We Can't Go To The Video Tape

The New York Times broke this story last night, and gave it prominence on their front page of the paper edition today. They note that the CIA purposefully destroyed two videotapes showing harsh interrogations of high value targets.

Last night, I offered up the following comments at LGF on this.

It doesn't look good for the CIA and the Administration. Someone had the bright idea of destroying tapes of harsh interrogations at a time when Congress was looking into the detention program.

Well, I was right. It really doesn't look good for the Administration. There's a firestorm brewing - and it's bipartisan in nature. That said, some of the hyperventilating on the Left is just out of control.

This morning, Michelle Malkin provides some context missing from the Times piece:

So, how bad is it? The Left is going bananas–with one its most unhinged bloggers now dubbing America a “Banana Republic.” It is bad. Center and right-leaning bloggers are weighing in. James Joyner points out that “People have gone to jail for obstruction of justice for actions much, much less brazen than this.” Ed Morrissey believes the tape destruction “looks a lot more like destroying evidence than tightening security.” Rick Moran concludes “Any way you slice it, someone needs to be held accountable for the tape’s destruction.”

It is worth noting that the CIA actually informed members of Congress about the tapes four years ago and also informed them in advance about their intention to ultimately destroy the tapes. One leading Democrat admits he knew about the destruction of the tapes last fall.

So, Democrats have known about this for a year and voiced their concern to the CIA. Nice.

This looks real bad for former DCI Porter Goss, who headed up the CIA for the relevant timeframe. The Democrats in Congress knew for a year that the tapes were going to be destroyed and did nothing. So, why did the Times release this now? Does it have anything to do with the ongoing legal wranglings with GitMo detainees?

I'm with both Ed, James, and Rick on this - not only does someone need to be held accountable, but it would appear that this was the destruction of evidence, and not simply tightening security to ensure that the identities of those CIA involved in the interrogations would ever become known.

DCI Hayden has much explaining to do about the situation, but he's going to take the heat for a practice of his predecessor.