter at the National Press Club General Hayden insisted that the standard for seizure and searches required by the Fourth Amendment was "reasonableness" or "reasonable suspicion".

All pig-headed Hayden had to do was just read it. Here's more on a typical case of official idiocy and arrogance:

And because Hayden fell asleep during Junior High civics class here is the text of the Fourth Amentment. I suggest that Hayden block out some time to read it.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

--Fourth Amendment, Bill of Rights, US Constitution

If Hayden can't bother to read this elementary principle of American jurisprudence or worse he cannot understand it, then he should step down. He might try sweeping floors to "generalling".

Hayden preferred to argue, not from ignorance which can be remedied, but from the marriage of arrogance and stupidity. No one on my high school debate team would have tried getting away with what this idiot, who presumes to head the freakin' CIA, tried to get away with. Hayden is a specimen to be studied, evidence of the dumbing down of America.

Is it too much to expect of our "leaders" that they take their heads out of their criminal asses? Now --the CIA and quite possibly the Bush White House are up to those same criminal "asses" in obstruction of justice. The CIA, it is now revealed, destroyed video tapes of tortures in progress even as the CIA’s secret detention program was under Congressional and legal scrutiny.

Hayden’s letter attempts to create a rationale for what was clearly a move to hide the government’s actions from American and world public opinion and destroy evidence of criminal activity by CIA operatives and government officials, up to and including President Bush.

As the CIA well knew, if the tapes had become public—especially in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib revelations—they would have evoked a wave of shock and revulsion in the United States and around the world, and confirmed that Abu Ghraib, far from an aberration, was the outcome of US government policy.

Hayden made the improbable claim that the tapes were destroyed to protect CIA interrogators from retaliation by Al Qaeda. He wrote in his letter that the CIA halted the practice of taping interrogations in 2002, after only a few recordings had been made.

--Counter Currents

The tapes in question are destroyed despite the fact that the CIA had been "warned" against it.

White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the CIA in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two al-Qaeda operatives, government officials said yesterday.

The chief of the agency's clandestine service nevertheless ordered their destruction in November 2005, taking the step without notifying even the CIA's own top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, who was angry at the decision, the officials said.

--CIA told not to ruin tapes, The New York Times

Violations of both Nuremberg Principles and the Geneva Conventions had become and most certainly remain a matter of Bush administration policy. This most recent destruction of evidence, this clear case of obstruction of justice, must be considered in this context.

We are told that it is not known who authorized this case of obstruction of justice. Even so, it is fair to ask who benefits? The answer to that question is simple: George W. Bush, who has supported policies violating both Nuremberg and Geneva from the get go. The numerous violations of Nuremberg and Geneva are under US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441 capital crimes.

(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

Given Bush's numerous public pronouncements on the issue, the policy belongs to Bush. The buck stops at the White House. As I have stated repeatedly, there is enough probable cause in the public record to bring capital charges against George W. Bush. Who is protected by the destruction of these tapes of a procedure that had been denied in numerous administration lies? The answer to that question, again, is: George W. Bush!

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