The news that these CIA tapes were destroyed came the very same week that we learned that as many as ten million White House emails were not preserved, despite a law that requires that they be kept, and at the same time as the President continued to insist that we grant the phone companies immunity for their role in the illegal wiretapping of American citizens.
I’ve already introduced the Torture Prevention and Effective Interrogation Act, legislation that requires the Army Field Manual standards to apply to all government interrogations, not only those conducted by the Department of Defense. Today’s news is just another reminder that Congress needs to take action immediately.
Here are my remarks from earlier today:
The torture debate took another deeply troubling turn yesterday. The nation learned the CIA had destroyed videotapes of its employees in the act of using torture or other harsh interrogation techniques on detainees.
Those tapes were not shown to Congress. They were not shown to any court. They were not shown to the bipartisan 9-11 Commission. Instead, they were destroyed.
What would cause the CIA to take this action? The answer is obvious — cover up. The agency was desperate to cover up damning evidence of their practices. In a letter to agency employees yesterday, CIA Director Michael Hayden claimed that the tapes were a security risk because they might someday "leak" and thereby identify the CIA employees who engaged in these practices.
But that excuse won’t wash. I am second to no one in wanting to protect the brave men and women of the CIA. But how is it possible that the Director of the CIA has so little faith in his own agency?
Does the Director believe the CIA’s buildings are not secure?
Would it be beyond the agency’s technical expertise to preserve the tapes while hiding the identity of its employees?
Does the Director believe that the CIA’s employees cannot be trusted not to leak materials that might harm the agency?
Or does he know that the interrogation techniques are so abhorrent that they could not remain unknown much longer?
It is particularly difficult to take the Director’s explanation at face value when the news that these CIA tapes were destroyed came the very same week that we learned that as many as ten million White House emails have not been preserved, despite a law that requires their retention. At the same time, the President continued to insist that we grant immunity to the phone companies for their role in the illegal wiretapping of American citizens.
The pattern is unmistakable. The past six years, the Bush administration has run roughshod over our ideals and the rule of law. For four of those six years, the Republican Congress did little to hold the administration accountable. Now, when the new Democratic Congress is demanding answers, the Administration is feverishly covering up its tracks. We haven’t seen anything like this since the eighteen and a half minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon.
These efforts are wrong, and they must be stopped. I and other concerned Senators will today call upon Attorney General Mukasey to immediately begin an investigation into whether the CIA’s handling and destruction of these tapes violated the law.
We also must redouble our efforts to make sure that future interrogations by the CIA conform to our laws and values. No part of our government should engage in practices that are so horrific that we cannot bear to see them on tape. To that end, I introduced legislation to require that all government agencies, including the CIA, follow the standards of the Army Field Manual.
Language that would take that important step was recently included in the conference report on the Intelligence Authorization bill, and we must act to adopt it as soon as possible.
As founder John Adams said, our nation is "a nation of laws, not men." That basic principle is at risk today from an administration that is engaging in a cover-up — systematically destroying records, commuting sentences, and stonewalling Congressional investigations. The CIA’s role in this cover-up is only the latest reminder that Congress must fight harder to prevent this administration from making a mockery of the rule of law, and to preserve the right of the American people to know what the government has been doing in their name.
I’m demanding answers. I hope you will demand them as well.
“opposition” to any of the neo-con poliies has come out of the Democratic party. In fact the “progressive” left is adding their own brand of fascism with bills like HR 1955 and the S1959 senate version.
This guy has the concept correct.
http://www.survivemartiallaw.com/
No, this ain’t it. Bill was a lesser evil than George simply because Bill was less corrupt. George, or more precisely his controller, has absolutely no respect for the laws or people of this country. Good rant here.
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p>The Democrats are powerless in front of the Republican administration that they profess to condemn. Not because the Republicans are right, have the American people on their side, but because they don’t wish to rock the boat. They want the same power when they take over in a year. (Yes, they caved again on funding the Iraq war. No surprise.)
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p>This present business of passing laws for the rights of social segments scares me as it divides citizens along social lines. Special civil rights for special victims. It seems all people should have equal civil rights, not special rights based upon the whim of the politicians. Wasn’t that what the Constitution was about? These special rights serve only to fragment the citizenry. It may be seen by some as a way for the pols to look busy, but I see no good to come out of it.
the boat rocker theme and am now endorsing this one. The Illumati masters told the Dems to back off because the division over the issues has been highly successful in taking America down faster.
This is a joke right?
I used to think that a careless or snooty “inside the beltway” mentality explained some of the unethical actions by appointed and political figures in Washington, D.C.
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p>In recent years, it seems as if the unethical actions of some government officials are on steroids. Torture and the destruction of the videos are not just acts of an out-of-touch government, but evidence that some bureaucrats have decided that America is irrelevant.
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p>I am enraged by these willful acts to undermine the ideals on which this nation was founded and built.
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p>Thank you for pursuing concrete and constructive actions to both confront this specific matter, and to prevent future acts of hubris by an agency whose middle name is supposed to be “Intelligence.”
For being there for us. What this administration has done is disgusting and immoral.
…this is an interesting development, but you know how to address it as well as I do. Have the relevant congressional committees subpoena everyone in the CIA who might have been involved in the destruction of evidence and put them in front of the television cameras. And, unless the current pResident pardons them all, after the Dems take power, indict them.
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p>BTW, if the current pResident pardons them before he leaves office, they won’t have any 5th amendment ground to stand on to refuse to at least testify before the relevant congressional committees in front of the TV cameras.
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p>It really isn’t all that complex. It’s merely a matter of time.
Under the DoJ and the Vice President’s theories of executive power, neither this nor anything else they do,no matter how shocking to the conscience, is unlawful, because the law is the Presiden’t will.
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p>This theory must be checked. A Democrat in the White House in January 2009 is not enough.
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p>This executive must be checked, while he is still the executive.
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p>I don’t know what the best battleground might be. Maybe this CIA disclosure is it. But I do know that the battle must be joined, and soon, to preserve the machinery of the republic.
…obviously I don’t, but the Dems aren’t going to do anything to rein in this pResident in his megalomanical fantasies, because they will want to use the same megalomanical fantasies after they (inevitably) take power in the White House, probably in 2009.
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p>The sad fact is that each malAdministration uses the excesses of the previous malAdministration as a baseline for their maladministering. The Dems don’t want to rein in the maladminstering of GWBush, because they want to use that as an excuse for their own maladministering.
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p>I learned that several decades ago.
I expect that, as Sen. Kennedy’s post shows, at least SOME of the elected national legialators believe and support the constitution – and the system of checks and balances put into place as a protection by John Adams and others.
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p>That all being said, I do agree that the system of checks and balances, itself, is in danger.
This is precisely why I want this to happen within the next 13 months. The opportunity for a re-balancing of the checks and bal;ances is therefore when the Congress and the White House are not held by the same party. Now is the time.