I once burned tapes too...

Late last week the New York times broke that the C.I.A had destroyed tapes of two “interrogations” it conducted in 2002 of Al-Qaeda operatives. Since then, a slew of articles and commentaries have been written covering the subject. This political loss for the C.I.A has lead to calls to just close down the agency all together. Its clear that the agency deleted these tapes to save the perpetrators of these crimes.
This is in contrast to the political victory (according to some) the agency gained with the release of the National Intelligence Estimate. Which was so brilliantly described the report as a drop kick to the President, in the NPR debate last week. The C.I.A say this report as a way to put a check on the Bush administration, mainly in an attempt to save their own ass from being blamed for their work being used as justification for war with Iran.
The problem (one of many) with some of the phraseology in the above paragraphs is that it describes these news items as “political victories”. The C.I.A is not a political party, but their statements are constantly use as political footballs. Both parties have used the recent N.I.E report to enforce the mindless dogma that they constantly spew to the all to complacent American public. Even the ever elusive should be war criminal Henry Kissinger made this argument in his op-ed in Thursday’s Washington Post.
The C.I.A should be taking all the flack that being fired their way. However, as David Ignatius has pointed the obvious, that both Congress and the Administration are culpable in this by giving them the go ahead to use torture against terror suspects. This underhandedness is nothing new of course. But what are we to do when our fearless legislators aid the intelligence community in subverting the rule of law? Langley, is doing whatever it can to prove that it is worth even a quarter of it’s budget. This paranoia can be chucked up to the fact that Congress is telling them to do what it takes to keep this country safe, while puffing up their in chests for the American people, in an attempt to keep their relevance (and get re-elected of course).
Slate had an interesting article on this topic, where you’re asked to engage in a thought experiment, as to how this changes the national debate about torture. The culpability of both Congress and the Bush administration needs to added to this debate.

One last note. I know not many people read this, by my count there are probably four of you. I would, if you would be so kind that is, like you to leave comments if I write something that just gets you so “angry you want to spit” (extra points if you get the movie reference right.)tell me. I don’t want what I’m writing to exist in a vacuum. I need the debate to keep me sharp and to flush out my ideas fully. If you think its good, let me know too.

Peace out.